Car Safety and Emergency Services Using Claytronics

ADVANCEMENTS IN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY ADVANCED CAR SAFETY AND EMERGENCY SERVICES USING CLAYTRONICS

SUBMITTED BY AUTHORS: P. BALAJI J.SELVIN CEPHUS COLLEGE: KARUNYA UNIVERSITY E-MAIL: [email protected] PHONE: 9042046935

ABSTRACT:

Claytronicsis an abstract future concept that combinesnanoscalerobotics andcomputer scienceto create individual nanometre-scale computers called claytronic atoms, or catoms, which can interact with each other to form tangible 3-D objects that a user can interact with.I propose to present an application of this to-be technology in car safety and emergency services. The car will be equipped with cameras and shock sensors which are used to collect every second data of the current driving session and store it in a hard disk. When the car meets with an accident the data is automatically transferred immediately to the nearest hospital, police station and a registered phone number using a GPS device. Now the most interesting part of all is that a current physical resemblance of the driver and other passengers are formed in a hospital (this is not the original body but a physical 3-D structure of the victims) using CLAYTRONIC ATOMS or CATOMS which are modular reconfigurable (millimetre scale or nanoscale) robots. And the doctors can operate in that 3-D structure in the hospital and the corresponding operation is done on the victims at the crash site, by some other nanoscale robots present in the car itself.

INTRODUCTION: The advancement of automobile industry is just a matter of time and resources as the ideas of a modern world are already brewing in every industrial portal. Claytronics, a brain child ofSeth Goldstein, associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon, and Todd Mowry, Director of the Intel Research Lab-Pittsburgh, this is the latest and most revolutionizing research project being carried out. It demonstrates extremely scalable modular robotics to transform the shape and color of objects using complex algorithms and high speed communication between the catoms. In this paper we will discuss how the research findings of claytronics can affect the car safety and emergency services in a remarkably alarming and unbelievable way. By the advancement of this technology, the car can be repaired using a simple instruction or command from a service station situated at very great distance from the actual repair station. This technology is mainly dependent on the miniaturization of electronics and also advancement in fabrication techniques to support such small scale device fabrication. This also requires development of complex algorithms to face the many challenges associated with programming and controlling a large number of discrete modular systems due to thedegrees of freedomthat correspond with each module or the catom. Also the program should facilitate the inter communication between the two catoms. The catoms are held together by electro-magnetic forces, these are the same forces which are responsible for the for the paper bits to stick to a comb which was used to comb oiled hair. A black box is a device which records all the information in an aeroplane during its flight. The information stored in this black box is very crucial is knowing the cause or the immediate effects of the accident in the air craft. A similar black box can be placed in a car also. Some communication companys have developed such black boxes for cars. This black box has a camera also and records all information about the passengers and also the path of travel and the position of the car using an interface between Google earth software. The driver or the passengers in the car are fitted with devices which monitor their body parameters and store them from time to time. Any destructive change in the body parameters will automatically send information to a nearby hospital and the hospital can diagnose the patient depending on these conditions. All the above might seem like a fairy tale, but the advancement in nano-technology and claytronics can revolutionize the way accidents are handled and the way emergency services are operated.

EMERGENCY CAR SERVICE:

.TotalPedestriansCyclesMopedsMotor cyclesPassengers carsOther

Killed164,67739,6706,8723,15110,972075,61528,397

Injured6,118,844436,422236,027163,854227,9463,751,0241,303,571

Total6,283,521476,092242,899167,005238,9183,826,6391,331,968

Fig:1.0 **Table and Diagram taken from http://www.unece.org/trans/roadsafe/rs3ras.html The above statistics shows that 60% of the total road accidents was due to passenger cars, that accounts about 3,826,639 people. This makes it obvious that car safety is a very major concern and also emergency services in case these things occurred are even more important. For further reduction of these numbers it is very important to study these accidents very closely and capture the data that can be mustard in the first few seconds of an accident. This can be done by using a black-box in the cars to collect all the information during a driving session and store it in its hard-drive. The black box also stores the immediate data just an instant after the accident giving very valuable information about the cause of the accident. This data can be used to analyze these accidents and develop safer pastures for driving. Fig 1.1: Black Box The idea is to model the data that has been acquired from the black box placed in the car into 3-D objects which a user, can interact with. The service station on receiving the data will analyze the crash and make repairs to the cars 3D model in the service station and the actual car is repaired wherever it is.

Fig 1.2: Car formed by CatomEMERGENCY HOSPITAL SERVICES: This can be expressed by the following example stated in the Carnegie Mellon University website. A veteran heart surgeon, whose hands aren't as steady at age 60, could create a model heart that would grow to a more workable size. The surgeon would then "operate" on the model, and each movement of the scalpel would transmit to a robot inside a patient's actual heart, a robot that would perform the life saving procedure with a more delicate touch.**

In case the accident was very serious and there was no enough time to transport the patient to the hospital, the accident victim can be operated at that same location using a claytronic model of that person. The patient can be fitted with emergency wrist bands which can read the body parameters of the victim and also the body condition of the patient in order to form a claytronic model to operate on. This can really save a great deal of lives. This can seem like a very farfetched or impossible idea but in reality this concept is undergoing intensive research an can come into being anywhere in the next 2 to 3 decades. Fig 1.3:Catoms or Claytronic atoms. (Source: http://www.google.co.in/images?um=1&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=656&tbs=isch:1&aq=f&aqi=&oq=&gs_rfai=&safe=on&q=Black%20box)

**Reference: http://www.cmu.edu/corporate/news/2007/features/claytronics.shtml

CURRENT RESEARCH: Current research is exploring the potential ofmodular reconfigurable roboticsand the complex software necessary to control the shape changing robots. Locally Distributed Predicates or LDP is a distributed, high-level language for programming modular reconfigurable robot systems (MRRs). There are many challenges associated with programming and controlling a large number of discrete modular systems due to thedegrees of freedomthat correspond with each module. For example, reconfiguring from one formation to one similar may require a complex path of movements controlled by an intricate string of commands even though the two shapes differ slightly. Fig 1.3: Centimeter-scale prototypes of CatomIn 2005, research efforts to develop a hardware concept were successful on the scale of millimeters, creating cylindrical prototypes 44 millimeters in diameter which interact with each other via electromagnetic attraction. Their experiments helped researchers verify the relationship between mass and potential force between objects as a 10-fold reduction in size [which] should translate to a 100-fold increase in force relative to mass.Recent advancements in this prototype concept are in the form of one millimeter diameter cylindrical robots fabricated on a thin film byphotolithographythat would cooperate with each other using complex software that would control electromagnetic attraction and repulsion between modules.Today, extensive research and experiments with claytronics are being conducted at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by a team of researchers which consists of Professors Todd C. Mowry, Seth Goldstein, Ph. D. candidates, graduate and undergraduate students, and researchers from Intel Labs Pittsburgh.

FUTURE WORK REQUIRED AND APPLICATION: As the capabilities of computing continue to develop and robotic modules shrink, claytronics will become useful in many applications. The featured application of claytronics is a new mode of communication. Claytronics will offer a more realistic sense to communication over long distance called pario. Similar to how audio and video provide aural and visual stimulation, pario provides an aural, visual and physical sensation. A user will be able to hear, see and touch the one communicating with them in a realistic manner. Pario could be used effectively in many professional disciplines from engineering design, education and healthcare to entertainment and leisure activities such as video games.The advancements in nanotechnology and computing necessary for claytonics to become a reality are feasible, but the challenges to overcome are daunting and will require great innovation. In an interview, December 2008, Jason Campbell, a lead researcher from Intel Labs Pittsburgh said, "my estimates of how long it is going to take have gone from 50 years down to just a couple more years. That has changed over the four years Ive been working on the project".

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**Reference copied as a whole from Wikipedia to avoid facing plagiarism.