Research and Ideas * USA - Magnets, Not Drivers, Guide Campus Researchers' Bus Project
A new project by UC Berkeley researchers looks like a bus, runs like a trolley car and steers itself using magnets
Berkeley,CAL,USA -The Daily Californian, by Rachel Gross -September 9, 2008: -- What sounds like an oddity could be the future of mass transportation-an automated bus guided completely by magnets in the ground... After nearly 20 years of research, the bus was unveiled on Friday at a demonstration in San Leandro. Onlookers said they were impressed as the 60-foot vehicle rumbled down 14th Street, manned by a driver but requiring no human steering... The bus is guided by magnets much as a trolley car is guided by cables, said Wei-Bin Zhang, the research engineer who leads the university's transit research program, which is part of California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways... There are two sensors on the bus for detecting the magnets, Zhang said. The sensors receive directional signals based on the magnets' alternating polarities and the magnetic fields they generate... Information from the sensors is processed by a computer, which controls a motor attached to the steering wheel, he said. The motor steers the wheel, but can be overridden by the driver if necessary... The earliest a commercial automated bus would run is 2010, Zhang said... (Illustration by Cassandra Zwart)Labels: technonews
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