Nissan shows off a team of collision-avoidance robots

IDG News Service - Japan's Nissan Motor Co. has built a team of small robots that can quickly navigate around obstacles with the help of technology that the company hopes to one day use in larger vehicles.

Modeled after the way a school of fish travels, the six robots follow one another, coordinate their speeds and even shift lanes to avoid obstacles. While the robots -- called Eporo -- are less than a meter high, the goal is to put similar navigation technology into full-size automobiles to reduce traffic accidents and road congestion.

"In these robots, we put laser range finders to see the outside," as well as telecommunications technology so the robots can communicate with one another, said Kazuhiro Doi, general manager of Nissan's technology communication department.

In a recent demonstration at Ceatec, Japan's largest gadget and IT trade show, Nissan set up a small track for the robots to travel around. At some points the track was wide and at others it was narrow so Nissan could demonstrate how the robots could shift from traveling in two or three lanes to just one. A broken robot was placed in the wide section of the track to simulate a disabled car, and the six robots were able to navigate around it.

The name Eporo, short for Episode Zero Robot, is a reference to Nissan's goal of developing CO2- and accident-free vehicles.

The robots have three main tasks when traveling along the test track:

• To avoid collisions, both among themselves and with obstacles on the road.

• To travel side by side at a coordinated speed while maintaining a safe distance.

• To close gaps between one another.

"In the future, we want to use this for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, but I do have to say that it takes time," Doi said at the Ceatec demo. He noted that it could take up to 30 years before the full-scale technology is in use.

To be successful, every vehicle must have the same communications system. Doi said that Nissan is working with a safety consortium in Japan to include the technology in cars made by other companies.