LA Auto Show 2011

This weekend, I visited LA Auto Show 2011, very nice show. This was my first Auto Show, i did find out a lot of interesting technologies in cars. I always see automobile industry as a source of inspiration for getting better ideas to make custom automated equipments. I personally spoke to couple of product specialists and find out about following sensors:
1) Oil Level Sensors - This sensors will eliminate the need for oil dip sticks. It is a very cool technology which senses the temperature difference between the temperature controlled sticked dipped in the oil.
2) Engine Management System - This system has sensors across the catalytic converter in exhuast and based on the exhaust air quality they control the engine's performance.
3) Electronic Control Stability - There is a optical sensor on the steering wheel of the car which gives output to the rear wheels. So when you are turning the wheel on a slope and if the car is not aligned properly to follow that trajectory, the electronics would help reduce the rpm of rear wheel to bring the car in the expected trajectory. This changes are so minute that we might not even notice the difference while driving.
4) Ultrasonic Sensors in the windows - This sensors trigger safety alarms when the window is broken.
5) Difference between Turbocharger and supercharger - The only difference between this two technology is the source of power for the turbine to push the air into inlet of the cylinder. Turbocharger uses exhaust air while supercharger is driven by the engine. So Turbocharger is more energy efficient while supercharger has nothing to do with engine efficiency. Supercharger actually provides more power than turbo charger.

I also learned that there is a magazine called Automotive engineering, they discuss all this cool technologies in much more details. I have decided to subscribe for it.

QA Inspection Using Robotics

I came across a thought about electronics industry. I believe the small electronic PCB manufacturers perform a lot of visual QA Inspection for missing components. This components(capacitors, resistors etc.) are so small that they need to be checked under microscope to make sure all the components are in place. This is very time consuming process as the cutting edge technology soldering machines have a very high through put and manual visual inspection is a very inefficient process to catch up with it and end up being an bottleneck of the process. I just made a very basic simulation of a robot picking up the PCB and inspecting it in front of a camera which can inspect all the components in a second using pattern recognition technology. This kind of automatic system takes only couple of seconds to inspect the PCB. The robot can be replaced with a 3 axis pneumatic or electric guides and it can be made pretty cheap. I am sure this is out there, but just wanted to post it on my blog. A very basic cheap application can be developed using cognex cameras and festo/smc actuators to accomplish with probably as little as less than 10,000 USD.