Statistics may point to human fallibility being the cause of almost all road accidents, but the switch to a connected robotic environment must ultimately deliver every nano-second of every day on the promise of a guaranteed near-total safety highway environment. Today’s grudging acceptance by the global public of the inevitability of deaths and injuries on the road will not continue in a driverless environment.
In March, a new demonstrator engine by Rolls-Royce, featuring a cutting-edge lean-burn and low-emissions combustion system for future jet engine programs, began icing tests at the Global Aerospace Centre for Icing and Environmental Research in Manitoba, Canada.
Designing for safety in automated vehicles has complex requirements – many of which are surrounded with misconceptions. As the leader for training mobility engineers, SAE is providing a two-day classroom seminar: Introduction to Automated Vehicle Safety: Multi-Agent, Functional Safety, and SOTIF.
Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation (UTC), has laid out its plans for what is calling “The Grid” – an 25,000-square-foot advanced electric power systems laboratory for designing and testing next-generation, more-electric aircraft technologies for commercial, military, and business aviation.
The future of the aerospace industry relies on innovative materials to improve aircraft performance, weight, and strength. Beyond materials innovation, proper and thorough testing is required to ensure new materials can withstand the rigor of operational use over a long life in varied environments. ZwickRoell calls it design qualification (DQ), installation qualification (IQ), and operational qualification (OQ), but aerospace engineers call it the “digital thread.”