Nissan’s EPORO robots travel like a shoal of fish and avoid collision.

Japanese car manufacturer Nissan has unveiled tiny robots which mimic the behaviour of fish, as it develops its crash avoidance system.

The three-wheeled robots can move together as a group of up to seven without bumping into one another – just like fish.

The Nissan “EPORO” robot car concept is designed to travel in a group of like-vehicles, mimicking the behavioural patterns of a school of fish in avoiding obstacles without colliding into each other.

The fish-inspired breakthrough technology will take centre stage tomorrow at the CEATEC JAPAN 2009, October 6 - 10 at the Makuhari Messe – with a group of six EPOROs, which is an abbreviation of EPisode O (Zero) Robot (Episode aiming to be CO2-free and accident-free).

Back in 2008, it was the flight of the bumblebee that inspired Nissan’s Biomimetic Car Robot Drive “BR23C” concept. Both the bee and fish demonstrate extraordinary “anti-collision” abilities, navigating instinctively and intelligently through challenging terrain by detecting and avoiding obstacles – just as future Nissan safety vehicles may have the capability to do.

However, the schooling behaviour of fish, or a group of vehicles, presents a far greater challenge in terms of collision avoidance than the lone bee, and in developing EPORO, three rules of fish behaviour were applied to its driving control: Collision Avoidance, Traveling Side-by-Side and Approaching.

Generically, fish recognise the surroundings based on lateral-line sense and sense of sight – in the EPORO, a laser range finder is used for lateral-line sense, while other communications technology is utilised for the sense of sight.

According to Nissan, this is the world’s first development of a robot car that can travel in a group by sharing the position and information of others within a group via communication technologies.

While Nissan’s ongoing research aims at creating collision-free vehicles based on its safety concept “Safety Shield”, new technologies used in EPORO also aim to improve migration efficiency of a group of vehicles and contribute to an environmentally friendly and traffic jam-free driving environment.

For more information on the EPORO robots, click here.