Hi! We are the Mindstorm Maniacs!
We are: Bat, Jared, Brice, Matt, and Maya
We researched while trying to get a transportation problem. A lot of our research is on what would help kids. For example, we researched heely and bike safety. We researched cars because they could crash into kids, and also because kids ride in cars. This gave us our problem: The high number of fatal car crashes. We got a solution that increases car safety.
After thinking of some possible solutions, we came up with one that uses ultrasonic sensors, which use sound but the levels can’t be heard. We chose these sensors because they can measure distance, so you can also measure speed of another object relative to the sensor, and also, because it seemed like a simple solution.
Volvo has some cars that have a system to stop low-velocity crashes. We visited a dealership (Demontrond Volvo) for a demonstration. Apparently, Volvo’s City Safety Crash Avoidance System can stop about 50% of all rear-ending crashes and uses cameras and radar. This is similar to our solution, except radar uses microwaves rather than sound.
We contacted an expert on robotics, Dr. Sandor Szabo from NIST. We asked him some questions on sensors. He said that some other crash avoidance systems use ultrasonic sensors for backing up. Avoiding collisions generally reduces the number of all crashes, so it probably reduces the number of fatal car crashes per year. Technology can be used to help avoid crashes.
To tell people about what we learned, we have a blog, mindstormmaniacs.blogspot.com. Our project, a video, is on Youtube and our blog. We also have links to all of our research on our blog. Our blog has been visited more than a thousand times.
