ANN ARBOR, MI — A new technology developed by a team led by a University of Michigan pilot and engineer could make it easier for pilots and drivers to avoid dangerous ice.
Nilton Renno, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering at UM, and his 12-person team have developed new sensors that can detect water and ice dozens of meters ahead of both automobiles and airplanes.
His research was published in the journal Scientific Reports on Jan. 26.
The sensors can make airplane water and ice measurements 50 meters away and automobile measurements 20 meters away. Renno notes that the current model versions can detect ice and water up to 35 meters away for automobiles.
One of the sensors, which rely on three lasers at different wavelengths to determine water and ice proximity, can determine if there is water or ice ahead – as well as if there is water, the thickness of it.
Another sensor, called a microwave resonator, can measure ice build-up on a vehicle.
The thicker the water layer is, the more likely a car will hydroplane, Renno, 66, said. He also notes the dangers of black ice, especially, on the road.
“All cars have cameras now so you’re looking, if you don’t see anything reflective like snow, then you know it’s a black ice, so we can combine the sensor with others too,” Renno said.
Renno’s sensors would be similar to other vehicle sensors, like that for temperature.
“It’s basically proactive instead of being a reactive system for the advanced driving system,” Renno said.
Other sensors physically protrude from the vehicle and can produce ice at freezing temperatures.
Renno’s passion to develop the technology stems from his pilot background. When he was obtaining his instrument rating certification in Brazil to fly with only cockpit instruments, he started to fly planes during winter nights and realized how dangerous the ice was.
He was different from other companies developing this research because he was coming in with a “fresh canvas,” unlike larger companies that attempt to make improvements to their existing designs.
“If you’re coming from outside, you have a fresh canvas, you can start from scratch, so that was my approach,” Renno said.
He started learning how to fly planes when he was 14, before he knew how to drive.
The sensor research took 10 years to develop, Renno said, which included writing patents, developing a prototype, testing it and collecting the follow-up data.
He almost brought the technology to Silicon Valley but decided not to because the region is “very aggressive and lots of big powerful people putting lots of money.”
Nilton would have been “out of my comfort zone” and it would have been difficult to also teach at UM, he added.
He hopes to improve on his technology with the help of a larger company and bring the product out to market.
His current research is on detecting millimeter-sized space debris.
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William Diep is a higher education and business development reporter at MLive/The Ann Arbor News. Before coming to MLive, he reported at City & State New York, Journo, and the Columbia Daily Spectator. William… more
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