the car designer who turned a sailfish into a supercar - laser range meter

The Swordfish swim faster than the cheetah, and the secret behind the speed inspired Frank Stephenson to bring natural magic into the field of car design.
If your boss had to sign an expensive stuffed fish you bought on a whim while on vacation, how would he react?
Most of us may answer "not very excited ".
But Frank Stephenson's boss is not the average.
His workplace is not your general workplace; and the fish?
That's not your normal fish.
Stephenson is the design director of McLaren motor, a series of award-winning automakerspriced cars.
While on vacation in the Caribbean, he noticed a sailfish on the wall of the resort where he lived.
One person who worked there told Stephenson that he was proud to catch the fish because it was too fast.
Stephenson was interested-he started doing some research on the species to find out why it was so fast.
On the way back to London, Stephenson stopped in Miami and went to a local fishing village. Fortunately, a local fisherman has just caught a sailfish.
He bought it and sent it to the city center to fill it up and eventually to the scanning department of the Surrey McLaren Automotive aerodynamics lab-where automakers began to work hard to learn the secrets of supercars
The ability to speed fish.
This is just one of some of the moves auto companies have recently tried to learn from the technologies used in nature.
The Swordfish is a kind of turbine swordfish;
A place that has already traveled 100 in about half the time, which requires Usain Bolt to run it.
They can withstand these bursts of breathing.
In order to chase the small, fast --
The fish they eat.
The analysis showed that the small vortex generated by the scales on the skin of the Sailfish caused the fish to be surrounded by air bubbles instead of water with greater density.
This reduced resistance allows the fish to move faster.
The designer of the evolutionary design McLaren applied the same texture as the Sailfish ratio to the inside of the pipe that imported the P1 supercar engine.
This increases the air volume entering the engine by 17%, increasing the efficiency of the car: p1 has a hybrid engine that creates 903 horsepower, therefore, a lot of air needs to be injected into the engine to help with combustion and engine cooling.
P1 also draws on the small "double wings" on the trunk of the flag fin, where it encounters the fish tail, which is used to straighten out the flow of air and water passing through it.
That makes cars more in line with aerodynamics, says Stephenson.
Nature has been developing its design for millions of years, says Stephenson, which is why he is trying to incorporate these techniques into his project.
"It just makes sense," he said . "
"How, for example, does a lizard reverse and stick to the surface?
OK, if you can figure out why, you can apply this technology to the tires of the car so that the car doesn't slip when the surface is wet.
"It had been refined by nature long before humans discovered the principle of water dynamics.
For example, engineers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have recently developed an air lubrication system that separates water from the surface of the ship to reduce resistance by up to 80%;
Gas is not as dense as water, so the friction of the ship is smaller and it is easier to slide.
This is a technique similar to the Sailfish.
It turns out to be as useful on land as in water.
McClaren design studio is a mix of science labs, art studios and music rehearsal spaces.
Its purpose is to help designers get to the cutting edge by taking them out of the comfort zone.
"Every day I do research in the office and it looks like I'm studying biology in the office, not car design," Stephenson said . ".
McClaren has some companies in this Biomedical Department.
The inspiration for Mercedes-Benz's bionic car comes from a boxfish with hexagonal plates on the outer skin, which is like a set of "armor" that gives the fish rigidity, protection and operability. The cube-
The structure of the shape does not create resistance;
By imitating the shape of the square, the engineers were able to create a record --
Crushing resistance coefficient-a value used to quantify the resistance size of an object when it is trying to move in air or water.
Mercedes-Benz engineers also managed to reduce fuel consumption by 20% and nitrogen oxide emissions by 80%.
Japanese carmaker Nissan is looking to make the ultimate collision
Free vehicle, created a small "cute" robot called Eporo, which also has the skills learned from creatures living under the waves.
"In order to find the final form of the collision, we just need to look at Mother Nature --
Avoid the behavior patterns of the system at work, especially fish, "said Toru futomi, director of advanced technology and research engineering.
The movement of fish is the basic principle of robot movement, which moves in schools and avoids obstacles collectively.
"This algorithm is very simple," added Susumu Fujita, a partner company.
The creator of Eporo.
"Fish follow these three rules: don't go too far, don't go too close, and don't hit each other," explains futomi . ".
These robots have inspired the capabilities of Nissan's cars, including intelligent brake AIDS (IBA)
Collision warning in front (FCW).
These are the foundations that new self-driving cars can build, without the need for lanes, traffic lights and even indicators.
Even some auto parts may be out of date.
"We have systems that eliminate the need for windshield wipers-you can't see animals with windshield wipers on their eyes," Stephenson asserted . ".
Of course, not all of the inspiration comes from underwater.
For example, the laser range finder (LRF)
Technology developed in a project before Nissan.
It is inspired by the way a bumblebee can detect objects in a wide range, and can be in 180-degree radius.
If detected, the robot is able to turn the wheel at a right or larger angle to avoid collision.
Biomicry has become a slogan for many car companies, but the secrets of nature have also had an impact outside the road.
Recently, Nasa has also asked the public to choose a space suit for the future, one of which is inspired by "scaly skin of fish and reptiles ".
More and more designers find that the tricks of nature can go beyond their own ideas.
So it makes sense to seek inspiration from anywhere-even the stuffed Sailfish on the walls of the Caribbean resort.
The video was produced by dalmet Singh Chawla and recorded by Van Le.
Music by Mohammed ECE.