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3D printing technology can also make a contribution to the topic of autonomous driving
One of the major trend topics of 2017 is clearly the self-driving car, or to be more precise: the various concepts related to this complex of topics autonomous driving. It can therefore undoubtedly be assumed that this innovation will bring about far-reaching changes in the field of mobility in the coming years.
Today we would like to use a concrete example to illustrate the effects these developments are likely to have on the use of 3D printing.
Autonomous driving requires an all-round sensor
A sine qua non for any self-driving car is, of course, that such a machine sees everything that is happening around it (and may require lightning-fast reactions) at least as well as a human driver would. Physicists at the University of Stuttgart have now found an elegant solution to this problem and implemented it with the help of 3D printing technology.
Model eagle eye
The all-round sensor, the Simon Thiel from the Institute for Technical Optics and his colleagues Harold Giessen developed by the 4th Physics Institute at the University of Stuttgart for this purpose is based on the eye of the eagle, which is reproduced on a small area. After all, eagles are able to recognize a mouse from a height of three kilometers in a meadow and this with such a wide field of vision that they can also precisely perceive sideways movement at the same time.
The reason for this proverbial eagle view: eagles have an extremely large number of visual cells in their eyes central fovea, a depression in the center of the yellow spot, the area of sharpest vision. And that’s not all, the eagle eye even has a second fovea on its edge, which ensures sharp vision in all directions.
How to copy the eagle gaze
In order to copy this eagle view, the Stuttgart researchers used a high-resolution one CMOS chip printed with a whole set of micro-objective lenses in such a way that they have different focal lengths and fields of view. The focal length of the smallest lens corresponds to a wide-angle lens, while the next two offer a medium field of view. Finally, the largest lens has a very long focal length and small field of view, in the style of a typical telephoto lens.
3D printing of the lens system
This special lens system is manufactured using so-called two-photon polymerisation. In this 3D printing process, in which two photons from a red femtosecond laser pulse are absorbed in the photoresist, the printer prints the lens system precisely onto the CMOS chip. The two photons act like a blue photon that starts the cross-linking process in the liquid photoresist. A scanner is used to write layer by layer of the free-form lens structure.
More applications
Since this lens system is very small, ie only a few square millimeters in size, new types could be used in addition to the automotive industry mini drones benefit from this technology.
If you would like to find out more about our possibilities in the field of future technologies, you will find a lot of information on our blog.
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