Segmentation is one of the 40 Inventive Principles of Problem Solving.
Many autonomous car efforts use lidar (light detecting and ranging) to “see” the world. Combining a laser transmitter and receiver, lidar detects the tiny but measurable time it takes for the laser to bounce off an object to determine how far away it is. By steering the laser, the lidar can produce a 3D scan…
Electric car manufacturer SF Motors has announced a flexible motor strategy that will allow vehicles to be designed with one, two, three, or four motor configurations. Their high end vehicle will have four motors with over 1000 horsepower combined, propelling the vehicle to 60 miles an hour in under 3 seconds, making it a worthy Tesla…
Why do I want to fit Principles into SCAMPER approaches? In a recent post (check it here first) I explore how SCAMPER can embrace the 40 Principles of Inventive Problem Solving. The goal is to wrap the complexity of the Principles in the approachability of SCAMPER. Modify defined in Applied Imagination Under the category of…
Silverado frame rails General Motors uses hydroforming to produce frame rails for its vehicles including the Silverado pickup and the aluminum pieces found in the Corvette. This process makes stronger, lighter and to more accurate dimensions than typical welded multi-piece components. In tube hydroforming, pressure is applied with hydraulic fluid inside a tube that is…
Proven reusability “For a long time people were using the space shuttle as an example of why reusability is dumb. You can’t take a single case example and make an entire theory out of it.” Elon Musk Musk has frequently made the case that discarding a rocket is like flying a jumbo jet across the…
Mercedes-AMG new F1 engine In 2014, Formula 1 introduced a new set of rules requiring all participating cars have engines with turbos and some form of electric hybridization. The approach taken by some teams uses what they call MGU-K (motor generator unit – kinetic) which is the same process used in most road going hybrids…
Segmentation When gravity is absent and the fuel doesn’t naturally stay at the bottom of the bank, other schemes must be used to keep the propellant adjacent to the pickup. I’ve previously examined this issue here and here. What I love about this blog is it kindles my curiosity. I was inspired to look again…
Incredible response This Kickstarter project received $1,330,293 in pledges and 6,480 backers, far exceeding its original goal of $100,000. The product The primary innovations here are the merging (Principle 5 – Merging) of a down jacket with a battery-operated heating system. Principle 6 – Universality is also at play, as the same battery can be…
Lunar lifeboat An electrical short in an oxygen tank caused an explosion in Apollo 13’s service module. This cylindrical module was tipped with the command module, the bell-shaped capsule that plunged through the atmosphere to return astronauts to earth. Docked to the top of the command module was the lunar module with its spindly landing…
All In All You’re Just Another Brick Laying System Bricky is a system that makes accurate DIY construction of walls easy. A template lets you put down a consistent layer of mortar for each course of bricks as well as the vertical strip of mortar between each brick. By investing in the creation of a…