Smart speed bump

Speed bumps on the road to limit speed are something that keeps appearing on our roads with ever-increasing frequency. They are supposed to improve the safety of vehicles and pedestrians, by making sure no one exceeds a certain speed limit, but we are not really sure that they are not an invention of the repair shops to damage our cars every time we drive over them, even when we are going below the permitted speed.

José Antonio Aguilera Galeote and his company Badennova have realised this issue and have invented a smart speed bump which, depending on the speed at which the vehicle is travelling, will either be an obstacle or not: if we go at the right speed we will pass over it without even noticing it is there, whereas if we exceed the permitted speed we will definitely feel it. This smart speed bump has been presented at the Trafic road safety fair

How is this achieved? With non-Newtonian fluids that offer different resistance depending on the force applied to them. It is common to find videos on YouTube (even the TV series Numb3rs devoted an episode to explaining them) where we can see one of these liquids in a bucket and how, if we touch it slowly with our hand, we can sink it as if it were water, but if on the contrary we give it a strong blow or walk over it at a certain speed, it will seem solid.

This is the mechanism on which they based the development of this smart speed bump. My clumsy explanation will surely be improved if you enjoy the video where they show it to you.

Source | CochesLujo