Iraqi university develops automated car mirror testing device that can cut testing time in half

(Image source: tribune.com.pk)

According to foreign media reports, if the Automised Mirror Testing Machine developed by three students from Iqra University can obtain funding from the government, then this solution may revolutionize the automotive industry. The three students are Syed Abu Talib Naqvi, Muhammad Shamshirur Rehman and Abu Hurairah Mehboob, who are students of mechanical engineering. The three spent 9 months developing a mechanical device that can automatically test the exterior mirrors of self-driving cars and identify faults in them.

Currently, the testing of the exterior mirrors of self-driving cars is done manually. If it can be automated, the time can be reduced by half and the production of car mirrors can be doubled. The team will present its project at Stanford International University in Thailand on September 7 this year.

In 2017, Naqvi interned at a private company that produced mirrors for self-driving cars. He observed the production process up close and learned about each stage of the production process in detail, but what bothered him was that there was no foolproof way to test the quality of automotive mirrors.

Generally, automotive mirrors are assembled from 8 to 10 parts, and the last stage is that workers must rotate the mirror on its axis to manually test whether the mirror fits. This process is very time-consuming, and in the end the company is unable to identify the potential cause of the mirror failure. In order to find the cause of the failure, the company must open each component of the assembled mirror.

Sometimes, car mirrors pass the testing phase and are sent to car companies to be installed in self-driving cars. At this time, the mirrors may not work and have to be sent back to the mirror manufacturer, who still does not know what the problem is, which also affects the manufacturer's image. Therefore, Naqvi hopes to develop a device that can not only test the function of car mirrors, but also automatically identify mirror failures.

Three Iraqi university students chose sensors produced in Pakistan to produce their automated car mirror testing machine. The sensors they used cost about 1,200 rubles (about 131.95 yuan) and 1,500 rubles (about 164.94 yuan), while similar sensors imported from other countries cost 3,500 rubles (about 384.86 yuan). But the machine's indicator, which beeps and emits light signals at the point where the car mirror is faulty, was imported from China. Currently, Japan and South Korea also have similar automated car mirror testing machines, but the price is about 2.9 million rubles (about 318,900 yuan), but the machine developed by the students only costs 150,000 rubles (about 16,500 yuan), which is nearly 20 times lower than the price of products on the international market.

The automated car mirror tester will revolutionize the production of self-driving car mirrors. It only takes 30 seconds to test a single mirror, while manual testing takes about 1 minute and 10 seconds, which cuts the test time in half. In addition, the machine can also help reduce labor costs, which is beneficial to manufacturers. Moreover, the machine can also record the production volume of mirrors. It has both manual and automatic modes, so even if the automatic mode encounters problems, the machine can still be used.