The last post discussed equipping the car so as to be able to use the system. This post will go into more detail of how that may be accomplished. Speculation alert.
Looking at the bigger picture of how the automotive part of this system could work, consider a few technologies that are out there. The disk drive in your computer can find locations on a disk that are minute in size and do it error free over the lifetime of the product. A comparison to that mechanism could be in order, as the device on the car has to find the groove in the pavement. It has to do this seamlessly with the driver being mostly unaware of its operation. The read/write mechanism moves over a fast rotating disk. There are billions of locations on this disk, so finding a particular spot on the disk is non-trivial.
The driver can begin and assist the process just by being centered in the lane. Let's say a line is projected upon the windshield with which the driver is encouraged to keep aligned. This will keep the vehicle close to the center of the lane as possible, but there may be those times when attention wanders or a gust of wind blows you a bit off course. It is acknowledged that this will be imperfect, and may need some improvement.
So, the seeker mechanism, which is mounted underneath the vehicle and toward its rear, needs to be able to adjust the device to allow for some play back and forth inside the lane. Compare this to the read/write device on the disk drive. It has to allow for some random positioning of data on the disk. It will move the device to locate the data on the disk. Likewise on the car, this will be a side-to-side movement to adjust for the side-to-side movement of the car in the lane. So, while the driver is working to keep the car centered in its lane, the seeker mechanism is fine tuning this to keep the electrical conducting device centered to the groove in the pavement.
The tolerances are going to have to be close. For if they aren't, the groove will have to be larger. The groove size should be as small as possible. You don't want a chasm to have to negotiate when you make a lane change. So the fine-tuning of the seeker mechanism will have to be very, very accurate.
How might this be accomplished? I'm looking at these two websites for some clues. Here's one about RFID devices that can be read. These might be embedded in the roadway to cue the seeker device as to their location. Plus, I'm looking at self-parking/self-driving car technology:
sensors transmit signals, which bounce off objects around the car and reflect back to them. The car's computer then uses the amount of time that it takes those signals to return to calculate the location of the objects.Thus, a system of sensors can keep the seeker mechanism perfectly aligned with the groove. What happens in a lane change, or when the vehicle strays too far out of the center? The sensors should be able to sense that and tell the seeker to disengage to avoid damaging the system.
Now to round out the system. The seeker will need to be connected to an arm, which extends downward to the surface. It will interface with the groove in the pavement, which holds the live wire. The arm retracts and extends as the situation warrants. It will have wheels that turn on the pavement on each side of the groove. There could be mini-grooves that these wheels will have to stay in so as to aid the alignment process. It will be at the end of the arm and will itself have an extension which drops further down into the groove. It can be deployed and returned also. The extension will be in the shape of a railcar-shaped wheel that will fit on top of the cable/wire that is electrified. There could be some play built-in that will allow some side-to-side movement as well. Anyway, it will transmit the electricity from itself through a conducting cable in the arm toward the car above. The entire assembly---seeker, arm, and extension--- will be electrically connected to the vehicle. Once the extension makes electrical contact, electricity will flow through the system and run the car.
In summary, the system will have to remained aligned and will be equipped to do so in real time. Perhaps you can compare it to the Segway, which makes continual adjustments on the fly in real time so as to keep itself in proper position.
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