Project Sam Car: Steering by head movement

Paraplegic racing driver drives 650 hp Corvette

Controlling a Corvette ZR06 via head movements? Accelerating and braking with a breath? Is that possible? Sam Schmidt, former Indy car driver and paraplegic since a serious racing accident, says yes. State-of-the-art technology from the USA and Germany makes it possible. In a cooperative project between the US electronics expert Arrow Industries and the Swabian drive-by-wire specialist, a Corvette ZR06 was converted and built in such a way that Sam Schmidt can safely steer the 650 hp racer around a race track with the slightest movements of his head.

The "Sam Car" project

The sensors and their processing were developed by Arrow in the USA. The installation of the sensor technology and the linking of the Arrow technology with the Space Drive driving and steering system was carried out by the experts from Aichelau in Swabia. The task of Schaeffler Paravan was, among other things, the implementation of the innovative control sensor technology and driving system in close cooperation with Arrows Industry. In addition, the Space Drive System, a multi-redundant and road-approved drive-by-wire system for absolutely fail-safe control of the primary functions of accelerator, brake and steering, was installed in the vehicle.

For automatic gear selection, an optimised Gear Control has been integrated into the centre console. For easy control of secondary vehicle functions, the Corvette features Voice Control. This allows functions such as indicators, lights or the power windows to be controlled via short voice commands. At the heart of this is the gateway, which is connected to the vehicle via CAN and forwards the commands from the voice control system to the vehicle for execution.

The connection between the sensors and the executing drive-by-wire system is formed by an additional computer unit developed by Arrows Industrie. The connection to this unit was also made in Aichelau.