Smart trucks

Ever noticed how road-sweeping trucks just seem to rearrange dirt and garbage rather than removing it? Make the trucks smarter and they will do a much better job: just arm the vehicles with a laser, a digital camera and an image-processing computer.

The problem with standard road sweepers, says Graham Parker at the University of Surrey, is that they are dumb. The settings for the brushes - the speed and the force with which they are pushed onto the road, for example - are usually set at the beginning of a run and then left alone. But some rubbish needs only light sweeping while other types of debris, like patches of split builder's gravel or wet sand, call for more vigorous scraping, so having just one setting makes the sweeping process inefficient.

‘These vehicles are often not that effective, hence sweeping becomes a two-man operation with one in the truck and another behind on the foot sweeping up what the truck misses’, Parker says. Identifying the types of trash to be dealt with should help the truck to pick up more rubbish at the first attempt. This will remove the need for a second pass, speeding up the operation and cutting fuel consumption and diesel emissions. So with his colleague Gareth Peel, Parker set about making the trucks smarter. A laser mounted near the front projects a line onto the road ahead. A digital camera in the truck sends the images to an on-board computer.

Exercise 5. Give suitable headings to each paragraphs.

E xercise 6. Write a report, give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Most successful inventions do not rely on complicated technology. In fact, some of the world's greatest inventions have been very simple things. How much do you agree or disagree? (You should write at least 100 words).

Check yourself

1. _________ I have more cheese on my sandwich?

a) could

b) must

c) would

d) have to

2. You _________ eat more vegetables.

a) should

b) might

c) may

d) could

3. Complete the word partnership: Electric carving ____________.

a) machine

b) device

c) knife

d) food

4. Complete the word partnership: Electric pencil … .

a) machine

b) sharpener

c) knife

d) food

Glossary

English	Kazakh	Russian
debris [' deibri:]	қоқыс	мусор
vigorous scraping [' vigərəs skræpiŋ]	қайратты қырнау	энергичная вычистка
inefficient [ini 'fi ʃ (ə)nt]	тиімді емес	неэффективный
mounted [mauntid]	жасалган	смонтированный
image ['imi ʤ]	сурет, бейне	изображение
to override ['əuvə'raid]	қайтару, басым түсу	отменять, преобладать
priority [prai ɔ'riti]	басымдық	приоритет
lump [l ʌmp]	бөлшек	кусок
clog up [klɔg ʌp]	қоқыстау	засорять
diesel emission [di:z(ə)l i' miʃ(ə)n]	жанармай	дизельное топливо

LIW № 8

Read the text ‘Ocean energy systems’ (p.165) and prepare questions for discussion.

LIW № 9

Read the poem ‘Invention’ with proper intonation and stress, learn it by heart (p.165)