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Technology is continuously being developed to prevent self-driving vehicles from crashing. That technology could also be considered for other autonomous products. Collision avoidance in automated guided systems using a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) scanner has been studied for application in low-speed autonomous Honda Power Equipment products, such as self-driving lawn mowers. The automotive application of a LIDAR scanner for autonomous driving is used for obstacle detection and offline local area. Such delineations do not exist in areas where power equipment is used, such as grass fields; therefore, identifying object height and distance is a relatively new area. For this study, a small LIDAR scanner with a resolution of 0.01 m and a measurement range of 0.05 to 40.00 m was used on a Honda self-driving lawn mower. The measurement distance data was directly processed in the scanner, enabling the drive unit to obtain distance information during actual operation.

The government has been imposing a stricter diesel engine efficiency standard to reduce carbon dioxide, NOx and other particulate emissions. Diesel combustion improvement is a major concern, and many researchers have examined diesel combustion and its sprays. One possible method to solve the technical problems is applying the Variable Orifice Nozzle (VON) to fuel injection systems. The VON, which nozzle cross-sectional area is changed continuously, has been developed for direct injection (DI) diesel engines. The orifice changing mechanism is composed mainly of a rotary valve, drive shaft and small pulse motor. The VON's standard deviation (SD) of injection quantity in injection pump operation range is the same as the conventional hole nozzle's due to the rotary valve that is fixed by a spring. The smaller orifice of the VON has produced a higher injection pressure and produced a longer injection duration than that of a larger orifice.

The Variable Orifice Nozzle (VON), has been developed to improve diesel combustion by changing the cross-sectional area of the injection hole. The area of the nozzle orifice is continuously controlled by the rotary valve, one component of the VON. The discharge coefficient of the VON was increased by simulating an internal flow in the nozzle tip. The VON performances were evaluated by its rate of injection, injection pressure, spray droplet diameter and instantaneous photographs taken by a high speed camera. These results show that, injection characteristics and spray patterns respond to the nozzle orifice area which is changed by the rotary valve from larger to smaller. The orifice area controlled nozzle provides higher maximum pressure and a longer injection duration than the conventional hole nozzle without full-load point of the injection pump. A smaller nozzle orifice has a wider spray angle compared with larger nozzle orifice.