Mimicking fish behaviour could help prevent car accidents claim Nissan using their EPORO Robot Car technology.

The EPORO system aims to copy schools of fish by ensuring vehicles don't get too close to one another, and that when they want to turn it is safe to do so avoiding collision, or in the vehicles case a road accident.

It is based on fish behaviour of being able to change the direction and not collide with other fish, matching speed whilst travelling side by side a certain distance apart from other fish and closing gaps with other fish that are too far away.

This is achieved by using lasers to measure the distance from objects by it's reflection, and UWB (Ultra Wide Band) which is short distance radio communication and is able to establish the position of an object and measure the distance by timing when a pulse signal is sent, to when the reflected signal is received back.

Six EPOROs will be showcased at the annual CEATEC 2009 Exhibition in Japan which has cutting edge electronics and Information Technologies on display, and runs from the 6th to 10th of October.