What would a car engine look like that was robot serviceable?

Question

An ICE is a metal block containing a shaft and attached pistons, with various "peripherals."What would an engine and its immediate surroundings look like to be totally robot serviceable, including diagnostics, adjustment, peripheral replacement, and total engine replacement.Why don't we have that?

m463 · Accepted Answer

So cars ARE designed for robots. Really.
Thing is, they're designed for assembly.
They're made on an assembly line, put together layer by layer with the inner parts going in first and outer parts later.
I remember reading about one assembly line where it was designed so the engine came into the car from underneath.
For example, I had to get in the trunk of my car once to replace a tail light. I had to remove a panel, and it had a fastener that looked like a christmas tree. It was really hard to get the panel off, but when I was done, just position it and push and it goes click click right into place.
So I think they're optimizing for a car that assembles quickly and cheaply, and is reliable enough so it doesn't have to come apart.
"reliable enough" might change with electric cars though, because it's looking like they will have a fraction of the moving parts and may last 5x or more what an ICE car will last.
If YOU will take them apart, get an old car. They less reliable so they were designed for people to work on them. Get one of those. Better yet, an old pre-electronics tractor. They were designed for farmers to work on with a small assortment of parts.
Or get a Humvee. The first one, the H1. They were designed to be taken apart and fixed in the field, with a small assortment of tools and lives depended on this capability.

phendrenad2 · Answer

Robots are still in the dark ages. Doing anything with a robot arm requires massive amounts of human intervention to get the motion just right. Custom grippers have to be made for every part.Anecdotally: Interviewed with a robotics company that claimed to be doing lots of AI/CV/ML to direct robot arms, but in the interview they admitted that they weren't able to use the ML in practice and had a bunch of traditional robot arm programming staff just to pay the bills. It seemed like they had inserted themselves as middlemen into another businesses process with the false promise of AI, like IBM Watson.

quickthrower2 · Answer

Good question. Although looking forward EVs are the more obvious choice and I&rsquo;d imagine would naturally be easier to service and need fewer services.

2rsf · Answer

Watching my car getting fixed I think that part of the problem is that parts deteriorate over time making the robot's life very unpredictable.More than once a hammer and chisel were used to take a part or put together parts, and in other places they needed to improvise or file a part so it fits better.

axaxs · Answer

Probably a lot like early cars, say 50s or prior.The problem is that as safety and fuel regulations increase, design gets more clever and space gets tight.

android2222 · Answer

Perhaps wide and flatter to allow for easy access, and up higher in the engine bay? As to &ldquo;why don&rsquo;t we have that&rdquo; - I think that by doing that you&rsquo;d throw off the center of gravity, because an engine is made out of heavy strong metal to withstand the pressures it generates.

What would a car engine look like that was robot serviceable?

An ICE is a metal block containing a shaft and attached pistons, with various "peripherals."
What would an engine and its immediate surroundings look like to be totally robot serviceable, including diagnostics, adjustment, peripheral replacement, and total engine replacement.
Why don't we have that?

Good question. Although looking forward EVs are the more obvious choice and I’d imagine would naturally be easier to service and need fewer services.

Probably a lot like early cars, say 50s or prior.
The problem is that as safety and fuel regulations increase, design gets more clever and space gets tight.

Perhaps wide and flatter to allow for easy access, and up higher in the engine bay? As to “why don’t we have that” - I think that by doing that you’d throw off the center of gravity, because an engine is made out of heavy strong metal to withstand the pressures it generates.