ROAD ACCIDENT PREVENTION UNIT [R.A.P.U] a prototyping approach to mitigate an omnipresent threat to life

BY:

Dibakar Barua

Jitesh Gupta

Pranshu Jain

CONTACT: dibakar.barua92@gmail.com 1

Why R.A.P.U ?

• Road accidents claim a staggeringly high number of lives every year.

• Major causes of road accidents include driving in an inebriated state,

driver fatigue, distracted driving etc.

• While car manufacturers devise safer vehicles that cause minimum

passenger damage, we decided to address the issue of avoiding

accidents completely and/or mitigating damages with an immediate

effect.

• We wanted to devise a solution which was SIMPLE, OBVIOUS,

EFFECTIVE and targeted the key physical symptoms of the various

causes of a road accident.

• Primary aim is to avoid loss of life by intimating not only the driver

himself but also the nearby drivers and the next of kin, of the situation.

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Who is R.A.P.U meant for?

• While we all know driving under the influence is a key cause for

accidents, R.A.P.U is NOT JUST for these situations

• There are many drivers on the road in late night hours: Goods transport

trucks, Cab drivers, Public transport vehicles etc. and no one is safe

from the occasional bout of sleep. R.A.P.U is meant for preventing and

mitigating accidents for them.

• R.A.P.U reduces the crucial delay time between the accident zero

time and the response time thus reducing the possible damages and

possibility of loss of life.

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Inspiration and Motivation

• The key inspiration for the technical content of our work came from

“Accident Prevention Using Eye Blinking and Head Movement” by

Abhi R. Varma, Seema V. Arote and Chetna Bharti published in the

International Journal of Computer Applications (IJCA).

• They devised a solution which would use extensive eye blink detection

using an external camera and image processing, an accelerometer for

head tilt sensing using angle detection and an MQ3 alcohol sensor.

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Simplifications made

to a complex design.

Managed power

issues and provided

disaster prevention

Inspiration and Motivation

• We have used an ultra sensitive IR sensing apparatus which can detect

eye blinks in milliseconds thus obviating the need for image processing.

• Also the accelerometer is auto calibrated upon System Reset and

measures head deflections in a very simple way thus negating the need

for any complex mathematical processing.

• These two adjustments have made our work simpler, low cost, low

power, easily adjustable, expandable and installable

• We also addressed the issue of Accident Prevention by using an

external MESSAGE BOARD (to be powered by the vehicle) to intimate

nearby drivers of the situation to avoid accidents.

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R.A.P.U: A Walkthrough HARDWARE DESIGN

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R.A.P.U: A Walkthrough HARDWARE DESIGN

• SENSING: 3 sensors are involved. An MQ3 alcohol sensor to detect

alcohol in driver’s breath, an MMA7760 accelerometer to detect the

three relative coordinates of the driver’s neck, an ultra sensitive IR

sensor to detect closed eye state.

• ALERT STATE ADDRESSAL:

1. A SIMCOM GSM Module and an 8 ohm speaker based alarm is

used to alert the driver.

2. A Display board made using a 3V relay, seven segment displays and

a Push Button is used to intimate the nearby drivers of the situation.

• POWER SUPPLY: A low power 5V, 1Amp power supply made using

LM723 voltage regulator simulates a vehicle power supply to drive the

display shield and speaker.

• MICROCONTROLLER: Stellaris ARM Cortex M3 based LM3S608

Microcontroller on the TI Stellaris GURU Evaluation Kit.

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HARDWARE DESIGN: Interfacing Shield (Schematic)

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HARDWARE DESIGN: External Display Message Board (Schematic)

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R.A.P.U: A Walkthrough HARDWARE DESIGN

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STELLARIS ARM

based

MICROCONTROLLER

Eye Blink

Sensor

Head Tilt Sensor

Display Shield and

Speaker System

Alcohol

Sensor

5V, 1Amp

Power

Supply 2A Power

Supply

Power

Supply

GSM Module

R.A.P.U: A Walkthrough SOFTWARE DESIGN • SENSING: Sensors are checked in a polled manner with minimum

number of readings taken unless a trigger value is sensed:

1. Eye Blink Sensor: A minimum of 6 closed eye readings out of 10 are

considered to trigger alarm state.

2. Alcohol Sensor: If even 1 out of 5 readings show driver inebriation,

the system is locked and alarm is triggered.

3. Accelerometer: Auto Calibrated using Value Averaging upon System

Reset. Deviations from mean values are measured. If a significant

deviation is detected, system keeps checking deviations for minimum of

7 deviated values out of 10 to trigger alarm.

• ALARM SEQUENCE: GSM shield generates a missed call to wake the

driver and text a next of kin. The controller triggers the Display Shield

and Speaker using a relay to alert the driver and the ones nearby.

• Alarm sequence can be escaped using a Push Button for a limited

period (except in case of alcohol detection) 11

R.A.P.U: A Walkthrough SOFTWARE DESIGN

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Obtain Sensor Readings

Prolonged Eye

Closed Detected Alcohol Detected Prolonged Head Tilt

Detected

Differentiate

from normal

blink

Differentiate

from arbitrary

Tilt

System Closed Down.

Send SMS to next of kin

Trigger ALARM SEQUENCE.

Driver given 1 minute to

switch Alarm off

Trigger ALARM

SEQUENCE

Implementing R.A.P.U Components by Texas Instruments • Entire setup based upon the ARM Stellaris Cortex M3 based LM3S08

microcontroller (by TI) on the TI Stellaris Guru Evaluation Kit

• Power Supply emulating the Vehicle Supply based upon the LM723

voltage regulator by Texas Instruments

• IR sensor calibrated using LM358 op-amp by Texas Instruments

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Implementing R.A.P.U Hardware Platforms

• MICROCONTROLLER UNIT: TI Stellaris Guru Evaluation Kit Based

upon LM3S08 Microcontroller

• SENSOR & LCD INTERFACE SHIELD: Arduino Footprint Sized Shield

including LCD Display (to show system measurements) which stacks

on the MCU Kit.

• SENSOR PLATFORMS: The sensors are mounted on two easy-to-use

units.

1. Spectacle Unit to mount Eye Blink Sensor without obstructing vision

2. Headphone Unit to mount accelerometer and alcohol sensor at

appropriate positions.

• Display and Alarm Shield

• GSM Module

• Power Supplies 14

Implementing R.A.P.U

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Technical Difficulties

• The sensitivity of IR sensor changes according to the ambient lighting, hence it

may disturb the monitoring of eye blinking of the driver

We used a potentiometer on the breakout board for IR sensor to adjust the

sensitivity as per the ambient lighting

• We wanted to control the switching of power supply (emulating a supply from

vehicle) for external display by the main processing unit which uses a different

supply.

We used a DPDT relay which switches the power supply of external display

ON/OFF and is controlled by the main processing unit.

• To differentiate between normal head tilting in all directions and the tilt of head

during drowsy and fatigued state

We devised an algorithm by which main processing unit first learns about the

mean(normal) position of the driver and estimates the deviation from the mean

position to differentiate if driver is in a normal or sleepy state.

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Results

• Successful Results and Conclusions :

The closing of eyes for more than a certain time during drowsy state was differentiated from normal eye blinking of the driver. On detecting abnormal eye blinking, the driver and the other near-by vehicles were alerted.

Head tilting was properly monitored and continuous tilting during sleepy state was differentiated from normal head movements.

Alcoholic state of the driver was properly monitored and differentiated from normal breath. On detecting alcoholic, the driver and the other near-by vehicles were alerted as well as an SMS was sent to the next of kin about driver’s state. In this case, driver is not given the liberty of putting the display and alarm off.

• Comparison with previous implementations :

The prevention kit is much less complicated in terms of working, power consumption, processing and cost.

The prevention unit is easier to be adapted by the driver as the sensors used are much lighter and smaller, hence it does not interfere in the normal conditions.

The prevention unit not only detects the abnormal driver state, but also informs the next of kin of such situation.

The prevention unit also alerts the near by vehicles to avoid any collision and reduces the possibility of accidents.

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• RAPU is ideally applicable in the following (beyond road accidents also) :

Automobiles, if driver CAN WEAR the kit

Pilots of airplanes who are bound to wear a helmet, this device can be interfaced

easily.

Security Guard Cabins.

Operators at nuclear power plants where continuous monitoring of the situation is

necessary.

Military application where round-the-clock monitoring of soldier is needed at check

posts, etc.

• Non ideal scenarios where RAPU may not be well suited :

If the prevention kit CANNOT BE worn by the driver/person to be monitored.

Calibration of eye blink sensor is disturbed by abnormal ambient lighting condition,

i.e., by any unexpected alien source of light.

A ubiquitous module

with a plethora of

applications

Conclusions and future work Benefits in a nutshell :

The prevention kit is easily adaptable for drivers/pilots and can help prevent

loss of life and money to a great extent.

Traffic management can be maintained by reducing accidents and traffic jams

can be avoided.

Rather than informing after any mishap, RAPU lets the next of kin of the

concerned person know about his/her condition prior to any mishap.

Future Scope :

We plan to include a GPS module so that the exact location of the person in

problem can also be sent in the message sent to his relative/friend.

Automatic braking system (to slow down the speed of car) or lock down of

car (in case of alcoholic state) can also be implemented to improve the

efficiency of RAPU

We also plan to monitor the pulse rate of the driver to observe any sudden

change so that any situation of panic can also be pre-detected.

The positioning of sensors used in the kit can be made better so that minimum

possible interference is made to the driver.

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References

• Accident Prevention “Using Eye Blinking and Head Movement”, by Abhi R. Varma, Chetna Bharti and Seema V. Arote, Proceedings published in International Journal of Computer Applications® (IJCA), Emerging Trends in Computer Science and Information Technology -2012(ETCSIT2012).

• “Head Mounted Input Device using MEMS Sensors”, by Anbarasu V (Research scholar, Sathyabama University) and Dr. T. Ravi (Professor & Head, Dept of CSE, KCG College of Technology), Proceedings Published in Indian Journal of Computer Science and Engineering (IJCSE)

• “Accident Avoidance and Prevention on Highways” S.P Bhumkar, V.V Deotare, R.V Babar , Singhad Institute of Technology, Lonavala, Processidings published in International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT Vol. 3, Issue 2, 2012)

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