DRIVER FATIGUE DETECTION USING STEERING GRIP FORCE

PROJECT GUIDE: Prof.,Dr., K.BHOOPATHYBAGAN,

Head of the department, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, MIT.

By : VIGNESH.T THIVAKAR.N CHANDRASEKAR.V

Contents

Objective Terminology Need Existing Technologies Why steer grip force? Preamble Block diagram Proposed Methodology Fore coming plans

Objective
To develop a novel technique for detecting Automobile Driver fatigue by monitoring the drivers grip force on the steering wheel.

Terminology
Driver fatigue: Loosing alertness by the driver due to long distance as well as night journeys. Steering Grip Force: The force exerted by the driver on the steering wheel while travelling, which may vary depending on his consciousness.

Need
Driver fatigue has long been identified as one of the major causes of road accident.It was found that fatigue or drowsiness of the driver caused 30% of accidents in Indian Highways in the period 2003-2008.

Existing Technologies
Several methods have been used for In-Vehicle Real time fatigue detection like,
Vehicle based methods: Driver alertness detection from driving pattern such as lane deviation. Driver based methods: Monitoring physiological signs of the driver such as ocular activity using video based system.

Why Steer Grip Method?

All the existing techniques requires high computing power due to the need to process the video in real time, thus preventing them to be produced in affordable cost. However this proposed technique provides a more economical solution of monitoring drivers grip force.

Preamble

Steering grip force diminishes when driver is loosing alertness as the drivers muscles are becoming highly relaxed. No absolute steering grip force value to indicate the onset of fatigue. Threshold based detection should not be used. Here Change Detection Algorithm is used to detect significant drop in grip force implying the onset of fatigue.

Block Diagram
External Data Acquisition Module

Computer running data Acquisition Software

Sensor Drive circuit & Anti Aliasing Filter

2 X Flexi force sensor

Computer running driver Simulation Software

STEERING WHEEL

Proposed Methodology

Pair of resistive force sensors positioned on the surface of steering. Resistance vary depending on force. Sensors connected to drive circuit for resistance to voltage conversion. Aliasing prevention by low pass filtering. USB external data acquisition module to digitize the signal.

Fore coming Plans

To study about cumulative sum (CUSUM) algorithm for finding the sum of Log Likelihood Ratio which is used as the Change detection algorithm. To carry out the collection of desiderata for the project and programming for detection. Hardware implementation with software impregnation.

References

Hartley, L., Horberry, T., and Mabbott, N., Review of Fatigue Detection and Prediction Technologies.

Basseville, M, and Nikiforov, I. V., Detection of abrupt changes: Theory and Application.