Harita, IITM develop Intelliseat to detect driver fatigue
In order to reduce road accidents due to drive fatigue, Harita Seating Systems Limited (HSSL), along with Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM), has developed ‘Intelliseat’, an Internet of Things (IoT) device that monitors the performance and behaviour of the driver. To develop the new seat, HSSL had joined hands with IITM 2 years ago. Intelliseat operates independently and can be used for in-vehicle information of status as well as help a central tracking by fleet owners. It can also be used for driver training and fleet risk evaluation, which would eventually have a bearing on the overall fleet insurance and ownership cost.
HSSL develops seats for trucks and tractors. The improvement of automotive seating system, particularly for the driver, has been a priority interest since many years as professional drivers spend most of their time there and feel more fatigue than passengers. On an average, a truck is driven for 10 hours a day. Sometimes the drivers tend to drive continuously and this causes fatigue and leads to accident. Therefore the Intelliseat is developed, as a performance monitoring tool, that will detect fatigue in driving and will subsequently warn the driver. This, in turn, may help reduce the number of accidents, AG Giridharan, President, HSSL, said. Intelliseat was developed at the Rehabilitation Bioengineering Group, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras. Prof. Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras, said, that it took nearly 2 years to develop it. A team from Harita and IIT Madras translated the conceptual work in the lab to a viable solution that can be used in vehicles today. This system will make roads safer and also have an impact on driver benchmarking/ training and fleet insurance. The system is developed to operate independently and can be used for in-vehicle information of status as well as help a central tracking by fleet owners. It can also be used for driver training and fleet risk evaluation. The system starts functioning as soon as the driver is seated, as the sensors are calibrated. The sensors also detect and sends a warning signal if there is a movement in the seating position of the driver. When the sensor senses a minor fatigue, the driver is notified with a red signal that will appear on the dashboard. When it senses a moderate fatigue, an audio alert is given
and if the situation goes out of control and the driver is close to dozing off, a vibration effect will alert the driver to stop.
Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras said, “IIT Madras is pleased to be associated with HSSL in this critical area of research and development. India has an unconscionably high rate of traffic accidents, and technologies that can reduce accidents due to driver fatigue are sorely needed.”
Intelliseat is tested in South India and will soon be tested in other parts of the country. The company said that driver fatigue may be defined as decline in driver’s performance. A driver’s performance and behaviour is greatly influenced by physical and cognitive factors. Its contribution to individual cases is hard to measure post-facto and therefore is often difficult to conclusively ascertain the cause of a crash. Therefore it is important to know about the driver behaviour, fatigue, and performance to give appropriate interventions to avoid road accidents.
C N Prasad, Director, HSSL said, “It has always been the endeavour of Harita Seating to develop costeffective technologies, which are relevant to the immediate Indian context. The joint development opportunity with IIT Madras for the Intelliseat showcases the results of such an endeavour. I do hope this innovation leads to safer roads and reduced risk of accidents due to driver fatigue.”
HSSL supplies seats to Ashok Leyland, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, John Deere, M&M, Mercedes-Benz Buses, AMW, New Holland, TAFE, Tata Motors Marcopolo Ltd and Tata Motors. It has 6 plants in India, including the mother plant in Hosur, The other plants are in Pune, Jamshedpur, Dharwad, Chennai and Pantnagar.
According to the National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB, 2016) report, there were about 464,674 cases of road accidents reported in India in 2015. In these, about 482,389 persons were injured and 148,797 died. On conducting a detailed study of accidents over a period, researchers have attributed more than 40% (some have even suggested as high as 85%) of such deaths to human error or driver fatigue. The Harita Intelliseat should be able to bring down the number of such accidents.