S. Vishnu Sharma
IIT Madras COERS has successfully concluded Road Safety Hackathon 2023 aimed at developing India-specific Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) solutions.
Support
The Hackathon was organised with support from HL Mando Anand India Limited and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, say sources from IIT Madras COERS.
It commenced in early 2023 with 47 teams as initial participants. After multiple rounds of evaluation by academia and industry experts, six teams could qualify for the finale.
Imperative
The imperative behind the initiative was rooted in the alarming statistics of road traffic crashes in 2021, which recorded 4,12,432 crashes, resulting in 1,53,972 fatalities and 3,84,448 injuries.
Driver error accounted for a significant 84% of crashes (80.3% of fatalities, and 83.9% of injuries) in motorized vehicles in 2016. Despite ongoing efforts by stakeholders to mitigate accidents, the numbers persistently rise each year, say sources from IIT Madras COERS.
Importance
While safer roads have been designed, the importance of developing safer vehicles remains paramount.
Advent of several active and passive safety features have greatly contributed to the reduction in fatalities and crashes, say sources from IIT Madras COERS.
However, increase in traffic volumes, and risky driving behaviour of drivers continue to pose a challenge in reducing the accidents, say sources from IIT Madras COERS.
ADAS
With the advent of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), numerous new safety technologies namely adaptive cruise control, attention monitoring system, collision mitigating system, parking assist etc., have reduced the impact of the crash, say sources from IIT Madras COERS.
In India, the adoption of such technology requires study of road user behaviour (driver and pedestrians) and vehicle control features that can be monitored/influenced towards developing products to improve road safety.
The Hackathon was devised for college students and young professionals to participate and contribute towards developing safer automobile products, say sources from IIT Madras COERS.
Various projects such as a smart helmet, a LiDAR-based Lane discipline system, sensor-based safety systems for hilly regions and, two-wheeler safety systems were developed and showcased during the finals at IIT Madras.
Prize Winners
The first prize was awarded to Team Safety Guardians from Chalapathi Institute of Technology, IIIT Nuzvid, and IIT Bombay for Bike Safety Enhancement System, say sources from IIT Madras COERS.
They presented a safety system for two-wheelers that utilised IMU to determine rash driving and generate an alert.
The system is also designed to detect a potential crash if the vehicle falls and sends an alert using a phone, say sources from IIT Madras COERS.
Runner-up Prize
The first runner up prize was awarded to Team Safety Sentinels from IIT Roorkee for Real Time Lane Departure Warning System, say sources from IIT Madras COERS
They presented a LiDAR-based system that would identify when a vehicle is not following lane discipline on the roads.
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Their system is improved to identify lanes in situations where lane markings have faded or are absent, say sources from IIT Madras COERS.
The second runner up prize was awarded to Team Tons of Tech from Prince Shri Venkateshwara Engineering College for Assistance for First Responders.
They demonstrated a connected radio-based system that would determine the location and direction of first responders such as ambulances using specific radio bands and relay them to a master system which would then adjust traffic signals suitably on the route, say sources from IIT Madras COERS.
The system aims to enable for first responders to reach their destinations on time, say IIT Madras COERS.
Initiatives
This Hackathon is the inaugural event in a series of initiatives by IIT Madras COERS, aiming to foster an ecosystem in road safety by engaging students, young professionals, and forging government and industrial partnerships.
Through this Hackathon, IIT Madras CoERS aims to foster a co-creation ecosystem in road safety by engaging students and young professionals, to forge Government, academia and industrial partnership.
Local Relevance
Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, at IIT Madras, they focus on solving problems in our local areas as we believe that local relevance will bring us global excellence.
India stands out because our entrepreneurs look out to solve social problems. I am sure this hackathon would have given the participants great insights into solving practical problems, he said.
With more and more electronic components being integrated into vehicles, we will see a lot more development in these components, specifically from a safety point of view.
This hackathon is a great starting point. Indian traffic conditions will give us a lot more challenges and insights and solving them will provide us with solutions for a majority of the world.
I hope for the participants to become entrepreneurs to solve problems for India, said director of IIT Madras.
Key outcomes
The key outcomes targeted from this hackathon include:
Ø Identification of key areas in vehicle systems that require automated intervention.
Ø Inculcate and nurture co-creation ecosystem for the design and development of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to reduce human errors while driving.
About IIT Madras COERS
IIT Madras COERS is funded by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Government of India to improve road safety through evidence-based, integrated approach.
CoERS works on various aspects of human factors engineering, road engineering and vehicle engineering to bring about significant improvements in road safety globally.
IIT Madras COERS also advices various stakeholders and Governments to bring about a data-driven systems approach to road safety.