“SMART SPEED WARNING SYSTEM” to save lives on Roads

Researchers at different Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) including IIT Guwahati and Bombay are working on development of a first-of-its kind “smart speed warning system” for vehicles which will alert the driver based on road infrastructure and geographical location to avoid over-speeding related crashes. The researchers, who are in process of filing a patent for the system, claim that such a system is not available anywhere across the globe.

According to statistics available with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, about 70 per cent of road fatalities in India occur due to over-speeding. To minimise such fatalities, the government had mandated that all new cars sold from July 1, 2019, should include a speed governor device that will generate intermittent warning beeps for above 80 kmph and the constant beep for above 120 kmph for drivers. But that did not work.

However, the researchers at IIT Guwahati and Bombay believe the current speed governing device is a “one size fits all” solution and does not have much intelligence and the same system cannot effectively work while driving in hilly terrains, plains or desert areas.

Studies revealed the safe speed for a vehicle can significantly vary with changes in road geometry like on sharp or blind curves or hairpin bends.Therefore, there is a need to develop a smart speed warning system incorporating a dynamic and adaptable speed threshold based on upcoming road infrastructure to avoid over speeding-related crashes,” Akhilesh Kumar Maurya, Civil Engineering Professor at IIT Guwahati.

Traditional warning systems are based on the fixed speed threshold; however, the concept of a smart warning system is based on upcoming road infrastructure and vehicle location. On approaching curves along a roadway, including blind curves or hairpin bends, vehicles equipped with such a system will warn drivers in advance, which will allow drivers to adopt corrective actions and avoid accidents, he added.

According to the team, an algorithm for the smart speed warning system was developed based on the field data collected from a 45 km stretch of four-lane highway (NH-40) between Jorabat in Assam and Nongpoh in Meghalaya, consisting of 285 horizontal curves. The study section covered a broader range of road geometry (curve radius ranges from 20-800m, curve length varies from 30-244 m and gradient varied from seven per cent to nine per cent. The team plans to conduct similar pilot studies at different highways across the country to get an idea of different geographical locations and present the model ultimately to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

During the pilot studies of speed prediction model development, the researchers came up with car speed model and HCV and LCV speed models. According to Avijit Maji, Associate Professor at IIT Bombay’s Civil Engineering department, researchers have used operating speed of vehicles as one of the surrogate measures for safety evaluation of horizontal curves.

Source: Himalayan News Chronicle