Prof. Manbir Sodhi
University of Rhode Island-Industrial Eng.
103 Gilbreth Hall
Kingston, RI  02881
(401) 874-5189
sodhi@egr.uri.edu
PI

The objectives of this project are:

• To train engineering students in the design of instrumentation for recording a variety of data related to driving performance measures and traffic conditions
  
• To train students on the use of instrumentation developed for collecting information about transportation patterns of individual as well as aggregated drivers, adding to the safety and sustainability of transportation systems.
  
• To disseminiate this engineering design experience and to integrate this with existing capstone design courses in Electrical, Computer, Biomedical and Industrial & Systems Engineering

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Recent developments in data acquisition and sensor capabilities have now made it possible to track intricate biological and dynamic phenomena with accuracy and precision that just a short time ago were at least several orders of magnitude less. This proposal seeks to develop laboratory based learning exercises, sensors, insturments, and software systems for collecting driver and traffic information such as driver eye movements, vehicle performance including lane position, braking patterns, distance from vehicle ahead as well as traffic conditions, etc. These laboratory exercises will involve undergraduate and graduate students in the Electrical Engineering and the Industrial Engineering Departments of the University of Rhode Island.

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12/30/2008

$156,494.00

This learning laboratory will involve both undergraduate and graduate EE and ISE students in several ways. This project will also involve high school students through the SMILE program and through direct contact with local high school students.

This project complements existing work in the ISE and EE departments. The ISE department has an Eye Tracking Laboratory, and several ongoing projects are investigating eye movement patterns involved in the recognition of objects while driving. This learning project will consolidate the knowledge from these projects as laboratory exercises. The EE department has several projects in the design and fabrication of sensors and instrumentation, including capabilities for chip fabrication and FPGA studies. This project will develop exercises focused on driver and traffic condition monitoring using these capabilities.

This project has considerable prospects for technology transfer. SENSATA Technologies is a leader in the global automaotive sensors industry, and is keen on sharing the data and experience of this project in on-road sensing and real time processing for driver and traffic information collection.

The following are the most significant benefits of this project:

a) Training of engineering students in the design and fabrication of sensors for driver and traffic monitoring, leading to advanced sensor design for safer cars.

b) On-Road testing instrumentation will allow explorations of

c) Outreach activities - introducing high schools to advanced topics such as the use of GPS systems, FPGAs and vision sensing and processing.

sensors, instrument modules, biometric sensing, eye tracking