A team comprising participants from the Chalapathi Institute of Technology, IIIT Nuzvid and IIT Bombay was adjudged the winner at the national-level hackathon organised by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M).
Team Safety Guardians secured the first position in the national-level contest for developing a bike safety enhancement system designed to detect potential crash if a vehicle falls. The system sends an alert through phone.
The safety system designed by Team Safety Guardians for two-wheelers uses inertial management units to determine rash driving and generate an alert.
Earlier this year, IIT-M’s Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS) had launched the hackathon for college students and young professionals. Participants were required to develop (India-specific) advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) solutions.
Of the 47 teams that participated from across the country, six qualified for the finale. The teams showed their products in a live demonstration.
Team Safety Sentinels of IIT Roorkee secured the first runner-up position for developing a real-time lane departure warning system to help identify the vehicles not following lane discipline. The system helps to identify lanes with faded or no markings.
Tons of Tech from Prince Shri Venkateshwara Engineering College, the second runner-up, developed a radio-based system to determine the location and direction of first responders, including ambulances, using specific radio bands, and relay them to a master system that would, subsequently, adjust traffic signals suitable on the route.
The key outcomes of the hackathon include the identification of key areas in vehicle systems requiring automated intervention, and inculcating and nurturing co-creation ecosystem for the design and development of ADAS to reduce human errors while driving.
Institute Director V. Kamakoti said, “The hackathon is a great starting point. Indian traffic conditions will give us a lot more challenges and insights, and solving them will provide solutions for the majority of the world.”
Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Head of CoERS and professor in the Engineering Design Department at the Institute, who led the initiative, said the hackathon was aimed at identifying young talents, present them with challenges and see how they can be trained to develop products that could potentially save lives.
In 2021, India recorded 4,12,432 crashes, resulting in 1,53,972 fatalities and 3,84,448 injuries. According to an analysis of the 2016 motorised vehicles accident data, driver error accounted for 84% of the crashes.
