Control Engineering

Paul Grayson

War and Peace
February 4, 2008

Hushe Community School under construction in northern Pakistan near K-2 the world's second-highest mountain - Image courtesy Greg Mortenson.

EDUCATION KEY TO ENDING TERRORISM
It seems too simple to be true, but it is much like the formula for fighting a fire.  Fires take fuel, oxygen, and a source of ignition to produce the chemical reaction we recognize as fire.  Remove any of the three from the fire triangle or interfere with the chemical reaction and the fire goes out.   Knowing this creates a great number of strategies for fighting fires   Personally I like the introduction of 6% Halon into the fire's oxygen supply.  It interferes with the the chemical reaction and the fire goes out.  Even better is preventing the fire in the first place, by not allowing the combination of conditions required for a fire to start.

In the case of the war on terrorism, from firsthand experience, Greg Mortenson has discovered that by building secular schools and helping promote education - particularly for girls - in the world's most volatile war zone, support for the Taliban and other extremist sects eventually will dry up. (Kevin Fedarko  parade.com)  "but nothing will change until the girls are educated.  They are the ones who remain at home.  They are the ones who instill the values.  Educating the girls is a log-term solution to the war on poverty, and that will have a big impact on the war on terrorism." -- Greg Mortenson. http://ikat.org/

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE AIM SHOP
Looking at what civilian use of the self-driving vehicle technology being developed for the US armed forces might be able to prevent, the 2005 figures for Michigan are in.  (Michigan State Police Criminal Justice Information Center)
Traffic deaths in Michigan were 1,129 in 2005.
Overall traffic crashes were 350,838 in 2005.
Injuries were 90,510 in 2005.
Alcohol and/or drug involved fatalities were 408 in 2005.
Deer-vehicle crashes were 58,741 in 2005.
Motorcycle fatalities were 122 in 2005.
The  number of crashes involving young drivers (ages 16 - 20) was 44,968 in 2005.
Pedestrian crashes were 2,565 in 2005. 
The number of pedestrians killed was 139 in 2005.
Motorcycle crashes was 3,504 in 2005.   

Multiply these numbers by fifty states and it gives a rough indication of the national figures.

How important is it to the people of Michigan would it be to prevent 350,838 crashes and the pain and suffering associated with each of those?  This is a significant health issue for Michigan automation and control engineers to address.   Check out the figures for your state and see what affect you could have on your own states figures.  Figures by state are a little bit more personal than national figures, literally closer to home.  

FINDING A CURE
Looking at the traffic fatalities and the DOT's hope for the self-driving system, in the 0 to 49 years old age groups, the numbers indicate that curing the cause of traffic fatalities is a more important public health issue than finding a cure for cancer - just to put some perspective on the project.  As for the impact on society, the people in these age groups were the ones that otherwise had the most years ahead of them. 

As an engineer, I see no engineering reason for not solving this problem today.  The technology appears to be here and merely needs to be applied.  The parts to do this appear to be in the normal price range for machine building - nothing terribly exotic required.  There is no shortage of people willing to work on solving this problem, especially here in Michigan where a large portion of the workforce has been idled.  


DOT Report on Lane Departure Warning Systems (LDWS)

A STARTING POINT
There are some easy places to begin - nearly all crashes start with a vehicle leaving its lane.  Here are some systems from the 2005 report that are on the market: 

AssistWare Technology  –  The “SafeTRAC Drowsy Driver Warning System” includes a digital camera and an image processing/user display unit. The user display contains an alphanumeric/graphical display to indicate vehicle position in the lane and to provide an alertness measure that indicates a driver’s consistency in maintaining a vehicle’s position within the lane. The system includes an audible lane departure warning and ability to control vibrating (haptic) seats as an auxiliary warning device. The system’s warning thresholds and warning volume are adjustable. The system detects visual lane markings and can estimate some lane boundaries when visual lane markings are not present. The system is available as either a factory-installed or an aftermarket system.  -- 2005 DOT report.  Note: AssistWare was awarded a $3 million DOT contract in 2006 and recently was bought out by machine vision company COGNEX.  

Delphi Electronics and Safety  – The “Delphi Lane Departure Warning System” can be installed by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) or aftermarket consumers on passenger cars and large commercial vehicles. The Delphi LDWS includes a forward-looking camera, image-processing unit, and human machine interface (HMI), such as a graphical driver display. Functionally, the system is a combination of three distinct parts. The Lane Detection and Tracking Subsystem (LDTS) detects and tracks the lane boundaries. Results of this process are passed to the Warning Subsystem, which determines if and when a lane departure warning should be issued. Warning requests are sent to the HMI Subsystem, which provides the alerts to the driver. The system has a visual directional warning and an audible alert signal whose particular sound can be customized for OEMs. The system also has the ability to control tactile warnings. The warning threshold can be calibrated (i.e., customized) to satisfy a fleet company's requirement. The system is now in development. It is expected to be released Q3 2005.  -- 2005 DOT report

Iteris –  The “Auto Vue™ Lane Guidance, Lane Departure Warning System” includes a digital camera and an image processing unit. A green light emitting diode (LED) indicates system status; a yellow LED indicates whether the system is tracking the lane. The system has a directional audible lane departure warning and the ability to control haptic seats as an auxiliary warning device. The warning thresholds are not adjustable. The system, which is available for light vehicles and heavy trucks, is typically installed by a vehicle manufacturer and calibrated at the factory for each vehicle model, but can also be installed as an aftermarket system.  -- 2005 DOT report

Mobileye  – The “Mobileye Lane Departure Warning (LDW) System” includes a camera and a processing unit mounted to the center of the windshield and a cell phone-sized alphanumeric/graphic driver display on the dashboard. Two in-cab speakers, one on either side of the vehicle, provide audible directional warnings. The warning volume is adjustable. The system detects visual lane markings and estimates lane boundaries when visual lane markings are not present. The system predicts the time and provides an early warning of lane crossing by measuring lateral vehicle motion. The system can be installed as an aftermarket system, stand-alone, or as an additional feature with headway monitoring.  -- 2005 DOT report

2007 DRPA URBAN CHALLENGE

Track side sights, Team #48 Tartan Racing sponsor.  Photo by AIM Team members Linda and Tom Graham.

GO ROBOTS ! 

Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Racing to build technology that saves soldier's lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 946-0187, (231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@aimagic.org
http://aimagic.org
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/
http://www.controleng.com/index.asp?layout=blog&blog_id=1180000318

Posted by Paul Grayson on February 4, 2008 | Comments (0)