Driver Fatigue Management System using Embedded ECG Sensor

Abstract — During recent years, various studies have suggested that around 20 % of all road accidents are fatigue-related and up to 50 % on certain roads. In this scenario, preventing accidents under drowsiness state has become a major focus for active safety driving. To reduce the accidents rate, it is needed to provide an efficient safety measure. Literature says that, the drowsiness condition of driver can be best monitored by using an eye blink sensor (or) fabric electrode (or) ECG Sensor. But by monitoring the drowsiness condition alone, the accidents cannot be avoided, unless vehicle speed is controlled. To overcome this problem, the proposed hardware system implemented with ECG electrode and PIC microcontroller measures the heart function of the driver and it compares that with stored ECG signal for drowsy state. For that the electrode is fixed in the right hand and left hand of the driver. If the system identifies that the driver is in drowsy state, it follows the sequence of operation like alters the driver by a buzzer, sends a warning signal to the control room, monitor and control the speed of the vehicle by cutting the fuel supply to the engine. In addition to that, the LED fixed at the backside of vehicle alerts the rear vehicles to reduce its speed. The proposed idea is developed as hardware model using PIC microcontroller and the results obtained are discussed