SBIR-STTR Award

Driver Fatigue, Distraction, and Alerting Technology
Award last edited on: 8/28/2020

Sponsored Program
SBIR
Awarding Agency
DOT
Total Award Amount
$849,100
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
06FM1
Principal Investigator
Michael Mollenhauer

Company Information

Transecurity LLC

2200 Kraft Drive Suite 1000
Blacksburg, VA 24060
   (970) 227-3373
   N/A
   N/A
Location: Single
Congr. District: 09
County: Montgomery

Phase I

Contract Number: DTRT57-08-C-10046
Start Date: 00/00/00    Completed: 00/00/00
Phase I year
2008
Phase I Amount
$99,369
Transecurity is a company whose mission is to commercialize technology developed at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. VTTI researchers and engineers have made significant breakthroughs in driver monitoring, crash risk assessment, and crash avoidance technology including drowsy driver monitoring and warning systems. Technical solutions under development include machine vision-based lane tracker, PERCLOSE monitor, forward near-crash detector, driver behavior monitors and models that integrate multiple measures to maximize algorithm effectiveness. Despite substantial developments in drowisiness detection, a robust and affordable commercial product has yet to achieve sufficient market penetration to impact the driver drowsiness problem. We believe existing systems suffer from one or more of the following problems; high cost, obtrusiveness, operatinal limitations, robustness in the trucking domain, and a lack of general effectiveness or driver acceptance. We propse an approach that addresses each of these issues. VTTI data sets, research products, and sophisticated statistical methods will be used to create and validate a multi-variable drowsy driver detection algorithm. The algorithm will be integrated into an in-vehicle driver monitor and data acquisition system appropriate for use in trucking environments. Finally, a complete technical specificatin for both hardware and software required to support the creation of a fatigue monitoring and alerting system.

Phase II

Contract Number: DTRT57-10-C-10045
Start Date: 00/00/00    Completed: 00/00/00
Phase II year
2010
Phase II Amount
$749,731
Transecurity successfully developed a multi-variable drowsy driver mitigation system (DDMS) concept in their SBIR Phase I project. This system combines together many indicators of drowsiness and alertness into a composite drowsiness score. Advisory and warning messages are presented to the driver and supplemental notifications to fleet management are also supported. This Phase II proposal provides a work plan for completing the development and commercialization of the system. The required tasks include machine vision eye and head tracking software development, continued algorithm development to detect behaviors of interest and combine them into a composite drowsiness score, development of an appropriate human machine interface, porting of algorithm and display software to run on Transecurity’s DriveVision pro on-board safety system, modifying Transecurity’s DriveMetrix software to include the drowsiness data into the immediate supervisor notification, driver risk scoring, and driver coaching functionalities, and testing the system in a sizable field operational test involving several real operating carriers. The impact of the DDMS on fleet management, safety supervisors, and drivers will also be assessed and reported.