Road and Driver Monitoring System

Abstract

In this work we present a driver and road monitoring system capable of scaling to the number of drivers in any region without incurring the high costs of implementation, thus allowing for safer driving conditions and shorter accident response times. We propose the Smartphone Road Monitoring (SRoM) system that is capable of sensing road artifacts such as potholes and slippery roads. It is also capable of detecting aberrant driver behavior such as speeding and drifting. This system uses both the driver’s smartphone and vehicle as the main source of information. The information is collected through crowdsourcing and processed by a base station giving faster and more accurate responses compared to current systems, to address road safety related events in a timely manner. SRoM aims to accommodate various levels of reporting based on the nature of hardware available to each driver. It also allows pedestrians to share media pertaining to each event. The collected data is made available to the public through an interactive map updated with the authenticated events. Our system also incorporates the use of the vehicle’s On-Board Diagnostic (OBD) device that helps with sensing road safety and vehicle health status. The OBD system acts as a streaming black box which in case of an accident gives Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel a better idea of the victims’ condition and the location of the accident and allows police a more accurate rendition of the events for insurance and litigation purposes. We implemented a prototype of the system including OBD adaptation to perform the task of safety monitoring. System evaluation of the prototype shows that the system can be easily implemented in real-life using current technologies at little cost.