Description:PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION:
[0001] The following specification particularly describes the invention, and the manner in which it has to be performed:

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Technical field of the invention

[0002] The present invention relates to field of safety measures in electric vehicles, in particular to an automatic system to control electric vehicle speed based on helmet detection.
Background of the invention
[0003] Electric vehicles such as electric scooters or electric two-wheeler vehicles derive power from the battery and the vehicle speed controllers regulate the flow of power from the battery to the motor, thus enabling in determination of the vehicle’s performance capabilities. The electric two-wheeler vehicles use accelerator to increase or decrease the speed of the vehicle. Controlling the speed of the vehicle is highly important to ensure the safety of the rider and passenger and nearby vehicles on the road. Apart from the riders, the government has imposed certain rules and regulations to ensure the safety of everyone on road.
[0004] In order to improve the safety features of the electric two-wheeler vehicles, use of helmet during riding the vehicles is highly important. Helmets are useful as safety gear to prevent injuries in an uncontrolled environment and can prevent or minimize injury to the head and brain in case of accidents. Also, cameras that are installed at the traffic signals monitor the traffic on road and send feeds to the traffic department about traffic violations which includes data pertaining to riders who are not wearing helmets. Although the rider without a helmet is fined by the government through traffic police or through the digital feed for violation, and the riders are at significantly increased risk of severe head trauma, coma, and death. Additionally, in adverse situations such as accidents, there is no safety features offered by the existing systems, as it only captures the information pertaining to the rider not wearing a helmet.
[0005] In order to overcome the drawbacks of the existing systems, several technologies were developed over the decades to ensure safety on everyone on the road.
[0006] The Patent Application No. CN112699742A entitled “Method for detecting helmet wearing of passenger on powered riding vehicle” discloses a method for detecting helmet wearing of a passenger on a powered riding vehicle, which comprises the following steps of: acquiring a video image, identifying two/three vehicles from the video image, detecting human body characteristics of the passenger on the two/three vehicles, acquiring head characteristics of a human body from the human body characteristics, and identifying the head characteristics of the passenger on the powered riding vehicle; judging whether the head of the human body wears a helmet or not according to the head characteristics of the human body, if not, acquiring a face image from the head characteristics of the human body, and extracting the face image; wherein the method further comprises the following steps: acquiring a thermal imaging video image of an area corresponding to the video image, extracting a frame of thermal imaging image consistent with the image from the thermal imaging video image, and identifying whether the head of a human body wears the helmet or not from the thermal imaging image according to the thermal imaging characteristics of the helmet; therefore, the accuracy of helmet wearing detection is improved, and the user experience is further improved.
[0007] The Patent Application No. CN101870265B entitled “Electric vehicle speed-regulating device and control method thereof” discloses an electric vehicle speed-regulating device and a control method thereof, where the device is characterized in that a pressure sensor is connected with an electric vehicle controller the control unit of which is formed by using a single-chip as a core; the pressure sensor is horizontally installed between the spongy cushion and the protecting surface of an electric vehicle driving seat, and the output end thereof is connected with the input end of the control unit in the electric vehicle controller. The control method thereof is characterized in that whether a driver sits on the driving seat or not is detected through the pressure sensor; when an electric vehicle is pushed, a rotating handle is rotated to regulate the speed within a low speed range; in the normal driving process of the electric vehicle, when the electric vehicle is braked and stopped, the body leaves the driving seat of the electric vehicle, and the rotating handle is not loosened; and when the rotating handle is loosened, the speed of the electric vehicle is still zero. The invention improves the braking safety of the electric vehicle when encountering an emergency in driving and overcomes the potential safety hazard brought by the speed of the electric vehicle exceeding the walking speed of a person when the person pushes the electric vehicle to walk with speed by rotating the rotating handle.
[0008] The Patent Application No. WO2016206693A1 entitled “A helmet wearing encouraging and/or controlling system and a method of encouraging and/or controlling use of a helmet when riding a vehicle” discloses a helmet wearing encouraging system comprising an electronic helmet component and an electronic vehicle component in wireless communication with each other. The electronic helmet component includes at least a helmet motion sensor and the electronic vehicle component includes at least a vehicle motion sensor. A helmet receiver member of the electronic helmet component is adapted to receive a vehicle motion signal from a vehicle transmitter member of the electronic vehicle component when the vehicle motion sensor detects motion of the vehicle, and/or a helmet motion signal from a helmet transmitter member when the helmet motion sensor detects motion of the helmet component, and/or a vehicle receiver member of the electronic vehicle component is adapted to receive a vehicle motion signal from a vehicle transmitter member of the electronic vehicle component when the vehicle motion sensor detects motion of the vehicle, and/or a helmet motion signal from a helmet transmitter member when the helmet motion sensor detects motion of the helmet component.
[0009] The Patent Application No. WO2016187973A1 entitled “Intelligent riding helmet” discloses an intelligent riding helmet comprising a helmet body, where the helmet body is provided with an intelligent device. The intelligent device comprises a camera unit for shooting and image taking, a processor for controlling the camera unit in working and in signal connection with the camera unit, and a control module in signal connection with the processor to send a control signal to the processor. The intelligent riding helmet is integrated with the camera unit and controlled through the control module to be easy to use and control.
[0010] There are numerous drawbacks in the prior arts and existing systems, where the prior arts provide the methods for detection of helmet and use of camera to encourage manual interception by the traffic police, but does not prevent the accidents caused due to the speed of the vehicle resulting in grave injuries or loss of life. Thus, in order to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art, there is a need for a system to identify the helmet on the rider, and in case of absence of helmet on the rider, automatically reduce the speed of the vehicle to safe limits to prevent loss of life due to accident.
Summary of the invention
[0011] The present invention discloses an automatic speed control system in electric vehicles that detects and verifies the absence of helmet on the rider of the vehicle and automatically reduces the speed of the vehicle to safe limit. The system comprises an Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) having an image capturing device such as a camera and an image processing module, a telematics control unit comprising an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) and an (Internet of Things) IoT device, connected through Controlled Area Network (CAN) bus.
[0012] The automatic speed control system discloses an image capturing device integrated in the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) of the electric two-wheeler to capture the images of the rider in the vicinity of the user. The Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) further processes the captured image through the image processing module that uses artificial intelligence techniques to detect the absence of helmet in the captured image.
[0013] According to the present invention, in case of absence of the helmet in the captured image, the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) sends a signal alert to the telematics control unit using the Controlled Area Network (CAN) communication protocol, where the electronic control unit of the telematics control unit automatically reduces the speed of the vehicle to safe limit based on the regulatory guidelines provided by the government. The IoT device directs the telematics cloud to store the details of absence of helmet and the captured image along with time stamp.
[0014] The advantage of the present invention is the automatic speed control system facilitates automatic reduction in the speed of the vehicle when the rider of the vehicle in the vicinity is not wearing helmet, thus ensuring safety of the riders without helmet in the vicinity of the user.
Brief description of the drawings
[0015] The foregoing and other features of embodiments will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like elements.
[0016] Figure 1 is the schematic representation of the automatic speed control system.
Detailed description of the invention
[0017] Reference will now be made in detail to the description of the present subject matter, which are shown in figures. Various changes and modifications obvious to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains are deemed to be within the spirit, scope and contemplation of the invention.
[0018] The present invention discloses an automatic speed control system in electric vehicles wherein when the user riding the electric vehicle has a rider in the vicinity travelling without helmet, the system automatically reduces the speed of the user’s electric vehicle to the safe limits.
[0019] Figure 1 is the schematic representation of the automatic speed control system. The automatic speed control system (100) discloses a camera (101) with appropriate resolution, integrated in an Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) to capture the image of the rider in the vicinity of the user’s electric vehicle. The image capturing device (101) such as a camera captures the image of the rider, and is processed in the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102). The image processing module of the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) processes the captured image using an image processing module having artificial intelligence-based algorithm to detect and verify the absence of helmet.
[0020] According to the present invention, in case of absence of the helmet in the captured image, the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) sends a signal alert to the telematics control unit (104) with the help of the Controlled Area Network (CAN) Bus (103). The telematics control unit (104) comprises of the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (105) and the IoT device (106) and the telematics control unit (104) is a part of the electric two-wheeler vehicle.
[0021] The Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (105) receives the signal from the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102), relaying the information about the absence of helmet in the captured image. The Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (105) automatically reduces the speed of the vehicle to safe limit as set by the regulatory guidelines provided by the government. The IoT device (106) also receives the signal from the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102), where the IoT device (106) directs the telematics cloud (107) to store the rider behavior data. The telematics cloud (107) stores the rider behavior data on the cloud provided by a third-party cloud service provider.
[0022] According to the present invention, the method used to control the speed of the electric vehicle based on helmet detection comprises the steps of capturing the image of the rider in the vicinity of the user through the image capturing device (101) such as camera integrated in the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) of the electric two-wheeler vehicle, where the image processing module in the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) processes the captured image using artificial intelligence based algorithm to detect and verify the absence of the helmet. In case of absence of the helmet in the captured image, the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) sends the appropriate signal to the telematics control unit (104) through the Controlled Area Network (CAN) Bus (103), where the Electronic Control Unit (105) reduces the speed of the vehicle to the regulated speed set by the road transport office for safe driving without a helmet. The IoT device (106) also located in the telematics control unit (104) receives the signal from the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) and it directs the telematics cloud (107) via wireless network to record the data of the rider behavior in the telematics cloud (107) with time stamps.
[0023] An additional embodiment of the present invention discloses the use of various processing capabilities such as Electronic Control Unit (ECU), IoT or other telematics devices, to process the images captured by an image capturing device (101).
[0024] There are several advantages of the present invention, where the main advantage being automatic reduction in the speed of the vehicle when the rider of the vehicle in the vicinity is not wearing helmet, ensure there is no loss of human life caused due to electric vehicle. Further, the system facilitates averting the unforeseen accidents by limiting the speed of the vehicle if the rider is not wearing a helmet.
Reference numbers
Components Reference Numbers
Automatic speed control system 100
Image capturing device 101
Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) 102
Controlled Area Network (CAN) Bus 103
Telematics control unit 104
Electronic Control Unit (ECU) 105
IoT (Internet of Things) device 106
Telematics Cloud 107
, Claims: Claims
We Claim:
1. An automatic speed control system (100) for electric vehicle, the system (100) comprises:
a. an image capturing device (101) integrated in the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) with Artificial Intelligence technology, where the image capturing device (101) captures the image of the rider in the vicinity of the user;
b. an image processing module of the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) to process the captured image based on helmet detection;
c. Controlled Area Network (CAN) bus (103) to transmit the signal from the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) to a telematics control unit (104), wherein the telematics control unit (104) comprises an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (105) to control the speed of the electric vehicle and an IoT device (106) to signal the telematics cloud (107) directing it to save the rider behavior data with timestamps; and
d. Controlled Area Network (CAN) bus (103) to transmit the signal from the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) to the telematics control unit (104).
2. The system (100) as claimed in the claim 1 wherein, the image processing module of the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) processes the captured using artificial intelligence technology based on helmet detection, where the image processing module detects and verifies the absence of helmet.
3. The system (100) as claimed in the claim 2 wherein, the image processing module of the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) sends a signal alert to the telematics control unit (104) with the help of the Controlled Area Network (CAN) Bus (103).
4. The system (100) as claimed in the claim 3 wherein, the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (105) receives the signal from the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) about absence of helmet in the captured image, where the ECU (105) automatically reduces the speed of the electric vehicle to safe limit as set by the regulatory guidelines provided by the government.
5. The system (100) as claimed in the claim 3 wherein, the IoT device (106) receives the signal from the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102), where the IoT device (106) directs the telematics cloud (107) through wireless signal to store the rider behavior data with timestamps.
6. The system (100) as claimed in the claim 1 wherein, the method of controlling the speed of the electric vehicle based on the helmet detection comprises the steps of:
a. capturing the image of the rider in the vicinity of the user by the image capturing device (101);
b. processing the captured image by the image processing module to verify the absence of the helmet, wherein the absence of the helmet prompts the Instrument Cluster Panel (ICP) (102) to send an appropriate signal to the telematics control unit (104) through the Controlled Area Network (CAN) Bus (103); and
c. reducing the speed of the vehicle to the safe limit set by the road transport office for safe driving without a helmet by the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (105).