Road Surface Predictor for Accident Aversion of two wheelers is the title of the Invention.

The Applicants for the grant of patent of the above mentioned title include "G.Diwakar, R.S.Gireesh, M.Gnanaprakash, and S.Deepa". The Nationality of all the applicants stated above is "Indian". The Address for correspondence with regard to this patent application is "No. 20, Chengalvarayan Street, Ramalingapuram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and India - 600012". The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

Road Surface Predictor for accident aversion of two wheelers

This invention relates to development of accident aversion mechanisms to be used in early mornings, late nights and especially during rainy days.

There have been several mechanisms to reduce the severity of accidents using airbags in the case of cars, anti-lock braking in the case of cars and two wheelers. But these mechanisms fail to prevent the occurrence of accidents. A research paper published by P.Mondal et al titled "Are Road Accidents Affected by Rainfall? A Case Study from a Large Indian Metropolitan City" estimates that 16.7% of the accidents in India are during wet days. These accidents are mainly due to reduced visibility of the surface of the roads. The field of invention is Sensor Imaging.

These accidents can be avoided using our invention of Road Surface Predictor which would present the preview of the road ahead of us accompanied by the audio alarm when a dangerous pit or bump is encountered.

Here a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) sensor or an array of CCD sensors would be mounted to the front end of the bike. The sensors would be positioned in such an angle, which decides the distance (length) of sensing and the critical time available to the driver to make a decision. The information to be sensed is the relative distance between the bike and the road. This CCD sensor is connected to the processing unit via copper cables.

Processing unit is a simple processor which analyses the sensed information and compares it with the threshold limit for the pit or bump.

The processing unit is connected to the interface unit comprising of the display unit and alarm unit .Further control signal to provoke the loudspeaker would be issued by the processing unit if the sensed information crosses the threshold limits. The sensed information is given to the display unit.

Separate display units are not needed as the display units for speed i.e. speedometers present in the bike would be enough with minimal alterations. The display units can be time multiplexed to show the speed and terrain information alternatively or show the speed and terrain when their particular requirements arise, i.e. show speed when it is too low or too high, and show terrain before bump or pit is encountered.

The display units may be of two types. The former is the ancient dial type where the needle points the relative distance between the road and the bike. The latter is the conventional bikes wherein the map of the road could be generated to be viewed in the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)/Light Emitting Diode (LED)displays present in the 'Instruments and Indicators' section of the bike.

Here the CCD sensors have been considered however ultrasound, Infrared (IR) sensors may also be used.

To assist with understanding the invention, reference e will now be made to the accompanying drawings.

Brief Description of the drawing

FIG.l shows the positioning of the device in the bike.

FIG.2 shows the detailed block diagram of the "Road Surface Predictor" as described in the invention.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments:

Referring to FIG.l can see how to position the device in the bike. The sensor section is tilted in such a way so as to see the road level at an angle of approximately 45 degrees with the ground plane.

This CCD Sensor section is connected to the processing unit via copper cables. The processing unit comprises of microcontroller. This unit may be positioned near the "Instruments and Indicators" section of the bike; as shown in the FIG.l else may be encapsulated from the biker as it is not necessary to be seen by the biker. But sufficient care must be taken to prevent it from getting exposed to the atmosphere as well as from getting heated from the heat of the engine.

The processing unit is also connected to the interface unit via copper cables. This unit must be clearly visible to the biker as he will use this information to perform actions that are intended for averting accidents.

The interface circuitry consists of Display unit and alarm unit. As the display unit is multiplexed with that of existing display as mentioned earlier , this need no special attention on positioning. The display unit may be positioned at the same place of the current speedometers.

However an additional alarm unit is required. This is positioned anywhere as it need no attention to be seen but only to be heard. A prototype of this indicated in the diagram places the audio alarm also in the "Instruments and indicators" section.

The power supply for the same may be obtained using the bike's battery eliminating the need for an additional circuitry.

Referring to FIG. 2 can see the block diagram of the "Road Surface Predictor".
As deducted from the above details the Road Surface Predictor consists of 4 major subsystems.

The 4 major subsystems are:

i. Sensing subsystem ii. Processing subsystem iii. Interface subsystem -

a) Display unit

b) Alarm unit

iv. Power Supply subsystem
Sensing subsystem is used to provide the sensory information on the terrain conditions of the road. It is connected to the processing unit via copper cables.

The processing subsystem consists of Microcontroller that received the sensory information and compares it with the predefined threshold, further issues control signals to the interface circuitry. It is also connected in copper wires to the interface subsystem.
The interface subsystem comprises of display and alarm units. It serves as the output device of the entire system. It is triggered using the control signals that are issued by the Processing unit. The structure, positioning and function of the devices are discussed earlier.

The Power supply unit consists of voltage regulators, rectifiers and step down transformers as necessary pertaining to the requirement raised by the components. It is connected with all the units and all the units require power for their functioning. They may also be accompanied by the LEDs so that these LED lights serve as an indicator of whether their corresponding units have been receiving power or not. The connections from the power supply unit must be carried out with properly insulated wires.

We claim,

Claim 1

Road surface predictor that consists of sensing unit, processing unit and interface unit comprising of display and audio alarming unit.

Claim 2

The use of CCD sensor arrays in sensing unit, as claimed in claim 1 in the front end of the bike to sense terrain of the road. '

Claim 3

The use of the sensed information as input to the processing unit, as claimed in claim 1 to predict occurrence of pits or bumps ahead of the road.

Claim 4

Visual display unit, as claimed in claim 1 to provide map of the terrain ahead of the biker.

Claim 5

Additional audio alarming system, as claimed in claim 1 consisting of loudspeaker to give indication on pits or bumps.

Claim 6

Multiplexing Bike's displays to display the preview of the road ahead; eliminating the need for additional circuitry.

Claim 7

Obtaining Power for sensing unit of claim 2, processing unit of claim 3and interface unit of claim 4,5, from Bike's battery without depending on external energy sources.

Claim 8

Road surface predictor substantially as herein described and illustrated in
Figures of accompanying drawings.