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The TASI faculty team brings together proven expertise from seven different IU and Purdue schools, and all three engineering departments of the School of Engineering and Technology are represented. We have expertise across the spectrum of active-safety issues:

• vehicular modeling and control,
• sensors and sensor networks,
• data fusion,
• wireless networking and communication, physiological measurement,
• effects of aging and alcohol,
• regulatory issues, and
• consumer perception of benefit.

Developing Emerging Technologies:

• New sensors and algorithms are needed to obtain and process data from the environment, e.g. distance to and speed of other vehicles, locations of guardrails and highway signs, presence of pedestrians. Sensor data fusion techniques are of particular importance for combining data from different sensors and from different types of sensors. Dr. Sarah Koskie provides expertise in this area. Dr. Eliza Du works with INDOT on real-time traffic monitoring, vehicle detection, and classification.

• Effective use of sensing technology requires accurate vehicle models for simulation and control purposes. Drs. Yaobin Chen, Sarah Koskie, and Sohel Anwar provide expertise in these areas.

• Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication has the potential to warn drivers of crashes, bad weather, and traffic congestion. Expertise in this area is provided by Dr. Arjan Durresi.

Data Acquisition and Analysis:

• The analysis of field crash data is important both before and after the introduction of these systems. The identification and reconstruction of crashes that included vehicles equipped with active safety systems will help to identify when and how those systems fail. This information will be useful in the continuing process of the redesign of those systems. Dr. David Good and his Transportation Research Center at IUB provide expertise in this area. Dr. Huanmei Wu provides expertise in data mining techniques, which can provide insights into crash causation and mechanisms, as well as the potential benefits associated with various types of safety systems.

Human Factors/Biomechanics:

• Policy experts have identified a looming public health crisis in the fact that the older adult population is the fastest growing age cohort and many will outlive their ability to drive due to declining physical, sensory, and cognitive skills. Dr. Michael Justiss, head of the Driving Safety and Rehabilitation Research Laboratory, brings considerable experience in the study of how to evaluate and improve the driving of aging drivers. His current research efforts focus on assessment strategies to identify deficits in driving-related skills and driving performance, rehabilitation and intervention strategies to maintain driving independence, and alternative transportation strategies, to maintain community mobility and participation, for use when driving is no longer a safe option.

• Warning systems rely on the ability of the driver to recognize and respond to the chosen signal. This requires careful design of an optimal human machine interface (HMI) that can be applied across vehicle types and that is least likely to confuse or overload the driver. Dr. Anthony Faiola provides expertise in HMI design.

• Inattention, drowsiness, and/or impairment are factors in a large fraction of both automobile and truck crashes. Dr. Russ Eberhart brings years of research experience using ECG and other biological data for drowsiness-detection to our simulator-based projects. Dr. Russ Eberhart and his team have a history of successful research projects, sponsored by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research among others, using sleep-deprived subjects to investigate sleepy and inattentive driving. Their research investigates the physiological markers of sleepiness and inattention, and based on results of this research, they have developed models that non-invisibleness's a driver's condition. To round out our team, Dr. Ed Berbari provides expertise in cardiac monitoring, which is useful for monitoring driver state, e.g. detecting drowsiness and Sean O'Connor, M.D. provides expertise in alcohol sensing.

• For purposes of safety and cost-effectiveness, active safety sensors and systems are extensively tested on human subjects in a driving simulator before they are ever tested on the road. Dr. Russ Eberhart, head of the TASI Driving Simulator Lab, has used driving simulators extensively in his research.

Consumer Awareness, Choice and Public Policy:

• Consumer market analysis provides understanding of perceived benefits, effectiveness and cost sensitivity which are needed for effective consumer education and marketing campaigns for the successful deployment of active safety systems. Dr. Anthony Cox, Kelley School of Business, provides expertise in this area.

• Ultimately, public policy may take the form of regulation mandating adoption or standard setting. Dr. David Good of SPEA provides expertise in regulation, evaluation, and public policy.