Dismount Zone Alert System
Freshman Engineering Design and Communication
The Rice University Mobility Safety Department is a department within Rice University concerned with the safety of sidewalks, roads, and other paths found in and around the university. As part of a rising concern due to increased crashes between people on bikes and e-scooters with pedestrians, the Mobility Safety Department sought a way to upgrade from their existing solution - dismount sandwich boards signs. These signs, while offering an easy solution for raising awareness, are problematic due to theft, relocation, missing components, and low visibility among inattentive individuals. The goal of this project was to create a safe and effective way to alert people on bikes and e-scooters to dismount from their bike or e-scooter. The solution of this problem was to build a sensor based system that would detect when a person on a bike or e-scooter was entering a dismount zone and provide a visual and physical cue to alert people to dismount from their bikes or e-scooters. The final presentation can be found at the bottom of the page.
Personal Contributions
Electronics Design
I independently designed and implemented the electronics system that utilized the input from the sensors to output the cue for the user to dismount from their bike or e-scooter. The electronics system consisted of an Arduino Uno, a self-made force sensor, and a light-based visual cue.
Software Programming
I programmed the Arduino Uno to use analog data from the force sensor to control the visual cue from the physical component of the solution. The Uno was programmed in such a way to differentiate people on bikes and e-scooters from pedestrians using force distribution along several force sensors distributed in series. The visual cue - a red LED strip - was programmed to turn on when a bike or e-scooter was detected from sensor data.
Sensor Design
I created a custom force sensor that was designed and fabricated using Velostat, a material whose conductivity varies with applied force. This proprietary sensor was developed due to limitations in the maximum force measurable by readily available, low-cost sensors, as well as the high cost of existing sensors capable of measuring forces within the required range for this application.