{"id":8824,"date":"2020-12-15T19:01:57","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T18:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/?p=8824"},"modified":"2020-12-15T19:02:38","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T18:02:38","slug":"sanitizing-autonomous-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2020\/12\/15\/sanitizing-autonomous-vehicles\/","title":{"rendered":"New solutions for sanitizing autonomous vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

If not for the word \u201cmucosalivary,\u201d the following analysis could have come from a combustion-engine technical paper: \u201cRecent work has demonstrated that exhalations, sneezes, and coughs not only consist of mucosalivary droplets following short-range semi-ballistic emission trajectories but, importantly, are primarily made of a multiphase turbulent gas \u2013 (a puff) cloud that entrains ambient air and traps and carries within it clusters of droplets with a continuum of droplet sizes.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Its author, Lydia Bourouiba, Ph.D, is an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in fluid dynamics. The gas turbulence and \u201ccoughs\u201d she refers to, however, aren\u2019t dyno-room observations. They\u2019re part of Dr. Bourouiba\u2019s expert studies of how SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19, can be disbursed from human carriers \u2013 through laughing, yelling, sneezing and simply talking \u2013 into the atmosphere. A sneeze can unleash a turbulent cloud of micron-sized droplets at velocities of 100 ft\/sec. The pathogen-laden cloud then can travel up to 27 feet (8 m) before landing, while still an active threat, on contact surfaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

Invisible clouds of even smaller aerosol contagions can remain suspended in the air for hours, depending on wind currents. Such viral clouds are menacing in the open air and dangerous in closed spaces. Their impact on vehicle occupant health and safety is a growing concern of both consumers and vehicle developers \u2013 particularly in the ride-share, public transit and autonomous sector. With increased urgency, engineers and scientists are developing solutions for maintaining cabin air quality and keeping interior surfaces sanitary, according to Neil Boehm, chief technology officer at Gentex Corp., a Tier 1 specializing in microelectronics, safety-related sensing and electro-optical technologies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt started with driver-monitoring systems to ensure the driver is paying attention when the vehicle is in a semi-autonomous or autonomous state,\u201d he told SAE International. \u201cThat technology has increased the awareness of the state of the overall vehicle interior, and it\u2019s been heightened with the pandemic and interest in sensing the actual virus itself. The concern can be as simple as getting a rental car and wondering how clean it is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The materials matrices that comprise vehicle interiors present a challenge to those seeking solutions, along with the unknowns related to COVID-19 pathology. A study released in March 2020 from the National Institutes of Health, Center for Disease Control, UCLA and Princeton University scientists, published in The New England Journal of Medicine<\/em>, reported that SARS-CoV-2 was detectable for up to three days on plastic surfaces. A virus can live for up to four days on glass, depending on location and temperature, noted a January 2020 study by the Journal of Hospital Infection.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

To tackle these issues, Gentex is creating technology paths based around the company\u2019s core capabilities. Their development \u201ctool box\u201d includes smoke-detection solutions that use optical electronics to look for particulates; Gentex-designed-and-built cameras; light sensors; nanomaterials capable of sensing health threats to driver and\/or passengers that could be residing in a vehicle and, increasingly, artificial intelligence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the world of autonomous and even [SAE] Level 3 and 4 automated vehicles, we see a lot of use cases for different sensing systems including bio- and chemical hazards, and even explosives,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a need to provide the ability to know what\u2019s in the vehicle that shouldn\u2019t be there or could be causing health concerns \u2013 whether it\u2019s being driven by a human or not.<\/span><\/p>\n

Designing around variables<\/strong><\/span>
\nBoehm acknowledges that the road to vehicle autonomy will require a long transition. He explains that the technologies Gentex is investigating for next-generation sensing systems are intended to span human driving \u2013 involving not only air quality but also occupant position and driver monitoring. There\u2019s also commercial delivery. \u201cOne of the scenarios we talk about a lot, related to autonomous fleet vehicles such as shuttles, is concerns about people smoking in them. Or leaving trash behind,\u201d he said. \u201cFleet operators need all vehicles to be clean because they\u2019re in use as close to 24\/7 as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When an AV drops off one rider and picks up another, how do you identify who was smoking in it? Such issues might cause the vehicle to be pulled out of service. \u201cSome of our sensing systems are being developed around understanding that environment \u2013 air quality, surface cleanliness, and even content left behind by passengers,\u201d Boehm said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Monitoring the cabin and cargo spaces and designing systems that can disinfect the cabin air and surfaces and alert the fleet operator of an airborne or onboard hazard is no easy task. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly complex, with almost infinite variables,\u201d he noted. \u201cBut if you can identify the variables you can drive to a solution.\u201d The dynamic behavior of aerosols, now known to linger in air for longer than was previously understood, is one example.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the priorities in creating bio-safe (and cost-effective) vehicle interiors is the process of thermally checking the occupants \u2013 both in the vehicle and those about to enter. \u201cJust taking the body temperatures of people is a challenge in itself,\u201d Boehm explained. \u201cNormal\u201d temperatures vary among individuals. And depending where the thermal sensor contacts the forehead can result in a reading that varies by as much as plus\/minus 2%.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat accuracy levels are required \u2013 and how accurate can we get the systems?\u201d he asked. \u201cThe challenge is in being non-invasive so there is no surface contact required of the consumer, then ensuring the technology is consistent and reliable.\u201d He said increasingly, the accuracy of sensing systems improves with use, as the vehicle \u201clearns\u201d an occupant\u2019s baseline temperature \u2013 it may be a \u201cnormal\u201d 98.6 degrees on one individual and 99 degrees on another.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs you understand the variables, you can then design systems around them,\u201d Boehm stated. \u201cFor example, airborne health threats can get into the HVAC system. We have the ability to use filtering and extensive airflow to help clean that. If it\u2019s something on a surface in the vehicle, now we need to be working on UVC systems to clean the interior surfaces.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

UVC is ultraviolet light with wavelengths between 200 \u2013 280 nanometers. Light in the UVC wavelength has germicidal qualities. It can be used for sterilizing surfaces and destroying harmful airborne micro-organisms. It has proven highly effective at eradicating viruses in medical use. But for use in vehicles, interior materials will need to be more robust in color and durability to survive the wavelength and intensity of light. Surfaces also can be coated or processed in a way that makes them anti-bacterial or anti-viral.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThose subjects get us excited and their use cases create opportunities to utilize technologies we have in our chemistries and coatings, or materials-based background, in concert with our sensor designs and engineering,\u201d Boehm said. \u201cThere is great potential to bring these systems together, but there are a lot of variables involved. I don\u2019t know that covering every scenario is achievable in the near term. I think we start with the goal of achieving a better interior environment, working on air quality, then start adding the other technologies to it for further improvements.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He expects artificial intelligence and edge computing to enable more processing at the sensing component, versus downstream, so engineers can cover more areas faster. \u201cThere is a lot of interest in how these technology pieces can come together for use on future platforms, to create a safer environment for passengers,\u201d he asserted. \u201cI think that once COVID slows down, the focus will continue \u2013 on influenza, for example.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bridging automotive and medical<\/strong><\/span>
\nA tenet of Gentex\u2019s product-development process is spreading core technologies across multiple vertical markets where they can be applied. Capability to sense a virus or chemical in a ground vehicle, for example, might apply to the aerospace or medical environments. The company also has realized the need for more bio-medical inputs and expertise for its development and engineering team, for which it has thus far taken two paths.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re expanding our internal skillsets. We don\u2019t have a big bio-medical group here, but as this [the pandemic] changes the environment, it\u2019s something we\u2019ve been investigating and getting deeper in,\u201d Boehm reported. \u201cThe automotive and medical, verticals are bridging each other. People want information on the driver\u2019s health. Is there an issue developing where the vehicle will need to take control? There is still a question on whether the consumer wants that information given, however, but that\u2019s a privacy discussion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The second path is collaboration. In October Gentex announced a partnership with RetiSpec, an AI-proficient medical imaging company that is developing a tool for the early detection of disease biomarkers in the eye. Gentex will engineer, manufacture and commercialize technology for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. And at CES 2020 Gentex showed its collaborative project, done with the Mayo Clinic, for medical operating-room lighting of the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit strange for auto guys getting involved with an operating room, but the collaboration was driven by our camera and lighting-control technology,\u201d Boehm said. \u201cWe took some of the baseline technology used in our SmartBeam [automotive high-beam control] product, added to it, and came up with solutions for future \u2018smart\u2019 OR lighting that would be controlled and focused by surgeons in different situations. Importantly, we learned a lot from the feedback provided by 75 doctors and nurses. So, as we look at other opportunities, we have a real strong research pool to help us determine if a technology makes sense for a given application.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Lindsay Brooke <\/span><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.sae.org<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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The audit is a key tool to know the overall status and provide the analysis, the assessment, the advice, the suggestions and the actions to take in order to cut costs and increase the efficiency and efficacy of the fleet. We propose the following fleet management audit.<\/p>\n

FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If not for the word \u201cmucosalivary,\u201d the following analysis could have come from a combustion-engine technical paper: \u201cRecent work has demonstrated that exhalations, sneezes, and coughs not only consist of mucosalivary droplets following short-range semi-ballistic emission trajectories but, importantly, are primarily made of a multiphase turbulent gas \u2013 (a puff) cloud that entrains ambient air…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[8,302],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8824"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8827,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8824\/revisions\/8827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}