Integrated steering wheel system based on nanostructured elastomeric sensors for real time detection of driver drowsiness status

Automotive sensors market has valued 19.7 USD billion in 2014 with an expectation of growth up to 30.0 billion in 2020 [1]. Among the different types of sensors for automotive, devices for safety applications result particularly important and appealing. In this scenario, elastomeric polymers represent a low cost, easy-to-use choice that results to be suitable for large-scale application. In this work, we propose a new sensing system based on the use of a smart steering wheel for the increase of driver's safeness. The wheel is able to detect the presence of the hands of the driver and reports the absence of contact thanks to high sensitive resistive pressure sensors based on elastomeric polymers distributed uniformly on the steering wheel and a specifically designed electronic control unit (ECU) connected to the CAN bus. All the components of the system are described and the performances of the whole prototype are reported, demonstrating high reliability.