RomeCup 2024: a security system developed by Panella Vallauri from Reggio Calabria.
Conceived to provide answers to the challenges launched by universities, during the course of the years the RomeCup creative contests have been enriched with new input from communities, SMEs, and large companies. And always more often the projects are conceived to find concrete answers to communities with the possibility of scaling and custom-tailoring the technological solutions to other realities.
The team from the Istituto Panella Vallauri in Reggio Calabria, who worked with university students from the Faculty of Engineering at the “Mediterranea” University, worked on a serious public health issue. Indeed, car accidents are the first cause of death of young men and women aged 15-19 and the second for youth aged 10-14 and 20-24. “We decided to work on this project because, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), every year 1.35 million lose their life in road accidents, and the majority of these accidents is caused by drunken driving,” explain the team behind Project Road Safety – Measuring Alcohol Levels, which won the TirBot Contest, dedicated to autonomous driving systems [see news: RomeCup 2024: Creative Contest Winners].
“Our objective is to reduce the risk of road accidents, providing a security system that can detect inebriation and block drunken drivers. The aim is to contribute to the creation of safer roads, save human lives, reduce the dangerous effects of alcohol on driving, and raise youth awareness on the dangers of drunken driving.”
The RomeCup prototype, called “Elegoo,” is a vehicle equipped with an MQ-3 alcohol sensor. “When the sensor detects an alcohol level above a 0.5 g/l (0.05%), the Arduino chipset interrupts the fuel flow to the motors, blocking the vehicle; otherwise, the vehicle works normally.” Drivers can event take the test before trying to drive.
The project is presented by the protagonists of l’Avvenire di Calabria. Here is the article (in Italian): RomeCup: Team from Itt “Panella-Vallauri” in Reggio Calabria wins the Robotics Category.
