CANopen in ambient intelligence
- Fig. 1: Hardware architectur
By Jesús Murgoitio (Robotiker-Tecnalia), Jon Iñaki González (ESIDE-University of Deusto)
Source: CAN Newsletter September 2008
Tecnalia-Automoción is working on an ECG (electrocardiogram) sensor integrated into the steering wheel as one of several concepts following Ambient Intelligence (AmI) principles. A networked solution, with smart sensors and actuators integrating the IEEE 1451 standard, will be used in the active headrest prototype. Following this standard, Tecnalia-Automoción has selected CANopen to network this ECG sensor and obtain data about the car-driver, adding the plug-and-play feature with the mentioned IEEE 1451 specification.
Nowadays, an average car has between 50 and 100 sensors. This number is increasing and with the implementation of AmI-based solutions the number of car sensors and actuators will increase substantially. One of the applications is a developed prototype of a sensorized active headrest, which was designed to maintain desired horizontal and vertical safety distances to the driver’s head.
Since heart-rate measurement is not very complex, the ECG signal needs little amplifying (about 10 to 20 times less than ECG) and electrode placement is not very critical if measurement is limited to R-wave detection and registration. The following solution has therefore been selected by Tecnalia-Automación to integrate an ECG sensor into a car.
Drivers change their hand position while driving the car, so this solution takes into account the lack of a continuous ECG signal. Nevertheless, it would be possible to sample this information and find out how some particular parameters are changed during the driving activity, such as those based on HRV (Heart Rate Variability).
