IIIT-Hyderabad, Intel to leverage AI to make Nagpur roads safer

HYDERABAD: In a first such collaborative effort in the country, top Institutes of the country will use artificial intelligence (AI) in road safety to reduce accidents.
The International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H) along with tech giant Intel, NMC (Nagpur Municipal Corporation) and CSIR-Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), among other partners, have launched project iRASTE (intelligent Solutions for Road Safety through Technology and Engineering) in Nagpur.

As part of this project, the partners will be leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to reduce road accident incidents by around 50% in Nagpur city in the next two years and create a model that can be scaled up and replicated in the entire country, Nivruti Rai, country head, Intel India and vice-president, Intel Foundry Services, said on Monday.
iRASTE will focus on three key aspects -- vehicle safety, mobility analysis and road infrastructure safety. Under this project, NMC’s fleet of vehicles will be equipped with collision avoidance system, a subset of Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS), that can reduce accidents and near misses by up to 60%. Currently, around 30 buses in Nagpur have been fitted with such devices and this will be scaled up to around 350 in coming days.
These sensors will also help map current accident-prone areas as well as the likely accident zones in the entire road network, helping road maintenance agencies to intervene at an early stage and go for preventive maintenance.
Shekhar C Mande, DG, CSIR, said, “CSIR-Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) will help in identifying the accident-prone locations and also evaluate the drivers’ behaviour before and after installation of collision avoidance systems in their vehicles. This project can be emulated in different cities as well.”
While Intel India will bring its ADAS technology, CRRI will leverage its domain expertise in road engineering and IIIT-Hyderabad will be undertaking AI-based research to address population-scale road safety through its INAI center for applied AI research. Even, Mahindra & Mahindra will conduct road safety public awareness programs and driver trainings in Nagpur.