The public transport system is the backbone of the Indian economy and people’s lives. Billions of people rely on transportation each day for commuting to work. Also, the population outburst in the nation and economic growth has led to a huge rise in the number of vehicles travelling on roads, with current registered vehicles number crossing the 20-crore mark.
The rising number of vehicles has given rise to traffic congestion and the transportation authorities across the country are finding it difficult to handle such a huge number of vehicles.
To tackle such traffic problems, and secure the travellers, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is implemented. Under the ITS, Automotive Industry Standard (AIS) along with Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) has framed certain AIS Guidelines and AIS 140 is one among them. The government has directed every state’s public transport department to make sure that all passenger carrying buses conform to the AIS 140 guidelines.
What Is AIS 140 standard?
Automotive Industry Standard 140 (AIS 140) is a set of standards published by ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India) and are part of the Intelligent Transportation Systems requirements for public transport vehicles namely buses and taxis among others.
In order to comply with AIS 140 guidelines, every bus will need to have a GPS tracking system, camera surveillance and an emergency button. This will help the department in tracking the bus in case of an emergency and also enable the passengers to apprise the control room of any kind of mishap or other emergencies.
Both the existing vehicles as well as the future ones will be required to be fitted with GPS and emergency button. This implies that the automotive OEMs along with aftermarket companies and Tier 1 suppliers need to have these systems ready.
For a device to be AIS 140 certified it needs to adhere and meet the following standards:
Technical Standards
· Obtain information using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), including support for GAGAN, the Indian satellite-based augmentation system.
· Support 4 digital, 2 analogues and 1 serial communications for interfacing external systems (for instance emergency request button interfacing).
· Capable of transmitting position, velocity and time (PVT) along with the direction to the back-end control server.
· Transmit data to two different IP addresses (minimum) and an additional one IP address for the emergency response system. It should have an emergency/panic button that transmits alert (once pressed) to the configured IP address(s) as per the protocol.
Internal Battery back up
· The device will need to have an internal power backup of at least four hours. It needs to be capable of transmitting data alerts to the back-end server; and support for over-the-air (OTA) software and configuration update.
· The power backup is utilised when the external power supply provided to the device from the vehicle’s battery is cut-off due to any reasons
Standard Configuration
· Support basic standard configuration (mobile communication network, back-end control server, details, data frequencies, alert thresholds among others).
· The device needs to support the storage and forwarding mechanism for all types of data.
· Unique identification for identifying the device and data, including the vehicle registration details.
SIM Card:
· The device will have an embedded sim card; operate between 8VDC and 32VDC using vehicle battery voltage input of 12/24 volts.
· The device GPRS module should have a multi-slot GPRS with an in-built quad-band GPRS module with a lifespan of at least 10 years life and more than 1 million read/write cycles.
· The sim card’s GPRS network is used to transmit data to the back-end control server (government authorised).
External Force-proof:
· The device needs to be dust, temperature, vibration, water-splash resistant, IP 65- rated or better and tamper-proof so that its functionality (like live tracking/ data update, etc.) is not lost or hampered due to these external factors.
Secure Data Transfer
· It will also need to support A-GPS (Assisted GPS), with the provision of secured data transmission to the Back-end Control Centre through the secured channel (for instance secured dedicated APN).
· This ensures the security of data that will be transmitted to the preset server only.
Driver behaviour notification
· It needs to have three-axis accelerometer and three-axis gyroscope for getting the alerts on harsh braking, harsh acceleration, and rash turning.
· These events are sent to admins regarding the driver’s behaviour to ensure the safety of passengers.
Emergency Alarm
· Furthermore, in terms of an emergency/panic button, passengers or in-vehicle crew present in the vehicle should be able to make an emergency request by pressing the emergency button provided that can only be deactivated by authorised government server.
· In case there is no reception (GSM and GPRS), the alert will be stored in the device and as soon as the network becomes available the device will need to be able to send the information on high priority to the configured addresses.
These are the major requirements apart from the physical testing conducted by ARAI for certifying the devices to the conformity standards.
AIS 140 standards will help to safeguard the millions of travellers who use the public transportation each day. In case of an emergency, people can alert the government authorities immediately and also seek the help of the authorities after the occurrence of any event in public transportation. It will also play a vital role in bringing the much-needed change in transport industry like the incorporation of Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) and Augmented Reality (AR) in public transport vehicles that will be expedited once this standard is implemented.