![\"caterpillar-mining-truck\"](\"https:\/\/cranemarket.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/caterpillar-mining-truck.jpg\")
Caterpillar has installed facial recognition systems in trucks used in the mining industry. The systems, which were developed in partnership with Seeing Machines, are important to ensure the safety of operations in mine sites. (Caterpillar)<\/p><\/div>\n
According to the Huffington Post<\/a>, Caterpillar Safety Services<\/a>, a consultancy branch of the global mining company,\u00a0has partnered with the tech company Seeing Machines<\/a> to put fatigue detection software in thousands of mining trucks around the world. The software uses a camera, speaker and light system to measure signs of fatigue like eye closure and head position. When a potential \u201cfatigue event\u201d is detected, the system sounds an alarm in the truck and sends a video clip of the driver to a 24-hour\u00a0\u201csleep fatigue center\u201d at Caterpillar headquarters in Peoria, Illinois.<\/p>\n At that point, a safety advisor contacts them via radio, notifies their site manager, and sometimes recommends a sleep intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cThis system automatically scans for the characteristics of microsleep<\/a> in a driver,\u201d Sal Angelone, a fatigue consultant at the company, told The Huffington Post, referencing the brief, involuntary pockets of unconsciousness that are highly dangerous to drivers. \u201cBut this is verified by a human working at our headquarters in Peoria.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Caterpillar<\/a> has a four-year license from Seeing Machines to manufacture the software.\u00a0For now,\u00a0it\u2019s the exclusive provider of this technology within the mining industry. Some 5,000 vehicles \u2015 a combination of Caterpillar\u2019s own trucks and those of other mining companies \u2015 carry the equipment. Caterpillar manages over 38,000 trucks worldwide,\u00a0and the fatigue-detecting trucks are still a small fraction of its total fleet, but it hopes to eventually equip all of them.<\/p>\n When a \u201cfatigue event\u201d is recorded, it\u2019s up to the mining site to recommend a course of action to the driver, or vice versa. Last month in Nevada, for instance, a mining truck driver had three fatigue events within four hours; he was contacted onsite and essentially forced to take a nap. Last February in North Carolina, one night shift truck driver who experienced a fatigue event realized it was a sign of an underlying sleep disorder and asked his site management for medical assistance. (Caterpillar has mining operations globally from China to Canada).<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not unusual for someone to lose their frame of reference of what is normal in regard to fatigue,\u201d said Angelone. This may be because miners\u2019 shift work goes against typical human circadian rhythms<\/a>. A driver\u2019s shift is either eight or twelve hours long, said Angelone, but those shifts can occur during the middle of the night, late afternoon or any other time.<\/p>\n \u201cMany sites run a 24\/7 operation,\u201d he said. \u201cThese drivers are not always sleeping through the night.\u201d<\/p>\n In the past year, since the company started recording fatigue events last July, it has recorded about 600 instances, said Angelone. He said this constitutes a stunning 80 percent reduction in fatigue events from previous years.<\/p>\n The biggest reason for this, said Angelone, is that once an alarm goes off in a truck, the driver becomes much more aware of their fatigue, and is more cautious and proactive about drowsy driving than they would be otherwise.<\/p>\n These results invite the question of why fatigue detection software has not yet reached consumer vehicles.<\/p>\n One explanation is that the car industry has not been slow to embrace the technology, but that commercial trucking has been particularly fast.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a lot of incentive to improve safety in our industry,\u201d said Tim Crane, general manager of Caterpillar Safety Services. \u201cOur vehicles are huge and pose unique challenges, so the government really wants to see that we\u2019re trying.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Crane expects the use of fatigue detection technology in consumer cars to increase \u201cexponentially\u201d in the next few years.\u00a0Jeremy Terpstra of Seeing Machines echoed the sentiment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have arrangements with many different car manufacturers,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s only a matter of time before this technology is in all vehicles, everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n