Indonesian students regained their achievements at the Taiwan Innotech Expo 2019 event. The students from Sepuluh November Institute of Technology –ITS are Reza Aulia, Riantama, and Afif Purwandi. They have created an innovative machinist fatigue detector called ‘Machinist Fatigue Detector’ (MAFTEC). This innovation won two awards at the same time at the event last September. Taiwan Innotech Expo 2019 is an annual huge event in Taiwan which is participated by companies, associations, and students from all over the world. The event which lasted for three days at TWTC Exhibition Hall 1, Taiwan, carried the theme ‘Sustainability Innovative Invention Future Technology’.
The machinist fatigue detector -MAFTEC, which won a silver medal at the Korea International Youth Olympiad Idea, Innovation, Invention, and Intellectual Property (KIYO 4I) last year, has been upgraded. From previously detecting driver drowsiness through eye movements, now MAFTEC uses a new method, which can detect sleepiness through heart rates. This innovation is also accompanied with real-time control over the level of fatigue of a machinist. The MAFTEC team leader, Reza explained, the workings of this tool are to detect the fatigue and drowsiness of the machinists and to give vibrations. This tool can find someone who is tired or sleepy through processing by a computer on the basis of a combination of eye blinks and heart rates. Reza added that if the machinist indicates to be sleepy, this tool will vibrate to wake up its users. In addition, this tool can also detect fatigue and sleepiness in real-time through online via the website. So hopefully, the control center can find out the machinist's condition directly.
With this new detection method innovation, MAFTEC won an honorable mention at the event. Although this tool can be considered common, the method we use is new; there are detection of heart rate and eye blink. Another award obtained is the Special Award from the Korean Invention Promotion Association (KIPA), because according to the KIPA association, this discovery has great potential to be implemented in a larger market. This can be applied not only in train, but also in other transportation sectors. In the future, Reza hopes that this MAFTEC can be implemented in the world of railroad and can be useful for the community. At present, Reza and his team are still trying to obtain a patent process for this tool.