Ingenium Dynamics

Ingenium Dynamics is a sustainable solution designed to meet the complex challenges of driving in today’s busy environment. FMG Support are at the forefront of improving the effectiveness and safety of road transportation and with 25 years of experience in managing accidents and repairing or recovering vehicles at the roadside, we believe that the use of our new technology will dramatically reduce accidents and incidents and improve the flow of traffic on Britain’s road network.

The solution is designed to monitor the way in which a vehicle is being driven and then advise the driver of high risk incidents, producing genuine and sustainable efficiencies and benefits. Ultimately, this will reduce risk and improve road safety. The system is also capable of recording ‘celeration’ (magnitudes and directions of accelerations and decelerations) in the event of an accident. Additionally, it will also show the profile characteristics of the driver prior to an accident, indicating consistent or erratic driving.

The onboard vehicle device gathers and interprets celeration and velocity information and then transmits the information via a communications network back to the host computer. The information is passed into an intelligent data base which incorporates other elements of risk into the equation such as Black Spot locations, weather, safety cameras to enable it to makes its final risk assessment. Additional benefits of the new technology is providing improved fuel efficiency, less wear and tear on the vehicle, reduced insurance premiums, reduced carbon emissions and a safer driving environment.

The complexity of the calculations and algorithms that estimate driving risk were conducted under the supervision and advice of The Transport Safety Research Centre (TSRC) which sits within the newly formed design school at Loughborough University. TSRC (Headed by Professor Peter Thomas). TSRC is a multi-disciplinary team conducting research into all aspects of road and vehicle safety and road user behaviour. With a team of over 35 staff and post-graduate researchers the Centre bases its research on real-world accident studies, studies of driver behaviour and statistical analysis of accident, health, environmental and mobility data. Professor Peter Thomas stated that:

"During development of the Driver Behaviour Management System (DBMS – Ingenium Dynamics), FMG support have engaged in a scientific assessment of the validity of installation procedures, data capture and post processing, including both real world driving styles and a challenging test track environment. We believe that the testing and evaluation approach undertaken by FMG Support to be unique and invaluable and one which has led to a highly credible system capable of measuring accelerations accurately and, through relevant algorithms, relating them appropriately to characteristics of driving behaviour."

The new Ingenium Dynamics system was launched in February and has already attracted strong interest from the fleet and insurance industry. One of the UK’s leading providers of young and provisional driver insurance is ‘Provisional Marmalade’ and ‘Young Marmalade' based in Peterborough. Nick Moger, the CEO of The Marmalade Group of companies has agreed to install the Ingenium Dynamics system into his new and innovative scheme called 'Intelligent Marmalade' which is being underwritten by Provident Plc. Nick has stated that:

"The innovative new FMG Support technology will revolutionise the insurance industry. We have already witnessed dramatic improvements in driving standards. The new technology is being fully supported and embraced by young drivers who prefer this new concept rather than the difficulties of the curfew type systems. Conditional to driving in a safe and sensible manner will enable the young driver to receive substantial insurance discounts. I am convinced that this is a way forward for the future to the point of becoming a standard feature in all vehicles manufactured"

Another unique feature of the Ingenium Dynamics solution is the additional benefits that are provided by FMG Support from their core business. FMG Support has been at the forefront of improving the effectiveness and safety of road transportation for over 25 years. Much of this experience is based around managing accidents and repairing or recovering vehicles at the roadside. Therefore, it seemed appropriate that the Ingenium Dynamics solution would also offer full accident management and roadside repair and recovery as part of the service. This gives the customer enormous peace of mind said ‘John Lancaster – Head of Technological Development at FMG support’ Not only does Ingenium Dynamics improve driving standards and reduce risk, but in the unfortunate event of an accident or breakdown occurring the customer knows that they will be carefully and sensitively managed by a team on industry experts.

Ingenium Dynamics is now being offered to FMG’s extensive customer base consisting of more than 1 million types of different vehicles ranging from fleet cars to vans to Heavy Goods Vehicles. It is expected that the small additional premium on the existing FMG Support services will quickly demonstrate the enormous benefits that the new service will provide and the return on investment will be almost instantaneous. The onboard vehicle unit can also be connected into a variety of peripheral devices such as door alarms, sensors, Dallas keys and navigation systems making giving it flexibility above and beyond a standard telematics offering.

The system can be accessed via a secure Internet portal. This gives detailed information relating to the journey showing time, position, speed, braking and acceleration force, cornering, environment and high risk zones. The results from the journey will then be analysed and produce a driving risk score. This score will be categorised into high, medium or low risk, giving a score based on events and incidents.

Should the driver have continual medium or high risk journeys, they will be referred to the On-line education service which is included on the Ingenium Dynamics web service. The educational system includes more than 2500 interactive driving video modules which are based on the BTEC Diploma in Driving Science. The driving modules have been designed in conjunction with Cranfield University and form a part of the Ingenium Dynamics service. Professor Lisa Dorn stated that enabling people to have video interaction to help with their driving has enormous benefits over traditional lesson type systems. The videos gives the look and feel of actually driving a real car and helps the driver to better understand some of the difficulties that can be associated in high risk scenarios.

FMG Support has three patents pending for the new technology:

• Driver Behaviour Management using onboard intelligent algorithms and back office overlays. - PP-1019636.8
• Crash detection and crash reconstruction. - PP-1019631.9
• Strategic road network planning. - PP-1019630.1

Finally, Ingenium Dynamics was designed and produced in a relatively short period of time. From initial design through to market launch has taken less than 18 months. Taking into account the complexity of the vehicle hardware, the numerous firmware variations to support different in-vehicle scenarios and both a Corporate and Consumer web site this is a remarkable achievement. Perhaps what makes Ingenium Dynamics more remarkable is that historically, FMG Support has not been involved in the Telematics industry before. This is a clear indication that with the right level of transportation knowledge, combined with the support of academic and leading world experts in safety systems a unique and extremely beneficial transportation safety system has been launched.