Arduino-Based Prototype Engine-Stopper System (Press 2.0) for Overloading Prevention in Vehicles

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Overcapacity in land transportation vehicles has become a major challenge as the transportation industry grows. Research results reported that an overcapacity in vehicles contributes to the increasing carbon dioxide emission, thus compromising the environment. to solve such problem, the Philippine Senate filed Bill 1446: Anti-Overloading Act of 2017, penalizing Public Utility Vehicles (PUV) that is proven to exceed the prescribed gross weight for PUV's (Senate of the Philippines, 2017). However, the determination of overcapacity under the Senate Bill is done manually by designated officers. The study was conducted to develop a prototype engine-stopper system for the prevention of overloading in vehicles. Specifically: a) to design an engine-stopper system using basic programming, control and automation principles; b) to establish an engine-stopper system through optimization studies; and; c) to determine the economic viability of the engine-stopper system using cost analysis.

METHODS

The digital load sensor system was attached to the Arduino Uno R3â„¢ motherboard coupled with HC-12 wireless module. A DC LED bulb, connected to the board, will act as the alarm. Calibration was done in replications by weighing 1.0 kg of load. The computer, using the Arduinoâ„¢ software stored the data gathered by the weight sensor and monitored the accuracy of both the program and the system. A fixed weight of 3.0 kg was programmed to trigger the LED alarm system, as it is set as the maximum weight limit, and 5.0 kg for overloading based on the methods stated by SparkFun Electronics. The LED is programmed to flash as the load weight aligns or exceeds the allowed weight of 3.0 kg of a minimum of 10.0g. The sensitivity of the engine-stopper system was set to detect an increase in weight as low as 10.0g.

RESULTS

Results revealed that the engine-stopper system was developed using the basic principles of programming, control and automation using Arduino.

DISCUSSIONS

Further, based from the optimization studies conducted the following were recorded: a) the system is not a passenger-counting system (Hassan, Sam and Machuve, 2013; Ye and Wang, 2017); b) it is a system that successfully opened the circuit automatically while past designs such as the device designed by Shanzhen and Qian (2011) are limited to monitoring the weight of the passengers. Unlike the system developed by Shanzhen and Qian (2011) that only rely on alarm system, c) the prototype system consists of two warning system the LED alarm system, and the engine-stopper; d) It is vehicle-independent which unlike other similar designs that are limited to freight vehicles by Yuan and LI (2013); and e) the engine-stopper system is smaller, cheaper and easier to set-up compared to more complex bulky weight-monitoring systems (Reddy, 2015).