Automatic Vehicle Accident Detection and Messaging System Using GSM and GPS Modem

Abstract

The Rapid growth of technology and infrastructure has made our lives easier. The advent of technology has also increased the traffic hazards and the road accidents take place frequently which causes huge loss of life and property because of the poor emergency facilities. Our project will provide an optimum solution to this draw back. An accelerometer can be used in a car alarm application so that dangerous driving can be detected. It can be used as a crash or rollover detector of the vehicle during and after a crash. With signals from an accelerometer, a severe accident can be recognized. According to this project when a vehicle meets with an accident immediately Vibration sensor will detect the signal or if a car rolls over, and Micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) sensor will detects the signal and sends it to ARM controller. Microcontroller sends the alert message through the GSM MODEM including the location to police control room or a rescue team. So the police can immediately trace the location through the GPS MODEM, after receiving the information. Then after conforming the location necessary action will be taken. If the person meets with a small accident or if there is no serious threat to anyone`s life, then the alert message can be terminated by the driver by a switch provided in order to avoid wasting the valuable time of the medical rescue team. This paper is useful in detecting the accident precisely by means of both vibration sensor and Micro electro Mechanical system (MEMS) or accelerometer. As there is a scope for improvement and as a future implementation we can add a wireless webcam for capturing the images which will help in providing driver`s assistance.

Keywords

GSM, GPS, Vibration Sensor, ARM Controller.

INTRODUCTION

The high demand of automobiles has also increased the traffic hazards and the road accidents. Life of the people is under high risk. This is because of the lack of best emergency facilities available in our country. An automatic alarm device for vehicle accidents is introduced in this paper. This design is a system which can detect accidents in significantly less time and sends the basic information to first aid centre within a few seconds covering geographical coordinates, the time and angle in which a vehicle accident had occurred. This alert message is sent to the rescue team in a short time, which will help in saving the valuable lives. A Switch is also provided in order to terminate the sending of a message in rare case where there is no casualty, this can save the precious time of the medical rescue team. When the accident occurs the alert message is sent automatically to the rescue team and to the police station. The message is sent through the GSM module and the location of the accident is detected with the help of the GPS module. The accident can be detected precisely with the help of both Micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) sensor and vibration sensor. The Angle of the rolls over of the car can also be known by the message through the MEMS sensor. This application provides the optimum solution to poor emergency facilities provided to the roads accidents in the most feasible way.

METHODOLOGY

The prototype model of an automatic vehicle accident detection and messaging using GSM and GPS modem using ARM7 working will be made in the following steps:

? Complete layout of the whole set up will be drawn in form of a block diagram.

? A piezoelectric sensor will first sense the occurrence of an accident and give its output to the microcontroller.

? The GPS detects the latitude and longitudinal position of a vehicle.

? The latitudes and longitude position of the vehicle is sent as message through the GSM.

? The phone number is pre-saved in the EEPROM.

? Whenever an accident has occurred the position is detected and a message has been sent to the pre-saved number.

GSM – Global System for Mobile Communication

GSM is used as a media which is used to control and monitor the transformer load from anywhere by sending a message. It has its own deterministic character. Thereby, here GSM is used to monitor and control the DC motor, Stepper motor, Temperature sensor and Solid State Relay by sending a message through GSM modem. Hence no need to waste time by manual operation and transportation. Hence it is considered as highly efficient communication through the mobile which will be useful in industrial controls, automobiles, and appliances which would be controlled from anywhere else. It is also highly economic and less expensive; hence GSM is preferred most for this mode of controlling.

GPS - Global Positioning System

GPS is used in vehicles for both tracking and navigation. Tracking systems enable a base station to keep track of the vehicles without the intervention of the driver where, as navigation system helps the driver to reach the destination. Whether navigation system or tracking system, the architecture is more or less similar. When an accident occurred in any place then GPS system tracks the position of the vehicle and sends the information to the particular person through GSM by alerting the person through SMS or by a call.

LITERATURE SURVEY

At present criteria, we cannot detect where the accident has occurred and hence no information related to it, leading to the death of an individual. The research work is going on for tracking the position of the vehicle even in dark clumsy areas where there is no network for receiving the signals. In this project GPS is used for tracking the position of the vehicle, GSM is used for sending the message and the ARM controller is used for saving the mobile number in the EEPROM and sends the message to it when an accident has been detected.

Hence with this project implementation we can detect the position of the vehicle where the accident has occurred so that we can provide the first aid as early as possible.

BLOCK DIAGRAM

HARDWARE DESCRIPTION

1. ARM7 TDMI:

The ARM7TDMI-S is a general purpose 32-bit microprocessor, which offers high performance and very low power consumption. The ARM architecture is based on Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) principles, and the instruction set and related decode mechanism are much simpler than those of micro programmed Complex Instruction Set Computers (CISC). This simplicity results in a high instruction throughput and impressive real-time interrupt response from a small and cost-effective processor core. Pipeline techniques are employed so that all parts of the processing and memory systems can operate continuously. Typically, while one instruction is being executed, its successor is being decoded and a third instruction is being fetched from memory. The ARM7TDMI-S processor also employs a unique architectural strategy known as Thumb, which makes it ideally suited to high-volume applications with memory restrictions, or applications where code density is an issue. The key idea behind Thumb is that of a super-reduced instruction set.

2. SENSOR:

A piezoelectric sensor is used as accident detection sensor. A piezoelectric transducer has very high DC output impedance and can be modeled as a proportional voltage source and filter network. The voltage V at the source is directly proportional to the applied force, pressure, or strain. The output signal is then related to this mechanical force as if it had passed through the equivalent circuit.

3.MAX 232:

The MAX232 is a dual driver/receiver that includes a capacitive voltage generator to supply TIA/EIA-232-F voltage levels from a single 5-V supply. Each receiver converts TIA/EIA-232-F inputs to 5-V TTL/CMOS levels. These receivers have a typical threshold of 1.3 V, a typical hysteresis of 0.5 V, and can accept ±30-V inputs. Each driver converts TTL/CMOS input levels into TIA/EIA-232-F levels.

4. EEPROM:

24C04 EEPROM is used in this project. This EEPROM stores the mobile numbers entered by the user for receiving accident alert SMS. The data stored in the EEPROM will retain even the power is off for long time.

5. 16X2 LCD:

16 X 2 LCD is used to display the operating instructions and status of the output. HD44780U is used in the project. The HD44780U dot-matrix liquid crystal display controller and driver LSI displays alphanumeric, Japanese kana characters, and symbols. It can be configured to drive a dot-matrix liquid crystal display under the control of a 4- or 8-bit microprocessor. Since all the functions such as display RAM, character generator, and liquid crystal driver, required for driving a dot-matrix liquid crystal display are internally provided on one chip, a minimal system can be interfaced with this controller/driver. A single HD44780U can display up to one 8-character line or two 8-character lines. The HD44780U has pin function compatibility with the HD44780S which allows the user to easily replace an LCD-II with an HD44780U. The HD44780U character generator ROM is extended to generate 208 5X8 dot character fonts and 32 5X10 dot character fonts for a total of 240 different character fonts.

6. CONTRAST CONTROL:

It is a simple variable resistor (preset) with linear characteristics. This is used to adjust the contrast of the display.

7. RESET:

Reset control circuit is used to reset the microcontroller at any stage of work. This section also comprises of auto power on reset. If the reset switch is pressed, the microcontroller restarts and the function will start from the beginning. This circuit is connected to 9th pin of microcontroller.

8. CRYSTAL:

A crystal is used to supply clock frequency to the microcontroller. The clock frequency is 11.0592MHz. 11.0592 MHz crystals are often used because it can be divided to give you exact clock rates for most of the common baud rates for the UART, especially for the higher speeds (9600, 19200). Despite the "oddball" value, these crystals are readily available and commonly used.

ADVANTAGES

? Easy to operate

? Sophisticated security.

? Simple and Reliable Design.

? Isolates both GSM and GPS signal

LIMITATIONS

It does not work without network.

APPLICATIONS

? Stolen Vehicle Recovery: Both consumer and commercial vehicles can be outfitted with RF or GPS units to allow police to do tracking and recovery. In the case of LoJack, the police can activate the tracking unit in the vehicle directly and follow tracking signals.

? Fleet Management: When managing a fleet of vehicles, knowing the real-time location of all drivers allows management to meet customer needs more efficiently. Whether it is delivery, service or other multi-vehicle enterprises, drivers now only need a mobile phone with telephony or Internet connection to be inexpensively tracked by and dispatched efficiently.

? Asset Tracking: Companies needing to track valuable assets for insurance or other monitoring purposes can now plot the real-time asset location on a map and closely monitor movement and operating status.

? Field Sales: Mobile sales professionals can access real-time locations. For example, in unfamiliar areas, they can locate themselves as well as customers and prospects, get driving directions and add nearby last-minute appointments to itineraries. Benefits include increased productivity, reduced driving time and increased time spent with customers and prospects.

? Transit Tracking: This is the temporary tracking of assets or cargoes from one point to another. Users will ensure that the assets do not stop on route or do a U-Turn in order to ensure the security of the assets.

CONCLUSION

This project presents vehicle accident detection and alert system with SMS to the user defined mobile numbers. The GPS tracking and GSM alert based algorithm is designed and implemented with LPC2148 MCU in embedded system domain. The proposed Vehicle accident detection system can track geographical information automatically and sends an alert SMS regarding accident. Experimental work has been carried out carefully. The result shows that higher sensitivity and accuracy is indeed achieved using this project. EEPROM is interfaced to store the mobile numbers permanently. This made the project more user-friendly and reliable. The proposed method is verified to be highly beneficial for the automotive industry.

References

GPS: Theory and Practice, B. Hofmann-Wellenhof et al., Springer Verlag, 1992, ISBN 3-211-82364-6 and 0-387-82364-6. Understanding GPS: Principles and Applications (Artech House Telecommunications Library), Elliott D. Kaplan (Editor) / Hardcover / (1996), (USD 99). GSM Networks: Protocols, Terminology and Implementation by Gunnar Heine. GSM Switching, Services, and Protocols by Joerg Eberspaecher. GSM System Engineering (Artech House Mobile Communications Series) by Asha K. Mehrotra. Working with GSM Network By Cruis Leonardo.