GRD Journals | Global Research and Development Journal for Engineering | International Conference on Innovations in Engineering and Technology

(ICIET) - 2016 | July 2016

e-ISSN: 2455-5703

Blind Zone Alert System using ZigBee based

Wireless Sensor Network
1K.

C. Vigneswar 2Mr. S. Arunkumar

1
Assistant Professor 2Professor
1,2
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
1,2
PSNA College of Engineering & Technology, Dindigul 624 622 INDIA
Abstract
The main purpose of this project is to detect and monitor objects within a predetermined distance from the vehicle that may be
approaching its blind-spot. Moreover, the invention is particularly designed to be used for a vehicle that does not have a factoryequipped blind-spot detection system. This method and system utilizes two ultrasonic sensors for the vehicle to detect
approaching objects, including other vehicles, pedestrians and other possible obstacles, in the blind-spot area. Due to the
increasing number of sensors deployed in modern vehicles, intra-vehicular wireless sensor networks (IVWSNs) have recently
received a lot of attention in the automotive industry, as they can reduce the amount of wiring harness inside a vehicle. By
removing the wires, car manufacturers can reduce the weight of a vehicle and improve engine performance, fuel economy, and
reliability. An example application, known as a side blind zone alert (SBZA) system, which monitors the blind zone of the
vehicle and alerts the driver in a timely manner to prevent collisions, is discussed in this project. The performance of the
IVWSN-based SBZA system is done with the help of ZigBee which are implemented on two moving vehicle modules.
Keyword- Blind spot, Pedestrian, Intra-vehicular Wireless sensor
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

I. INTRODUCTION
Modern production vehicles are highly computerized and the major functionalities of a vehicle are controlled by several
electronic control units (ecus) inside the vehicle. Ecus require sensors to gather real-time information of the Vehicle in order to
control the vehicular operations. Currently, Most of the sensors inside vehicles are connected to the ecus by physical wires.
Controller area networks (CAN), flexray, And local interconnect network (LIN) are the common technologies currently used for
the wired network inside vehicles. However, because the complexity of vehicles is getting higher, and the number of applications
and gadgets in vehicles keeps increasing, the large number of wires needed to connect sensors. With ecus pose significant
challenges. Ultra-wideband (UWB) technique attracts attention from automotive manufacturers as a potential way to construct
intra-vehicle wireless sensor network. This paper contains the empirical study of intra-vehicle wireless sensor network based on
blue tooth low energy device (BLE). Here the side blind zone alert system is designed based on IVWSN and tested on 2011
Cadillac Escalade.

II. PROPOSED SYSTEM

This project proposes to use an IVWSN to support the blind zone alert feature as a new industrial platform. Side blind zone alert
(SBZA) system, which monitors the blind zone of the vehicle and alerts the driver in a timely manner to prevent collisions is
discussed. In this project a blind zone alert system is designed and implemented on an IVWSN platform based on the Zigbee
technology. It could be a great fit for certain applications of IVWSNs due to its accuracy. The blind-spot monitoring system
consists of two detection systems and one monitoring and warning system. These two detection systems are deployed to monitor
and detect objects in the blind- spot areas. The detection systems transfer the associated information of the detected object to the
monitoring and warning system wirelessly. Each detection system comprises a distance sensor, wireless transceiver, and power
supply. The monitoring and warning system is responsible for processing the data received from detection systems and warning
the driver properly. The monitoring and warning system is established on a display and control unit, which also provides a user
interface for the user to interact with system.

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Blind Zone Alert System using ZigBee based Wireless Sensor Network
(GRDJE / CONFERENCE / ICIET - 2016 / 039)

Fig. 1: Block diagram of the module in the vehicle

This system consist of two modules namely

Module in the vehicle
Monitoring station

Fig. 2: Block diagram of the monitoring station

III. WORKING PRINCIPLE

Here there are two modules, one as detector and another as target each module consists of PIC microcontroller, 16X2 LCD
display, two ultrasonic sensors and one zigbee consol.
Since zigbee act as both sensor and wireless sensor networking system that makes each node in the modules. The power
supply for zigbee module is from the microcontroller. These two modules consist of relay control unit for moving action. There
will be a light indicator and sound alert for alerting these two modules from collision with each other.
Here both zigbee works based on RSSI (i.e.) it will compare present and past position of the modules depends on the
signals received by both zigbee so with help of this detector senses that some target device or module is approaching the detector
module and light indictor indicates that some module with zigbee approach and further if that module approach the detector has
ultrasonic sensor senses the obstacle and alerts by sound with help of buzzer so that timely collision of both devices can be
prevented.
There will be base station which is nothing but a laptop or personal computer to which an zigbee module is connected for
monitoring the modules parameter (i.e.) the distance of the detector for the target device and the LCD of the modules shows the
distance of two sides from the module and also the zigbee RSSI, these parameters can be monitored in the laptop by creating app
using visual basic so that these forms a wireless sensor network.

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Blind Zone Alert System using ZigBee based Wireless Sensor Network
(GRDJE / CONFERENCE / ICIET - 2016 / 039)

IV. HARDWARE DESCRIPTION

A. Ultrasonic Sensor
Ultrasonic sensor is utilized for the project prototype due to its low cost and wild availability. The system shows the
technical specifications from a typical ultrasonic sensor. One focus of this project is to minimize the power consumption for the
distance detection sensor box. Bluetooth Low Energy is a new standard within the Bluetooth v4.0 core specification, which
operates on an extreme low power level. The system shows some technical specifications for Bluetooth Low Energy standard.

Fig. 3: Hardware setup of vehicle station

B. Microcontroller
Microcontroller is a computer on a chip that is programmed to perform almost any control, sequencing, monitoring and display
the function. Because of its relatively low cost, it becomes the natural choice to the designer. Microcontroller is designed to be
all of that in one. Its great advantage is no other external components are needed for its application because all necessary
peripherals are already built into it.
C. ZigBee Transceiver
For a project based on wireless sensor , the most popular wireless technologies are Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11(Wi-Fi) and
ZigBee. Among these options, only the ones that are supported by Smartphone can be considered, since the Smartphone
should be able to transmit/receive the wireless signal independently. Therefore, we ruled out the option of ZigBee because its
not built -in to any Smartphone at present. In addition, as our blind -spot detection system is not embedded into the vehicle, an
external power source, such as a battery, is required.
D. Relay Control
These detected undesirable movements will interfere with blind spot monitoring results and may trigger false alarms. Discrete
distances to moving objects can be detected and measured. It has resistance to external disturbances such as vibration,
infrared radiation, ambient noise.
E. LCD
LCDs use these liquid crystals because they react predictably to electric current in such a way as to control the passage of light.
The approach is that if the distance traveled by the robot (indicated by encoders) reaches the reference distance sent by
MATLAB, the robot stops and waits for the next command. The same approach is valid for rotation where the angle of rotation
indicated by the wheel encoders can be compared with the reference rotation angle commanded.

V. CONCLUSION
It is envisioned that modern vehicles produced in the near future will be equipped with more wireless sensors, which are parts of
the IVWSNs, to improve fuel economy, safety, engine performance, and offer more features. Based on the observation that some
of these wireless sensors have low duty cycles, it is shown that additional features and functionalities can be provided by
utilizing the idle time of these sensors. In this paper, the blind zone alert system is chosen as an illustrative application; a
specially designed system is installed in the rear of a vehicle and it detects the presence of a target vehicle in its blind zone based

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Blind Zone Alert System using ZigBee based Wireless Sensor Network
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on the received signal strength of packets broadcast by the sensors such as TPMS sensors of the target vehicle. The system is
designed, implemented, and evaluated on a commercially available BLE platform. Evaluation results from the two real
experiments conducted are very promising as the proposed system can achieve approximately 95%99% detection rate with less
than 15% false alarm rate. Due to its low cost (as compared to the existing systems such as radar- and camera-based solutions)
and simple implementation (i.e., the proposed system can be implemented on the existing sensors with slight modifications), the
IVWSN-based blind zone alert system presented in this paper could be an attractive solution for car manufacturers.

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