AUTOMATIC RAIN OPERATED WIPER A PROJECT REPORT Submitted by PARTH PATEL (080010102028) AMRITESH MISHRA (080010102015) PRIYEN PATEL (080010102032) VRAJ MISTRY (080010102018) In fulfillment for the award of the degree of BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING in AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERING A D Patel Institute of Technology Vallabh Vidyanagar Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad
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AUTOMATIC RAIN OPERATED WIPER
A PROJECT REPORT
Submitted by
PARTH PATEL (080010102028)
AMRITESH MISHRA (080010102015)
PRIYEN PATEL (080010102032)
VRAJ MISTRY (080010102018)
In fulfillment for the award of the degree
of
BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
in
AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERING
A D Patel Institute of Technology Vallabh Vidyanagar
Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad
CERTIFICATE
Date: 20-04-2011
This is to certify that the dissertation entitled “Automatic Rain Operated
Wiper” has been carried out by “Parth Patel, Amritesh Mishra , Vraj Mistry
and Priyen Patel” under my guidance in fulfillment of the degree of Bachelor
of Engineering in <AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERING> (8th Semester) of
Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad during the academic year
2011-12.
Faculty Guide: Head of The Dept. :
Prof. Nikunj S Yagnik Dr. A D Patel
ABSTRACT
The automated windshield wiper system is a system used to automatically detect rainfall and activate the windshield wipers without driver interaction. This product will be developed to mitigate driving distractions and allow drivers to focus on their primary task: driving. The major distraction eliminated with the development of this product is the manual adjustment of windshield wipers when driving in precipitation. The few seconds that a driver takes their attention off the road to adjust a knob while driving in sub par conditions could potentially lead to car accidents. Car manufacturers would readily purchase such a design to incorporate in their vehicles. There are similar autonomous windshield wiper systems on the market today, but no existing system includes speech recognition to switch from manual to automatic modes. The windshield wiper system will detect precipitation with an erroneous detection rate of less than 5 percent. A prototype system will first be developed before the system is mass produced. The windshield wiper system will detect precipitation through optical and impedance sensors that will activate a control unit; speech recognition will be integrated into the system through additional hardware.
Acknowledgement
It would be very difficult to complete the study without corporation and instance of number of
individual and our institution. We take this opportunity to express my sense of gratitude to them.
This project would not be seen the light of day without support, opportunity, environment
provided by institution. We also heart fully thankful to Mr. Nikunj Yagnik, our guide to have the
best presentation of our project. Lastly we would like to take an opportunity to thank all the
people who helped us in collecting necessary information and making of the report. We are
greatful to all of them for helping us with their energy and wisdom.
The team developed an autonomous windshield wiper system for automobiles using IR and
impedance sensors, a microcontroller, and signal conditioning circuitry. The sensors send an
input signal to the microcontroller that controls the wiper motor through interfacing with the
automobile wiper control circuitry. The motivation of the project centered on developing a
reliable automatic windshield wiper system that is commercially available to a large market of
automobile owners. Research was done on similar products in the market and articles from
academic sources for the foundation of our design approach.
1.1. Objective
The project aims to develop an automatic windshield wiper system that automates the
process of the driver’s manual response to rain on the windshield. Car manufacturers will be
the primary customers for system integration into their future automobile lines, and the
secondary customers will be individual automobile owners, using the system as an after-market
product
Motivation
The National Highway and Transportation Safety Association reports that twenty-six
percent of all car accidents are caused by distractions due to talking on cell phones, eating while
driving, and other similar distractions that take a driver’s focus off the road . The distraction
considered in this project is the adjustment of wiper speed based on the intensity of precipitation
falling. By eliminating the need for drivers to adjust wiper speed while driving, the number of
accidents caused by distraction can be slightly reduced.
Similar systems are currently installed in some luxury vehicles , but such systems have not
reached the massive economy vehicle market. The low-cost solution proposed by the design will
most importantly satisfy the safety and performance requirements needed for the driver at a more
reasonable price. The windshield wiper system will manage to do this by combining the
performance of an inexpensive infrared sensor and impedance sensors. The project
demonstration will determine how our system performs against existing systems, and the cost
analysis will compare against the cost of existing products.
1.3 Background
There are products similar to the MARE systems that are currently on the market.
Existing comparable products on the market include the Rain Tracker system by Opto-
Electronic Design, Inc. and the TRW rain sensor. Both the TRW rain sensor and the
Rain Tracker detect rain through IR sensors that are located behind the rear view mirror
and interpret changes in light patterns that are caused by the precipitation on the
windshield.
The improvement of existing windshield wiper systems is still an area of interest for
researchers. In 2001, researchers presented a report at an IEEE conference that
concentrated on the design and implementation of a rain sensing system. In 2005, they
proposed a windshield wiper system that used small cameras installed in cars’
windshield to detect rain.
2. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION AND GOALS
The product goals are given by the following criteria:
Detect rainfall on windshield
Detect intensity of rainfall
Activate windshield wipers automatically once rainfall is detected
Avoid adverse effects of extraneous and environmental factors
Meet or exceed the response time of the driver
Make adaptable to all vehicles
Develop high reliability (less than five percent intensity detection errors)
Create with ease of installation
The primary goal of MARE is to automatically detect rainfall and activate the windshield
wipers without driver interaction. This system should respond to rainfall in a similar manner as
if the driver were manually controlling his or her windshield wipers. In the project proposal, the
team included a voice-activation feature as a project goal. During prototype development it
became evident to the team that the inclusion of the speech recognition feature would require
more development hours than available, thus adversely affecting the project deadline; therefore,
this feature was not included in the prototype. The automated windshield wiper system consists
of the following:
sensors that detect rain and its intensity
a microcontroller that outputs a control signal to the motor control circuitry
signal-conditioning circuitry to interface with all the components in system
3.1 Need for Automation
3.2 Types of Automation:
In the past, automakers have tried to either eliminate the wipers or to control their speed automatically. Some of the schemes involved detecting the vibrations caused by individual raindrops hitting the windshield, applying special coatings that did not allow drops to form, or even ultrasonically vibrating the windshield to break up the droplets so they don't need to be wiped at all. But these systems were plagued by problems and either never made it to production or was quickly axed because they annoyed more drivers than they pleased.However, a new type of wiper system is starting to appear on cars that actually do a good job of detecting the amount of water on the windshield and controlling the wipers. One such system is made by TRW Inc., here is a PDF describing their rain sensor system. TRW Inc. uses optical sensors to detect the moisture. The sensor is mounted in contact with the inside of the windshield, near the r earview mirror .The sensor projects infrared light into the windshield at a 45-degree angle. If the glass is dry, most of this light is reflected back into the sensor by the front of the windshield. If water droplets are on the glass, they reflect the light in different directions -- the wetter the glass, the less light makes it back into the sensor.The electronics and software in the sensor turn on the wipers when the amount of light reflected onto the sensor decreases to a preset level. The software sets the speed of the wipers based on how fast the moisture builds up between wipes. It can operate the wipers at any speed. The system adjusts the speed as often as necessary to match with the rate of moisture accumulation.The TRW system, which is found on many General Motors cars, including all Cadillac models, can also be overridden or turned off so the car can be washed.