2011 Third International Conference on Measuring Technology and Mechatronics Automation

The intelligent embedded control warning system for car reversing

Hsi-Chuan Huang1*, Feng-Che Tsai2, Tsuo-Fei Mao 3
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Department of Automation Engineering, Chienkuo Technology University, Changhua 500, Taiwan 2 Department of Technological Product Design, Ling Tung University, Taichung, 408, Taiwan 3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chienkuo Technology University, Changhua 500, Taiwan 1* schwang@cc.ctu.edu.tw 2 tfc@cc.ctu.edu.tw 3 tfmau@ctu.edu.tw not only by seeing the permanent bright reverse lamps. And it is very difficult for them to know the actual situation well. Not only the warning feature of the reverse lamps is virtually not sufficient but their function will be influenced owing to the different installation positions. Just like the research of Sivak et., al, he found out that neither parking lamps nor auxiliary lamps mounted just above the driver will likely be a practical solution for the reduced light output above the horizontal from visually/optically aimable (VOA) lamps[8]. Moreover, there also have some vehicles being equipped with reverse alarm audio system. But usually we cant hear any warning sound if the rear windows of the vehicle are closed and the car stereo music is loud too. apply the decomposition approach to the classical complex control case of the Truck-and-Trailer (T&T) reverse parking control problem [3]. The device can bring about a decrease of 25 kph in average vehicle speeds [1]. This research plans to control the speed of the test mobile frame to be fallen in this range. There are so many studies about the auto safety auxiliary system. Such as; apply a multilevel driver assistance system in the development of a system to aid in the parking process. The development of this system is described within the iCAN (intelligent CAr Navigation Systems) project framework [4] and an automatic parking system (APS) with a good maneuver performance for vehicle. The proposed configuration of the APS includes sensors information fusion, position estimation, path planning, and tracking algorithm [5]. Embedded system has been used in a lot of applications of our living things which are currently existed around us already. As a matter of fact that to use the embedded system working as the controllers is very simple and efficient as there are no any system software or software part is needed at all. As for that, it is not necessary to do the cloud computing except the projected operation of embedded. Embedded system has been using in a very wide variety of the applications on such as cell phone, PDA, wireless network base station, digital TV box, multimedia advertisement billboard, bank cash machine, automobile navigation system, and so on. Besides of that, the embedded system also has been used for processing the signal of the sensors to try to improve the operation efficiency and processing the applications of the multiplexer. The operation system of embedded system can be Win CE or Linux. For example, G. Bruzzone et al. have used this kind of Linux embedded system for making the immediate control of the robot. In recent years, not only the computing ability of the hardware has been promoted a lot but the great development of the open style sound code software
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Abstract Most of the car drivers used the reverse radar or a reverse camera to detect the road situation behind the vehicle when it is engaged in reverse gear. As a matter of fact, the pedestrians can virtually know if the vehicle is backing up or not only by seeing the permanent bright reverse lamps. And as there is not much change with the reverse lamp to be seen, therefore their warning function for pedestrians seems to be still insufficient eventually. Therefore, this research tries to design a set of embedded intelligent car backup warning system so as to promote the safety of the walkers or the other drivers on the road. This embedded system uses Microsoft Win CE operating system and matches with the Mini2440 developing board. It also uses the Visual Studio 2005 for developing the intelligent touch panel operating mode. The UART interface on the Mini 2440 developing board controls the frequency converter, RC server and LED by using PIC16F877 to transform the signal of the sensors. And then, connecting to the sensors of angle, luminosity and distance so as to read the voltage value of the sensor and transferring them into actual values and followed by using 27 fuzzy logic rules to carry on the fuzzy logic deduction. And the angle of the LED reverse lamp bracket is adjusted and driven automatically according to the results of this logic deduction eventually. This research tries to do the simulated test by using a mobile frame in the same height as a real automobile. To let the test mobile frame being located 240cm away from the obstacle and then start the driven motor and set the frequency of it to be with 60Hz. (in other words, its speed is approximately in 2.52 Km/h.) the let the test mobile frame to stop at 40cm in front of the obstacle. We found out that the warning lamp bracket installation angle will be changed correspondently with the distance between test mobile frame and obstacle and being declined automatically from 90 degree to 0 degree. Apparently, from the test results, it has been proven that this system can reach the goal of automatically controlled car back-up warning function truly. Keywordsembedded control, car reversing, warning system

I. INTRODUCTION There are several car back-up warning systems which are currently used in the market at present such as reverse radar, reverse camera, and reverse alarm audio system, etc. and the function of the reverse radar is used to remind the driver of the distance behind the driving vehicle and the obstacle while the reverse camera is used to let the driver see the situation behind the driving vehicle without needing to turn around drivers head. Apparently, either of them is used for drivers purpose only. There is nothing to do with the pedestrians. As the pedestrians can only know if the vehicle is in reverse gear or

978-0-7695-4296-6/11 $26.00 2011 IEEE DOI 10.1109/ICMTMA.2011.785

is. After further detailed analysis of related questions, the Unix core has been used for the configuration of the Linux system so as to achieve the goal of 1 KHz immediate control. And it has been used in the practical application of controlling the unmanned water surface ship robot [9]. Fuzzy logic controller has been using in practical applications of our daily living electronic appliance things, transportation vehicles or any other automatically control systems already. R.E. Haber had proposed a kind of fuzzy control system's design to try to let the embedded control system use in the Computer Numerical Control manufacturing machine. And through experiments, it has been proven that the embedded fuzzy control system, which has been designed by him, can be used well in actual processing works truly. This controller controls the Computer Numerical Control manufacturing machines interior signal which virtually is the electric current of the main axle motor. And those signals are picked up so as to work as the input parameters of the system judgment. Under the thick milling work conditions, the embedded fuzzy controller might do the intelligent judgment by itself. And the experiment has proved that if the feeding process time decreases about 10% and then the total cost will be saved approximately 78% consequently. And it shows that the manufacturing efficiency is very high actually [10]. The research history of the fuzzy logic theory has been passing for several ten years. Such as the fuzzy control theory is used for controlling an autonomous mobile robot for the parallel parking, and the fuzzy rules can be derived by modeling driving actions of the conventional car [2].Artificial intelligent techniques, namely fuzzy logic, play an important role in the practical application of the method [6]. The fuzzy logic controllers are first demonstrated by simulation using the kinematic model of a skid steering autonomous ground vehicle (AGV). They are then demonstrated experimentally on a skid steering AGV and it is shown that the developed algorithm has the ability to parallel park AGVs in tight spaces under both vehicle localization errors and parking space detection errors [7]. II. MATERIAL AND METHOD The contents of this research are includes (1) the design of the intelligent embedded control warning system for car reversing, (2) the design of the test mobile frame, (3) to establish Win CE system (4) the design of the control program. And we would like to have further detailed descriptions individually as below: A. The design of the intelligent embedded control warning system for car reversing This system use sensors to detect the distance, vehicle speed, and ambient brightness so as to computing the signal of the sensors by the fuzzy logic controller. The controller uses the embedded system to work as the computing platform of the fuzzy logic controller. As the embedded controller has to process the graphic user interface, for the purpose of preventing it from being poor of computing performance, not only the program code should be optimized but need to use

the microprocessor for picking up the signal of the sensors so as to transfer the computing as well as generate the PWM signal finally. It truly can reduce the processor load effectively and avoids the computing being carried out on some processor only. Owing to that, it can avoid taking samples insufficiently in the process of picking up the signal of the sensors. Framework diagram is shown as Figure1. We use PIC 16F877 to convert the digital analogy as well as to convert the aided digital scale of sensors in order to facilitate the telecommunication transmission in series. To receive the control signals from embedded system by AT89C2051 and according to the contents of these control signals to generate PWM signal so as to control the rotation of the server as well as switching the different electric current of the mode with constant-current. The RS232 serial interface of embedded system uses RS485 converter to convert the signals of RS232 into RS485s signals so as to link with the VFD-M frequency converter in order to control the power supply frequency of the test mobile frame motor. The development board used in the embedded system for this paper is Mini2440. The Mini2440 development board uses Samsung the S3C2440 processor, its basic frequency is 400MHz and it can be set to be with the highest frequency of 533MHz by firmware. And with the help of 128 MB SDRAM, the loading speed of the large-scale programs will be virtually faster. There are several functions of the overall system described as 1. The embedded system can control the movement of the test mobile frame and the operation of the LED reverse warning system. 2. When doing the back-up test, the embedded system can activate the parking brakes to stop the test mobile frame when it is 40 cm away from the wall. 3. The operation of the LED of the intelligent embedded control warning system can be controlled by Fuzzy logic interface device. When the operation of the LED is tested with different frequencies, it can automatically store up the motor frequency, the distance away from the target, LED angle, environment brightness, Fuzzy reasoning output in the test.

Figure1. The framework diagram of the intelligent embedded control warning system

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B. The design of the mechanism of the test mobile frame For the purpose of testing the operation of the intelligent embedded control warning system, this research designs an experimental mobile frame as shown in Figure 2. The motor, LED lamp of warning system, and the sensor for detecting the environment situations are installed on the experimental mobile frame. And to do the simulated reverse situation test so as to test the operation of this control system as well as the layout of the experimental mobile frame structure. Actually, the target experimental object of this research paper is a van. But it seems impossible to carry on the test if we try to make the experimental verification by using a real van. As it is very difficult for us to set up the computer and it virtually is unable for us to pick up the real information also. Owing to that, we design an experimental mobile frame, which is a simulated rear part of a real van, so as to install an intelligent warning system on the rear part of it. Besides of that, the height of the experimental mobile frame is designed to be almost the same as a real van in order to reduce the simulation error of the operation of the experimental mobile frame as far as possible. For example; the installation height of the rear view mirror of a van is around 155cm above the ground. Therefore, the base of this warning system is designed to be located above the ground for 155cm also. With regards to the driven power of this experimental mobile frame is designed to be with a 3 phrases AC motor. And then its power line is transmitted through a reduction device, and a driven belt to the wheel axle of the experimental mobile frame. As the wheel axle connects directly to the wheels, the whole body of the experimental mobile frame can be driven by the AC motor doubtlessly. The motor output speed comes from the reduction device is 20.1 r/min when the AC power supply frequency is 60 Hz. If the diameter ratio between the motor belt pulley and wheel axle belt pulley is 50:17, the wheel axle output speed will be 59.117 rpm apparently. As the diameter of the wheel is 22cm, so the walking distance of it is 40.85 meters per minute. in other words, its speed is 2.43 km/ h eventually.

is to establish a development platform. For example, the requirement of the development platform of WinCE6 is to install Visual studio 2005 (to hereafter refer to as VS2005) and Visual Studio Service Pack. And the main complier tool is Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Platform Builder. As CE 6.0 Platform Builder should be attached to VS2005 for carrying out its works, so that, the development platform needs to installed a VS2005 on it. The compilation process of Win CE has several steps as below. They are Pre-Sysgen Build, Sysgen (System Generation), Post-Sysgen Build, Build Release Dir, and Make Run-Time Image. D. The design of the control programs The embedded system program must link with the sensors. And according to the different kind of the out put of sensor, the needed converting circuit is different too. The output signal of those sensors, which are with an analogy output, needs an A/D converter to connect to the embedded system while the output signal of those sensors, which are with a digital output signal, can connect to the embedded system, which is with the same communication interface directly. An interface converting circuit is needed either if the transmission interface of the sensor is different from the embedded systems or there is no any of this kind of interface existed. The sensor used in this system is for detecting the angle, brightness, speed, distance. And the output signal of angle & brightness are analogy outputs while the one of distance is a digital output consequently. This research paper uses a Microchip 8 bits chip PIC16F877 to work as the converting interface. And it has 8 groups of A/D converter, one SSP (Synchronous Serial Port) interface, one IC Interface, and USART/SCI (Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) Interface. This fuzzy logic controller has 3 input parameter values. And they are vehicle speed, distance, environment brightness separately. While the output variables are LED lamp bracket moving angle & the LED lamp brightness level. The fuzzy logic controller uses the fuzzy reasoning mechanism of Mamdani Min-Min-Max fuzzy reasoning method. With regards to the design of a fuzzy logic controller, you have to determine the structure of the logic controller first of all. And then, followed by defining the set of output & input so as to define membership function according to the input & output variables. And then, to establish the fuzzy logic reasoning rules by using the input & output membership functions so as to carry on the logic reasoning by the biggest-smallest synthesis and finally to use the gravity method to do the deffuzification procedure. III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION This research carries on the actual online test and its result shows that when the fuzzy logic reasoning controller starts operating, it will detect the motor frequency first of all. And the fuzzy logic controller will get started processing the fuzzy logic reasoning only when the motor frequency is not 0 Hz. Therefore, the fuzzy angle output value starts decreasing from original value of 1.8 to 1.6 until the motor starts rotating and the experimental mobile frame is away from the target object

Figure 2. The configuration of the experimental mobile frame C. Establish Win CE system To Establish the WinCE system, the first of all things to do

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approximately 230 cm. With regards to the environment brightness, as the brightness is directly falling in the membership function range which is with very low brightness (As shown in Figure 3.). To let the experimental mobile frame being located 240cm away from the obstacle and then start the driven motor and set the frequency of it to be with 60Hz (in other words, its speed is approximately in 2.52 Km/h.). And let the experimental mobile frame to stop at 40 cm in front of the obstacle. Finally, to carry on the test so as to establish the variation between the fuzzy logic reasoning angle output and the actual LED lamp bracket moving angle in order to process the regression analysis of the result. And the regression formula of y=95.252x+68.691 is obtained eventually.

information such as vehicle speed, accelerator condition, engine speed, etc. so as to works as the input information of the fuzzy logic control. Apparently, to use the vehicle existing sensors not only can prevent the system from having too much installation works of the vehicle components needed but can cost down effectively. REFERENCES
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Figure 3. The variation of distance and LED lamp bracket moving angle IV. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION This research truly can make the operation of reversing warning system be possible. And the operation of it can be done very well in the limited condition. As some limitations belong to sensors themselves, such as the work range of the distance sensor in less than 240 cm, in other word, the experimental mobile frame couldnt detect the distance while it is moving away from the target object more than 240cm. and owing to that, the distance membership function is restricted by this limitation consequently. The stability of this system can be improved a lot if we could use the sensors which are with superior features of the performance. And they not only can provide fuzzy logic reasoning controller with better input signals for processing the fuzzy logic reasoning computing but can promote the system stability a lot also. In the future, if there has any requirement of the system which is asked to operate more quickly or more real time. We might use the Linux OS or others like RTOS (Real-time operation system) to work as the OS of the controller. Along with the use of C language to develop the control program, it not only can promote the system performance but with the help of using the free open source code system, it truly does very good to the commercialization of the future products so as to save much cost also. Moreover, this system can work along with CAN (Controller Area Network). And with the help of driving computer, it virtually could obtain the driving

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