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EMERGENCY RESPONSE HORN FOR LOW COST BIKES
N. DINESH KUMAR
1
, P. PRUDHVI RAJ
2
, R. PAVAN KUMAR
3
& V. SAIRAM CHAITANYA
4

1
Associate Professor & HOD, Department of EIE, Vignan Institute of Technology & Science, Deshmukhi,
Andhra Pradesh, India
2,3,4
Student, Department of Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering, Vignan Institute of Technology & Science,
Deshmukhi, Andhra Pradesh, India

ABSTRACT
This paper on Emergency response horn for vehicles intends to reduce the risk of accidents that may occur at any
moment. Most of the accidents take place due to high speed driving. The module is designed by placing the IR transmitter
and the receiver on either sides of the bikes wheel. The transmitter transmits infrared light through rotating wheel. When it
completes one rotation, the receiver receives one clock pulse. So, depending on the number of clock pulses, speed of the
vehicle is measured and is given to a microcontroller. Microcontroller is programmed such that, when speed reaches or
goes beyond certain value, Ultrasonic sensor placed in front of the vehicle gets activated to sense any object or vehicle
which is in close proximity of the subject vehicle and gives a warning through a buzzer sound alerting the motorists.
KEYWORDS: IR Module, Microcontroller, Ultrasonic Sensor
INTRODUCTION
Riders riding bike at high speed have to face the risk of accidents. One such risk is, hitting the vehicle that comes
across our way when riding. This is the most common situation by which more accidents occur. Because of some nasty
drivers, who dont give indication when they come across our way, these kinds of accidents occur. To reduce these kinds of
risk, a safety system is developed which contains horn called emergency response horn that sounds when there is any
obstacle before subject vehicle (bike). The horn gives indication depending on the speed i.e., when there is any obstacle
before the ultrasonic sensor placed in front of the bike, it checks for the speed, whether it reached beyond certain limit that
is predefined. If that happens, ultrasonic sensor gives signal to the horn. By this, horn alerts both the motorists that there is
a danger.
Present Methods
Earlier, safety systems were used in bikes. In 1988 BMW sold for the first time an electronic/hydraulic ABS for
motorcycles, ten years after Daimler Benz and Bosch released the first four wheel vehicle ABS for series production.
Motorcycles of BMWs K-100 series were optionally equipped with the ABS 1 which weighed 11 kg. It was developed
together with FAG Kugelfischer and regulated the pressure in the braking circuits via a plunger piston. The Motorcycle
Anti-lock Brake System (ABS) prevents the wheels of a powered two wheeler from locking during braking situations.
Based on information from wheel speed sensors the ABS unit adjusts the pressure of the brake fluid in order to
keep traction and avoid fall downs. Motorcycle ABS helps the rider to maintain stability during braking and to decrease the
stopping distance. It provides traction even on low friction surfaces. While older ABS models are derived from cars, recent
ABS is the result of research, oriented on the specifics of motorcycles in case of size, weight and functionality. In some
International Journal of Electrical and
Electronics Engineering Research (IJEEER)
ISSN(P): 2250-155X; ISSN(E): 2278-943X
Vol. 4, Issue 3, Jun 2014, 95-102
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96 N. Dinesh Kumar, P. Prudhvi Raj, R. Pavan Kumar & V. Sairam Chaitanya

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.9638 Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0
costlier bikes, ABS has been implemented. This is a safety system that can help people from major accidents. But this
system is not there in low cost bikes.
Keeping in view the space available in the bike, shape and cost of the bike, to implement the same system in all
kinds of bikes may not be possible. Instead of implementing the same system for low cost bikes, this paper discusses a
simple cost effective circuit for any bike. Because of the increasing traffic, this model will be very much helpful to the bike
riders.
Proposed Method
This model aims to alert the motorists by a buzzer placed in front of the vehicle and reduce the risk of occurring
accidents or to prevent them. Sometimes, while riding a bike, the person may not be cautious. At that moment, it will help
to warn the rider and also the person who comes across his way.
A fan is arranged to the spring (core) inside the speedometer cable. When the wheel rotates, the fan also rotates
synchronously. The IR transmitter and receiver are on the either sides of the fan and the whole setup is enclosed in a box so
that it will not be affected by environmental parameters. The IR sensor determines the speed and is connected to Arduino
board. The ultrasonic sensor connected from the arduino board is fixed in front of the bike to detect the obstacle. This is
also connected to horn called emergency response horn.
HARDWARE DESCRIPTION
Interfacing IR Sensor with Speedometer Cable
Speedometer is connected between the wheel and the speedometer. When the car or motorcycle is in motion, a
speedometer gear assembly turns a speedometer cable, which then turns the speedometer mechanism itself. A small
permanent magnet affixed to the speedometer cable interacts with a small aluminum cup called a speed cup attached to the
shaft of the pointer on the analogue speedometer instrument. As the magnet rotates near the cup, the changing magnetic
field produces eddy currents in the cup, which themselves produce another magnetic field. The effect is that the magnet
exerts a torque on the cup, "dragging" it, and thus the speedometer pointer, in the direction of its rotation with no
mechanical connection between them. The pointer shaft is held toward zero by a fine torsion spring. The torque on the cup
increases with the speed of rotation of the magnet. Thus an increase in the speed of the bike will twist the cup and
speedometer pointer against the spring. The cup and pointer will turn until the torque of the eddy currents on the cup is
balanced by the opposing torque of the spring, and then stop. Given the torque on the cup is proportional to the bike's
speed, and the spring's deflection is proportional to the torque, the angle of the pointer is also proportional to the speed,
so that equally-spaced markers on the dial can be used for gaps in speed. The speedometer cable is located on the back of
the speedometer. The other end of the cable is connected to the transmission. The speedometer cable will thread through
the firewall to connect the transmission and speedometer. The upper cable connects the Lambda counter to
the speedometer. It rarely fails. The lower cable connects the angle drive to the Lambda counter.
The original lower cable was too long for the application, and would sag. This could result in damage to the cable
if it came in contact with the road or road debris, and the excess slack could introduce undue resistance throughout the
speedometer system, eventually damaging the angle drive and possibly other components.
IR sensors use infra red light to sense objects in front of them and gauge their distance. The commonly used Sharp
IR sensors have two black circles which used for this process, an emitter and a detector. A pulse of infra red light is emitted
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from the emitter and spreads out in a large arc. If no object is detected then the IR light continues forever and no reading is
recorded. However, if an object is nearby then the IR light will be reflected and some of it will hit the detector. This forms
a simple triangle between the object, emitter and detector. The detector is able to detect the angle that the IR light arrived
back at and thus can determine the distance to the object. This is remarkably accurate and although interference from
sunlight is still a problem, these sensors are capable of detecting dark objects in sunlight now.

Figure 1: IR Transmitter Fixed to the Lid of the Box Figure 2: IR Receiver Fixed inside the Box

Figure 3: IR Emitter and Receiver
As a fan is fixed to the speedometer cable, the fan rotates with the rotation of the spring, which rotates when the
wheel rotates. The emitter is arranged above the fan and the receiver (detector) is arranged below the fan such that they
pass infrared light. When the fan is rotating, it must pass through the infrared light. When it is passed through the light
between the emitter and the detector, the detector considers it as an obstacle. In this way the IR sensor is interfaced with
the speedometer cable. The picture shown in the figure 1 is the emitter, which transmits the infrared light. This is fixed to
the lid (blue colored) so as to arrange it above the fan. Power supply V
cc
and the ground wires are out of lid as shown.
98 N. Dinesh Kumar, P. Prudhvi Raj, R. Pavan Kumar & V. Sairam Chaitanya

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.9638 Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0
They are dragged outside the lid through a small hole to give the supply to and connect the ground wire to the ground.
The picture shown in the figure 2 is the receiver which receives infrared light. This is fixed inside the box so as to arrange
below the fan. If the box is closed with the lid, such that the emitter is straight above the receiver, we can say that IR sensor
is interfaced with the fan nothing but interfaced with the speedometer cable. The complete setup of transmitter and the
detector (receiver) is shown in figure 3.
LCD Output
LCD is used to indicate the speed of the rotating fan i.e., speed of the bike in Kilometer per hour. When the fan
starts rotating, the number of the times it is passing through the infrared light in one second is recorded. This number is t he
speed of the wheel in rotations per second. The conversion of the speed from rotations per second to kilometer per hour is
done by the program that has been dumped in the microcontroller. The connections from the IR sensor to the Arduino
board and the LCD board can be seen from the figure 3. The output wire from the IR sensor is given to the Arduino board.
By this, counting of the rotations per second of the fan takes place. Buzzer is also fixed in the same PCB board.
Ultrasonic Sensor
The sensor sends a sonic pulse signal, which is reflected by the object to be detected. The time, which the pulse
signal requires from the sensor to the object and back, is measured and evaluated. The distance is calculated from the time
and the pulse speed. Disturbances such as dust, soiling or fog do not influence measurements. Mutually interfering light
influences or temperature fluctuations are not a problem either. Because almost every material reflects sonic waves, its use
is recommended for level measurements, foils or transparent objects.
Ultrasonic Sensor has following advantages and specifications:
High measurement accuracy thanks to time of flight measurement
Independent of material shape (including glass, foil and bottles)
Display for simple teach-in
Insensitive to dust, dirt and fog
Binary outputs or analogue output (4 ... 20 mA and 0 ... 10 V)
Measuring range - mm to mts
Resolution - 0.18 mm
Response time- 50 ms ... 110 ms
In this module, ultrasonic sensor is activated all the time. It is placed in front of the bike, to detect the vehicle
which comes across the bikes way. The ultrasonic sensor is in on position all the time and is connected to the arduino
board. When it detects any obstacle, its value goes high otherwise it is low. It is arranged in front of the vehicle.
The arrangement of the sensor to the bike is shown in figure 4 and figure 5.
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Figure 5 & 6: Complete Module Arrangement for a Bike under Test
Buzzer
Buzzer is one which gives sound when a voltage is applied to it. In this module whenever the condition satisfies
and when there is any obstacle in front of the bike, voltage is applied to the buzzer otherwise it is grounded. It goes high
when supply voltage is given to it so it sounds. The condition which has been taken for testing purpose is that speed should
be greater than or equal to 20 kmph.
Microcontroller
Arduino is a single-board microcontroller, intended to make the application of interactive objects or
environments more accessible. The hardware consists of an open-source hardware board designed around an
8-bit Atmel AVR microcontroller, or a 32-bit AtmelARM. Current models feature an USB interface, 6 analog input pins,
as well as 14 digital I/O pins which allow attaching various extension boards. Arduino comes with a simple integrated
development environment (IDE) that allows programming the computer using C or C++.
ARDUINO SOFTWARE
Arduino programs are written in C or C++. The Arduino IDE comes with a software library called "Wiring" from
the original Wiring project, which makes many common input/output operations much easier. Users only need define
two functions to make a run able cyclic executive program:
Setup (): A function run once at the start of a program that can initialize settings.
Loop (): A function called repeatedly until the board powers off.
Arduino code written in Arduino IDE (integrated development environment) is shown in figure 6.
100 N. Dinesh Kumar, P. Prudhvi Raj, R. Pavan Kumar & V. Sairam
Chaitanya

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.9638 Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

Figure 7: Screenshot of Arduino Code Written in Arduino IDE
Arduino provides following core services and benefits:
Program Portability
Modular Programming
Bit Manipulation
Polymorphism
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Dynamic Binding
Message Passing
RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS
This paper discusses most common reason behind the occurring of accidents and the drawbacks are taken into
consideration before designing Emergency response horn for bikes. Many designs were considered before finalizing and
practical approach is taken into consideration. Arduino platform was chosen for programming as it is more advanced than
its counterparts ATmega328 and it runs on C, C++. The emergency response horn which is to sound at some required
instant of time was achieved.
REFERENCES
1. http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage
2. Using Ultrasonic and Infrared Sensors for Distance Measurement by Tarek Mohammad