Environmental awareness around vehicle using ultrasonic sensors

The objective of this work is to locate objects in the vicinity of moving and/or stationary vehicles using ultrasonic sensors. Parking and driving a vehicle in an inconvenient or crowded location, such as small parking slots, in heavy traffic, or narrow streets needs the driver to carefully monitor around vehicle to avoid damage to the vehicle, its passengers and also to the people and objects around it. In such scenarios, a driver cannot fully monitor the environment around the vehicle using only rear view mirrors and front mirrors. Blind spots around the vehicle, where the front and rear-view mirrors do not show the obstructions to traffic, leads to the development of around view monitor system as mitigation. The around view system proposed here is based on distance calculation between the object and the vehicle. It is a supporting technology that assists drivers in parking and driving the vehicle more easily by giving a better understanding of the environment around vehicle. The proposed system, makes use of twelve ultrasonic sensors to cover 360 degrees of the vehicle. That means three ultrasonic sensor are used to cover one side of the vehicle with 180 degrees. System development consists of integrating software and hardware modules. The prototype model is developed using Atmel SAMD Xplained pro kit and the developed model is tested on passenger car with real time test conditions. The proposed system uses less number of sensors when compared with the existing systems.

I. Introduction

Every year in India alone, more than 1.25 million injuries are caused by vehicle-related accidents. Reducing this number calls for more advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), those that help with monitoring, warning, steering and braking. “ADAS has proved the potential to significantly reduce the number of road accidents. An ADAS is a supporting vehicle control system that uses sensors (e.g. sonar, radar, laser, vision) to improve driving comfort and traffic safety by assisting the driver in parking, recognizing and reacting to potentially dangerous traffic situations” [1]. Below figure 1.1 [1] shows the different application of advanced driver assistance system. Some of the advanced driver system can be distinguished as below. •

Driver information systems which provide situational awareness to the driver e.g. advanced navigation systems.

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Driver warning systems which warn the driver about potential danger, e.g. blind spot warning, forward collision warning systems and lane departure warning. This warning allows the driver to take appropriate measures in order to change or completely avoid the situation.

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Integrated active and passive safety systems. By deploying active and passive safety measures, a pre-crash system can decrease the crash severity before a collision occurs. Some of the Pre-crash safety measure are brake assist and seat belt pre-tensioners.

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Fully automated systems are the next improved driver assistance system, and operate without driver in the control loop. Fully automated cars and automated highway systems are expected to significantly improve traffic safety and throughput.

Figure 1.1:

Different applications of advanced diver assistance systems