In Car Data Collection System

Overview

With fuel economy in mind, the Super Mileage club at Penn State Behrend is dedicated to creating a vehicle that can obtain the highest possible fuel economy during operation. This club is mainly comprised of mechanical engineers with an interest in this area. Previous car iterations were accomplished with little help from electrical engineering majors. As a result of the lack of any computer systems, the data currently being collected is not acquired in real time, but rather is done by hand measurements and calculations after a test run is completed

Objectives

To design a system that would provide feedback information to the driver as well as collect test run data. The system is to be designed to collect information about the vehicle as it is being operated, store it, and provide feedback to the driver.

Approach

• The team first met with the sponsor to acquire more information about the vehicle needing the system and to get a better understanding of the club’s needs
• Research was done on existing vehicle feedback system technologies and sensory equipment
• The team brainstormed on what equipment to use in order to accomplish the sponsor’s needs based off of existing vehicle technology
• Device datasheets were analysed to determine if each alternative design device could meet requirements and specifications
• Calculations were done to ensure proper device selection and confirm optimal design
• Schematics were created using Altium, and the system housing was designed using Inventor
• Microcontroller was coded using Arduino Uno and function of code was tested individually
• The system was tested as a whole once code was integrated into the screen using the selected sensory equipment

Outcomes

• The sponsor now has an implementable system that is easy to install and remove if needed
• The sponsor will be able improve the mileage of the vehicle by knowing how and where the fuel is being consumed during testing
• The sponsor will be able to incur less penalties due to speed restrictions
• The sponsor will be able to implement this system into different vehicles as it does not incorporate any hard wired connections