Figure 1. Block Diagram of the Implemented System
Road accidents are a major problem in today's world. The aim of this research is to provide a solution to prevent such accidents. This project is mainly focused on automatically controlling the speed of the vehicles in speed restricted zones, such as schools, hospitals, and speed limit zones. Currently, the system used for monitoring and controlling speed of vehicles in speed-limited zones is ineffective or non-existent. This work proposes a system for controlling the speed of the vehicles within certain limits in restricted zones without driver intervention, and also checks whether a particular vehicle owner has paid insurance or not. Then it provides an alerts to the owner and the traffic control room in case the payment is not done. In this work, an RF transceiver system is used to indicate the speed limited zones, and upon entering such zones, the speed control system installed in the vehicle automatically adjusts the speed accordingly. The same transceivers also monitor the insurance status of the vehicle, and send relevant messages to the owner of the vehicle.
As we see in today's world there exist many violations regarding the vehicle speed and insurance. The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, under section 146 mandates that every vehicle should be compulsorily insured for third party risk. The reason is because of the growing number of accidents that causes fatalities and disability among the victims. Knowing the importance of insurance, yet people fail to pay the insurance on time which leads them to pay fine when they are held. The other problem that we commonly see is accidents due to overspeeding or going beyond the speed limit in a speed restricted zone. The negligence of the driver can be a danger to other people or a risk factor in public areas/zones like “School Zone”, “Hospital zone” or “Accident Zone” [ 10].
The main reason for the development of this device is to reduce rate of road accidents due to speeding of the vehicles. This device automatically detects the speed limit or the traffic signs of an area and accordingly informs the driver and assists him in controlling the vehicle speed voluntarily or forcibly. All in all resulting in a very effective and fail proof system to provide traffic regulation, safety and convenience of the people [ 1]. Another reason to develop this system is for the purpose of insurance detection. The system is designed whereby the vehicle by itself will transmit the data to the concerned person, such as a police officer, regarding the out-dated policy so that they can take necessary action like imposing fine since the insurance policy has not been updated within the speculated time [ 8]. The whole system is not limited for these few functions. Few additional features which can be integrated with this system are, “Down Hill Detection”, “Auto-Braking with Obstacle detection”, etc. This system can be mandatory to all the vehicles, that way one can provide a more reliable security device and streamline traffic flow [ 13].
A device is developed to automatically control the speed of the vehicle. The vehicle will receive zone information from the zone area. Each zone will be having RF transmitter to send information about the zone. The RF receiver which is placed in the vehicle receives the zone information [ 2], [ 7]. After receiving the signal, the module controls the speed of the vehicle based on the information received. Automobile insurance in India deals with the insurance covers for the loss or damage caused to the automobile or its parts due to natural and manmade calamities. It provides accident cover for individual owners of the vehicle while driving and also for passengers and third party legal liability [ 3], [ 4].
The device has RF transmitter which is placed in the zones and transmits radio signals. The RF receiver present in the vehicle receives the signal which is transmitted from zone RF transmitter. Received signal will be sent to Arduino Microcontroller [ 11]. On receiving the RF signal, the microcontroller checks with the Node MCU for information regarding insurance. IoT which is a machine to machine communication can hold massive data is used to record the insurance information of the vehicle owner and is used to communicate with the Node MCU in the vehicle [ 6], [ 12]. Node MCU will obtain the insurance details from IoT and checks whether that particular vehicle has paid insurance or not and sends signal to the Arduino accordingly [ 5], [ 17]. If that vehicle's insurance is paid then this module will display that information. If that vehicle is not paid then this module provides an alert to the control room through SMS using GSM [ 9].
The block diagram of the implemented system is as shown in Figure 1. The block diagram consists of Arduino, RF transmitter and receiver, GSM, IoT, Node MCU, LCD, and Power supply. There are two units called zone unit and vehicle unit. RF transmitter placed in the zone unit keeps transmitting the radio frequency signals. Whenever the vehicle enters the zone and receives the signal, gradually the speed of the vehicle reduces [ 15]. The Node MCU will receive information about the insurance update whether it is paid or not [ 16]. Then it will send a high signal to the Arduino if the insurance is paid or a low signal if the insurance is not paid. When the Arduino receives the low signal, then the message will be sent to the vehicle owner [ 14]. The implemented system shown in Figure 2 has the RF transmitter placed in the zone unit which keeps transmitting the RF signals.
Figure 1. Block Diagram of the Implemented System
Figure 2. Transmitter Side in Speed Zone
Figure 3 shows the Receiver side Vehicle Unit implemented on a vehicle model using which the speed control can be demonstrated. Right side of Figure 3 shows the vehicular unit on the Vehicle Model.
Figure 3. Implementation of the Vehicle Unit Model
The main aim of the proposed work was to control the vehicle speed and check if the owner of the vehicle has paid the insurance or not. The proposed system was implemented and the results for the system built were positive.
The speed of the vehicle is controlled using the RF sensor. The transmitter present on the road sides continuously transmits the signal to reduce the speed. Receiver present in the vehicle running in a higher voltage receives these RF signals and sends it to the Arduino which performs the functions to reduce the speed by sending an active signal to relay, which in turn switches to a lower voltage and hence reducing the speed.
The Insurance information whether its paid or not is updated using the ThingSpeak website as shown in Figure 4. The owner's insurance detail is entered in the website and each owner's information page has a key code which is generated by the website and is entered in the Node MCU. The Node MCU constantly checks the page for that particular key code and checks whether a new record about the owner's insurance has been entered or not.
Figure 4. ThingSpeak Website
Figure 5 shows the display status of the insurance. The driver of the vehicle can get the insurance details on the LCD present in the vehicle which is connected to the Arduino.
Figure 5. LCD Display
If the owner has not paid the insurance then data NOT_PAID is entered in the website for the corresponding vehicle owner and when the Node MCU receives the information from the website and sends a low signal to the Arduino which displays a message on the LCD as Insurance Not Paid message as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6. LCD Display of Insurance not Paid
If the vehicle owner has paid the insurance for the vehicle, the information is updated in the webpage as INSURANCE_PAID. The Node MCU upon receiving the information from the website sends a high signal to Arduino which displays a message on the LCD as Insurance paid as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7. LCD Display of Insurance Paid
Apart from displaying the insurance message on the LCD for the owner's awareness, a message is sent to the traffic control room using the GSM indicating the insurance has not been paid and a fine is imposed on the owner of the vehicle. The SMS received by the traffic police is as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8. Text Message to Traffic Control Room
The practical testing was done with the help of RF sensors for automatic speed control of vehicles in the zone areas by indicating the driver about it. This work also detects whether the vehicle insurance has been paid on time, if not a message will be sent to the vehicle owner about the renewal of the insurance. The technology of GSM and IoT is used in the insurance detection. The working model was designed and tested in appropriate conditions and the obtained results were positive. The implementation brought about here finds its application in making the vehicle and the people safer by reducing the rate of road accidents.