International Journal Of Engineering Innovation And Scientific Research.Vol.1 (1)-P.P-36-39 ISSN: 2395-6372
Rain Operated Automatic Wiper in
Automobile Vehicle
Author: Prajapati Vijay [1], Bhavin Khatri [2]
Affiliation: Asst. Prof. in Mechanical Department at Indus
University, Ahmedabad [1, 2]
E-mail: vijayprajapati.me@indusuni.ac.in [1],
bhavinkhatri.me@indusuni.ac.in [2]
ABSTRACT
The automated rain wiper system is used to
detect rainfall and activate automobile automatic
rain wipers without driver interaction. The system
was developed to mitigate driving distractions and
allow drivers to focus on their primary task of
driving. The distraction eliminated with the
development of this product is the manual
adjustment of windshield wipers when driving in
precipitation. The few seconds that a driver takes
their attention off the road to adjust a knob while
driving in poor weather conditions could
potentially lead to car accidents. The system uses a
combination of impedance and Impedance sensor
to detect rain and its intensity. The system contains
a controller that takes in the input signals from the
sensors and controls the operation of the
windshield wipers based on those input signals.
The prototype demonstration shows the basic
operation of the system in standard conditions. The
system responded successfully to rain simulations
within the specified amount of time
Keywords: Automobile vehicle, Sensor for
Automation, plexiglass, experimental.
1. INTRODUCTION
The team developed an autonomous windshield
wiper system for automobiles using impedance
sensors, a controller, and signal conditioning
circuitry. The sensors send an input signal to the
controller that controls the wiper motor through
interfacing with the automobile wiper control
circuitry. The motivation is developing a reliable
automatic windshield wiper system that is
commercially available to a big market of
automobile owners. Research was done on similar
products in the market and articles from academic
sources for the foundation of our design approach.
1.1OBJECTIVE
The objectives are defines below according to the
points:
I.
II.
III.
To innovate the older cars system by
providing automatic wiping system.
To prevent the wiper’s rubber from
damage and contribute lifetime increases.
To improve the system by using sensor
and actuator.
1.2 PROBLEM SUMMARY
In rainy days we suffer from act of sprinkling of
water on front glass of four wheeler.While driving
car driver cannot see on road vehicles. So he tries
to operating wiper on glass, for that he should often
switch on for operating wiper. And because of this
it causes vehicle accident. If we apply any kind of
sensor on glass which sense the act of sprinkling
water and by automation the wiper will operating
automatically. The concept of this proposed wiper
system is just the same with other conventional
wiper, in spite of removing water from windscreen,
this system also will be upgraded to an automatic
control system by using a controller.
When the water hit sensor, it will send signal to the
system thus moving the wiper motor. Once sensor
did not detect any water, the wiper will stop. This
will reduce the weaknesses which have been stated
at beginning. Additional plan to this invention is to
make the wiper automatically push up from the
windscreen when the engine shut off.
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International Journal Of Engineering Innovation And Scientific Research.Vol.1 (1)-P.P-36-39 ISSN: 2395-6372
2.
DESIGN
DETAILS
APPROACH
AND
The design of the system consists of producing a
high level functional diagram as shown in figure
2.1. The system is able to detect the presence of
rain droplets, process that data coming from the
sensors, and enable and control the motor.
The rain detection box contains a series of rain
sensors. The data processing unit encloses the
microcontroller, and the motor control module is
composed of the wiper motor and its control
circuit. After establishing the functional diagram, a
high level system block diagram was drawn.
The rain detection unit uses two types of sensors
whose outputs are normalized by an input signal
module. The data processing is performed by a
microcontroller, and its results are fed into an
output signal module which is the input to the
motor control box. The two signal modules were
needed for interfacing between all the units.
Figure 2.1 High-level Functional Block Diagram
Figure 2.3 Principle of raindrops detection
2.2 DATA PROCESSING UNIT
a) MICROCONTROLLER AND CONTROL
LOGIC
The data processing unit is composed of a
microcontroller and an output signal module. The
AVR Atmega8 microcontroller was finally selected
over the initial TI MSP430 because of its higher
output power and number of analog-to-digital
channels. The communication between the
computer programmer and the microcontroller is
done via serial peripheral interface bus (SPI).
Once the system is enabled, the system
initialization block checks if the sensors are
operational, sets the corresponding input and output
pins, and determines if the power is high enough to
keep the microcontroller running. After performing
all the necessary checks, the program reads
voltages from the impedance grid sensor and IR
sensor in a sequential order. If water is detected,
the microcontroller sends a signal to a power relay
so that the wiper motor is activtated at its lowest
speed. Afterward, the microcontroller reads the
speed contol sensor and determines the appropriate
motor speed by powering other relays. The
additional relays affects change the amount of
power going to the motor. The loop continues as
long as all the sensors detect water on the
windshield.
Figure 2.2: High-level System Block Diagram
2.1 PRINCIPLE OF RAIN DROP
DETECTION
As shown in figure 2.3 the beam from the light
emitting element is received by the light sensitive
element. When raindrops cross this beam, the
intensity of the light incident to the photodiode
changes according to the size and number of the
raindrops. The degree of rainfalls is determined by
the degree and frequency of changes in the
intensity of the received light.
Figure 2.4: Summary of System Control Logic
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International Journal Of Engineering Innovation And Scientific Research.Vol.1 (1)-P.P-36-39 ISSN: 2395-6372
b) OUTPUT SIGNAL MODULE
The output signal module is the bridge between the
design system and the existing automobile
windshield wiper system. Figure 2.5 depicts how
the microcontroller is connected to the relays
driving the motor control board.
The control process for the project stops after the
output signal module because the motor control
unit is foreign to the system. However, for
installation purposes, the user should be able to
integrate the design product to an existing
automobile. Therefore, only general interfacing
information is required to be provided to the user.
However, in order to demonstrate the overall
project, a motor and a control module circuit were
acquired and tested.
controls and wiper motor. The system controls are
housed behind the plexiglass including the
microcontroller and all input/output signal
modules. To start the system, the user would first
connect the power leads to the breadboard with a
DC power supply. System should be supplied with
a voltage greater than 5 volts. User should be sure
to connect the positive terminal of the voltage
source to the red post of the breadboard and the
negative terminal to the black post. Once the
system is powered up, the user will also need to
connect 12 V and GND to breadboard which is
connected to the relays that control the wiper motor
housed below the plexiglass. After these
connections are made, the user will turn on the
system by switching on the power switch on
breadboard. Rain will be simulated using a spray
bottle; the user will spray water on the glass near
any one of the sensors and the system will react
within few milliseconds. The speeds of the
windshield wiper will vary depending on the
amount of water sprayed onto the Plexiglass.
Figure 2.5: Relays and Microcontroller
Connections
3. EXPERIMENTAL WORK
The demonstration for the automatic rain wiper
system prototype tests for the successful detection
of rain, tests for the intensity of that rain, and
activates one of four speeds of the windshield
wiper. The system activates within few
milliseconds as originally specified under the
voltage requirements. The prototype achieves all
the product goals and specifications set out by the
proposal, however, the temperature range
specification was not able to be tested. The
prototype was tested in a room temperature
environment so additional testing need be
performed to determine whether the system has the
same functionality at the extreme temperatures of
the technical specifications.
Figure 3.1 shows a photograph of the actual
prototype model. In prototype model roughly 3 ft
of Plexiglas, mounted in a wooden frame, serves as
the automobile windshield. The plexiglass is angled
at about 37 degrees to mimic automobile
windshields. Mounted below the plexiglass are the
wiper linkage kit as well as the wiper pulse motor
Figure 3.1 Prototype Model
4. DISCUSSION
The automatic rain wiper system unique blend of
dual sensor technologies enables redundancy in
moisture detection. The impedance sensors and
sensor work in conjunction to provide optimal
wiper actuation. Competitor wiper systems, such as
the TRW Rain tracker, implement a single sensor
topology for rain detection. While this topology
lowers the product price, the system is bound by
single point failure. If the sensor malfunctions, the
tracker system is inoperable. The dual sensor
topology of this allows the system to maintain
operability in the event that either sensor, or
Impedance, malfunction.
The marketing strategy for focuses on its appeal to
two primary clientele: luxury automobile owners
and elderly drivers. Luxury automobile owners
would enjoy the accentuation of their driving
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International Journal Of Engineering Innovation And Scientific Research.Vol.1 (1)-P.P-36-39 ISSN: 2395-6372
experience; elderly drivers the ease of use of the
system. The team will make use of product
demonstrations at AARP (American Association of
Retired Persons) Conventions and Automobile
shows to market to the primary target consumers.
This approach mitigates the costly advertising
scheme and passes on those savings to the
consumer in the form of a lower product price.
5. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the automated automatic rain wiper
system was designed, developed, and demonstrated
to detect rain and actuate the automobile
windshield wipers based on the intensity of that
rain. The demonstration is able to simulate the
operation of the system as if installed in an
automobile. The team was able to successfully
complete the project and satisfactorily meet the
proposal goal of automating the driver’s response
to rain within the specified amount of time of few
milliseconds. In addition, the team would schedule
project milestones differently taking into
consideration parts of the project that were most
significant and consequently required the most
effort to complete. The initial goals and objectives
were to expand upon existing automatic rain wiper
technologies to make a more reliable yet
economically priced system. As shown by the
project demonstration and the cost analysis, these
goals and objectives were met.
[6] National Fire Protection Association, 2007,
[Online
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Available
http://www.nfpa.org/
[7] “SAE Standards Development,” Sep 2007,
[Online
Document],
Available
http://www.sae.org/standardsdev/
[8] “CAN Specification”, 1991, [Online
Document],
Available
http://esd.cs.ucr.edu/webres/can20.pdf
[9] G. Muller, “Windshield Wiper System with
Rain Detector,” U.S. patent no. 5015931,
issued June 11, 1991.
6. REFERENCES
[1] NHTSA Data Sheet, 2001, Available HTTP:
http://wwwnrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departments/nr
d-12/809-716/pages/longdesc.htm
[2] “The Rain Tracker Makes Driving More
Enjoyable,” [Online Document], Available
http://www.raintracker.com/ProductInfo.htm
[3] “TRW Automotive Electronics: Rain
Sensor,”
2007,
[Online
Document],
Available
http://www.trw.com/images/rain_sensor.pdf
[4] M. Ucar, H. Ertunc, and O. Turkoglu, “The
Design and Implementation of Rain
Sensitive Triggering System for Windshield
Wiper Motor,” In IEEE IEMDC, 2001, pp.
329-336.
[5] HM Data Sheet, 2007, Available HTTP:
http://www.tranzistoare.ro/datasheets/2300/4
99674_DS.pdf
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