Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 42 replies
  • Subscribers 393 subscribers
  • Views 3632 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

Accelerometer Automated Locking system

Former Member

Hello,

 

I am Yuvish Chintaram from Mauritius Island.

 

Recently, I have applied to a university and my acceptance would be considered on a project that would help to contribute to my society.

My other friends are planting mangroves to help protect the marine ecosystem but I am more interested in science  and think to have find an interesting project.

 

A few months ago, an accident occured to a student that fell from a moving bus.(I have send you the link below.)

Surprisingly, two more people fell from a moving bus from the back emergency door after the earlier incident.

A solution was found by the Government that all bus should have an alarm and  that when the door opens an alarm will ring. But this does not solve the problem!

 

Hence, my idea was to incorporate a locking system that is fully autonomous. The system should lock the door while the bus is moving but unlock itself when the bus stops at a bustop.

I was thinking of using an accelerometer that will detect the acceleration of the bus that will relay to a circuit such that at a minimum value the latter will send a signal that will automatically lock or unlock the system.

eg. If(X>200)

      eletric lock is lock  

      else if (X<200)
       electric.lock is unlock

 

I am here to ask you if you could give me some advice and also if my current solution will work.

I would also be pleased to know your ideas about my project.( How would you answer it, etc..)

I would really appreciate if you could reply me as soon as possible.

 

http://news.islandcrisis.net/2015/03/17-year-old-student-keshnee-purmasing-died-after-falling-from-school-bus/

 

Regards

Yuvish Chintaram

Parents

  • I would recommend against the accelerometer approach, the kind of vibrations you are using to detect road surface imperfections during movement could easily be created by a stampede of people trying to get out. Of the suggestions made so far, GPS seems about the best IMHO.

     

    Also think about the duty cycle of your looking mechanism, as it will be releasing and relocating every time the vehicle comes to a standstill.

     

    When considering the locking mechanism look into fail-safe mechanisms. At least the lock will fail into safe condition (where the door opens) should any system damage occur.

  • in reply to gadget.iom

    Paul, I agree that there is lot of complex math with accelerometer than GPS. The better solution is with both, as the GPS is not really always available, maybe problems with satellite and so on. With accelerometer the better solution IMHO is that, based on experimental approach it is created a sort of specific profile in the different conditions of movements. Instead, about the problem of locking / unlocking the door only when it is the worth, I think there are two considerations:

     

    1 - The door should be unlocked after a minimum number of seconds the system is stable in the previous set "unlocking conditions" to avoid continuous lock / unlock

    2 - In general, the unlocking not only at the bus stop but in more other conditions - e.g. semaphore stop, too slow movement (so no risk occur), temporary stop for any reason - should be strongly took in account to avoid the opposite situation than what the project should defend: people trapped in the bus just because it has not yet reached the unlocking door status nearby the bus stop image

     

    Last I think that - for a general security approach - the door should be normally unlocked so that the lock mechanism is a specific action. Is something occurs to the system (crash, power-off, borken etc.) the doors are released instead of remaining locked forever.

     

    Enrico

Reply
  • in reply to gadget.iom

    Paul, I agree that there is lot of complex math with accelerometer than GPS. The better solution is with both, as the GPS is not really always available, maybe problems with satellite and so on. With accelerometer the better solution IMHO is that, based on experimental approach it is created a sort of specific profile in the different conditions of movements. Instead, about the problem of locking / unlocking the door only when it is the worth, I think there are two considerations:

     

    1 - The door should be unlocked after a minimum number of seconds the system is stable in the previous set "unlocking conditions" to avoid continuous lock / unlock

    2 - In general, the unlocking not only at the bus stop but in more other conditions - e.g. semaphore stop, too slow movement (so no risk occur), temporary stop for any reason - should be strongly took in account to avoid the opposite situation than what the project should defend: people trapped in the bus just because it has not yet reached the unlocking door status nearby the bus stop image

     

    Last I think that - for a general security approach - the door should be normally unlocked so that the lock mechanism is a specific action. Is something occurs to the system (crash, power-off, borken etc.) the doors are released instead of remaining locked forever.

     

    Enrico

Children