A microcontroller-based automated weight monitoring system for class one vehicles

• Main Authors: Barco, Christian D., Erasquin, Justine Roy A., Geronimo, Mark Dommel S.J.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2013
• Subjects: Motor vehicles > Weight; Motor vehicle scales > Philippines > Testing; Electronic weighing systems; Electrical and Electronics; Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/11202
• Institution: De La Salle University

Nowadays, overloading of private vehicles is very common in the main roads of the country, specifically in the metro. This became a habit for Filipinos, specifically those who need to travel a long time and distance from their houses to their respective workplaces. Overloading can cause numerous accidents in the road which can put the safety of both the riders of the overloaded vehicles and the people and structures around it in risk. As of the moment, the government is only equipped with the tools for monitoring overloading for trailer trucks, but for the proponents of this study, it is a must that there is a overloading monitoring system for private vehicles because they have more volume compared to trucks that makes them more prone to the overloading scenario. This study was conducted in order to monitor the weight of class 1 vehicles and assess if the weight of the analyzed vehicle is beyond its maximum operating weight (MOW). This prototype is ideally made to be put in entry toll gates of expressways wherein the vehicles are at high speed. The system used a microcontroller as the main brain of the whole structure. Height sensor was formed using an ultrasonic distance sensor to determine the subclass of the vehicle being weighed by its actual height. Weight sensors are positioned based on the design of the proponents to effectively get accurate measurements of the weight of the vehicle, specifically in the four wheels of the vehicle being analyzed. These measurements will then be transmitted to the microcontroller to compare the measured weight with the stored MOW corresponding to the subclass which will be determined by the height sensors. Computations will be made to assess if the analyzed vehicle is overloaded or not. The result will then be outputted through the use of one integrated display board. The first line is the four 7-segment LED displays that will show the actual and maximum operating weight of its specific subclass. The second line of display is two LED bulbs that will indicate whether the displayed weight value is its actual or its maximum operating weight. The third line of the display board is five LED bulbs that will specify the respective subclass of the vehicle measured. The last line in the display board is the remarks section that is composed of two LED bulbs that will state if the vehicle is overloaded or not.