Smart engine speed control system with ECU system interface

Abstract

Despite decades of reformative legislation regarding the safety of motorists and immense efforts by manufacturers to improve vehicle safety features, motor vehicle accidents related to speeding claim the lives of approximately 3000 teenagers (aged 16–19) each year. This study proposes an embedded smart control system to limit the vehicle speed to the maximum allowable road speed. This can be achieved by establishing a live communication between the cruise control system and the onboard GPS module. Using the Engine Control Unit (ECU) to control the electronic throttle and air valve, the maximum rotational velocity of the engine can be limited so that the vehicle's speed does not surpass a road speed limit. By implementing this embedded system to control the speed of the motor vehicle, this system has the potential to reduce the number of speeding-related accidents. This study evaluates the practicability of the proposed embedded system and discusses alternative controlling methods. For this purpose, a graphical user interface (GUI) module is also developed to make the system more user-friendly. The data used to test the system was collected through a GPS service from the streets around the campus of the University of Central Oklahoma.