Automotive Sensor Fusion Collision Avoidance System

Project goal: To design and test a lidar and sonar collision-avoidance system for vehicles. The main components of the design include a Texas Instruments Hercules microcontroller, a TI time-to-digital converter, a Hall effect sensor, optical components for the lidar system, and an off-the-shelf sonar sensor. The distance is measured from the car to an obstacle and the car stops to avoid any possible collisions. The system determines the speed of the car by analyzing the duty cycle of the frequency created by magnets connected to the drive shaft of the car passing by a Hall effect sensor. The system uses this speed and the distance from the object to calculate when the brakes need to be applied in order to avoid collision with the object. Information from the car, including the distance from obstacles and speed of the car, is transmitted via Bluetooth to a PC that displays the information on a graphical user interface.The system has been tested using a remote-controlled car. The test system can detect objects within 10 feet of the front of the car and 3 feet of the back of the car. Using the information collected from the sensors, the system can stop the car within 5.2 inches of the obstacle, with a tolerance of half an inch. This system is scalable for a real-world application and will be taken to automotive trade shows.