"Smart Brakes" Idea for Senior Design Class at my University

[Gerardog2000]

Hello,
I was referred here by All About Circuits (they don't discuss car related topics). I am an Electrical Engineering Technology student and am currently taking a senior design class. We are given a topic and our job is to design and then build something that solves or improves an idea. Basically, I asked that forum if they could help me pick a topic because the topic that was given to my group is not very exciting (to me anyways). The topic is to build an op-amp tester. Since this topic didn't really get me excited, I thought about a "smart braking" system and I was wondering if you guys could chime in and let me know what you think of this idea.

I remember thinking about creating some sort of "smart brake" a while ago and figured that it may be a good topic. The concept of my smart or performance brakes would be the following: when the car reaches a speed of 0 mph, the brake would "lock" in place. Meaning that you could remove your foot from the pedal and transfer your foot to the gas pedal. Once you press the gas pedal, the brakes would release. Having the brakes "lock" in place will have the benefit of you not having to hover your foot over the brake and if something happens to the driver (i.e, sleep at the wheel), the brakes would be locked up and the car would not move. Of course, there would be safety hazards with this system but I think that they could be fixed. For example, since you're now hovering your foot over the gas pedal while stopped, you could accidentally press the gas pedal and release the brakes when it is not desired. We could solve this by employing sensors or cameras that detect objects in front of the car.

What do you guys think? Does this already exist? Or do you guys have any other possible topics for my senior design project? Doesn't have to be automotive related. FYI, I enjoy working with microcontrollers, PLCs, electronics and programming.

Thank you for your time.

 

[cowboybob]

Welcome to ETO, Gerardog2000!

You asked....

I'm old school. I'm convinced that the more cars are made "smarter", the dumber the drivers become.

And don't get me started on the complexity of the engine and safety features (most ECU controlled) of cars utterly aggravating (read raising) costs of "repairs" disguised as simple ECU upgrades. I mean, $75-150USD just to hook up to the OBDII and enable/disable something? Please...

Anyway, as for your idea.

You might investigate your concept as it would apply specifically to hybrids (since full electric cars, as the norm, are coming). A brake locking scheme might be rather easily implemented though software (code) that would electrically lock the brakes through the electric motor component of the drive train (it's already involved on the braking process). Seems that all the pertinent data (speed, brakes application, wheel rotation, TPS data, etc.) would be at hand and a small locking current to the motor might be sufficient to keep the vehicle in place until the throttle is re-engaged.

 

[Gerardog2000]

Thanks for your reply. Your idea on how to implement this sounds excellent actually. I wonder if my group adviser would allow us to work on something like this. Thanks again.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

There is an active and passive system in uses. I recently read the article, but can't remember the acronyms assigned

The article stated that drivers generally don't brake fast enough or hard enough to avoid a rear-ed collision.