Real-time onboard weighting and rollover warning system for trucks

• Grant number: 16/21893-1
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: September 01, 2018
• End date: July 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Electrical Engineering - Industrial Electronics, Electronic Systems and Controls
• Principal Investigator: Mauricio Eiji Nakai
• Grantee: Mauricio Eiji Nakai
• Company: Pondera Engenharia Ltda
• CNAE: Serviços de engenharia ; Pesquisa e desenvolvimento experimental em ciências físicas e naturais
• City: São Carlos
• Associated researchers: Lucas Barbosa Marcos
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/21355-5 - Real-time on-board weighing system and warning of rollover for trucks, BP.PIPE

Abstract

Load weight is a critical variable for transportation vehicles, since overload can cause damage to their structure. Therefore, it is important, for example, that manufacturers be aware of the effective load weight that their trucks are carrying. Vehicle warranty should be subject to its use within the design parameters. As truck weight causes damage to the pavement, its measurement is also an important variable for road administrators and carriers. Drivers also face problems like the time spent in scale queues. Furthermore, vehicle mass is a vital parameter for rollover safety systems, as weight and center of gravity directly interfere in vehicle dynamics. The objective of this project is to develop and implement a system for on-board truck weight estimation, that also: maintains an internal record of vehicle weight to be used by the rollover detection system; transmits the real-time estimate of the weight to a highway management company in a toll or a carrier monitoring central through a communication system to be developed. Through dynamic modeling methods, linear and non-linear filtering, inertial measurement units and communication by CAN (Controller Area Network) and antennas, are intended to be delivered in this project: a weight measurement based on estimate whose margin of error is sufficiently negligible for the structural safety of the truck and pavement safety; a rollover warning method sensitive to truck weight and truck speed that provides the alert earlier than the methods found in the literature on the subject (currently around 3s); a financially viable device that incorporates weight measurement and rollover warning with reliable data storage and data communication, as these measurements are useful for automatic actuators in rollover prevention, that can be installed on any CAN-based truck communication system. Once the product is developed, it is likely to be patentable and it is expected that it will contribute significantly to increase the safety of truck drivers, to preserve vehicle structure and to allow more accurate control means for manufacturers when providing the product warranty. Therefore, there is a possibility that it becomes a mandatory safety equipment. (AU)