Development of alcohol triggered vehicle engine lock system

Abstract

Drunk driving is a very dangerous behavior caused as a result of excessive consumption of alcohol therefore causing distortion in the thought pattern of its victims with a large percentage being drivers of vehicles of all forms. Most of the traffic accidents recorded in recent years are related to drunk driving. Solutions have been proposed, devices developed, all to the sole aim which is to reduce traffic accidents due to drunk driving but none has been quite cable of impairing the driver’s ability to drive. To this end, we model and design an alcohol triggered vehicle engine lock system. This project’s ability to impair the driver’s ability to drive makes it stand out from previous methods or devices developed to reduce road accidents due to drunk driving. The entire system is based on a microcontroller that is used to set an alcohol limit/ threshold which when reached or crossed upon sensing of alcohol in the air by the alcohol sensor, would trigger the buzzer alarm and warning LED of the circuit to alert the driver that his/her blood alcohol concentration at that moment in time wouldn’t be safe for driving. At this point the system automatically locks the ignition system of the vehicle within which it is embedded while an LCD displays information for the driver’s visuals incase the driver’s sight isn’t also impaired while in the drunk state. This project is a prototype to what is proposed with the vehicle’s engine system represented with a DC motor and its ignition system represented with a push button. The overall work was implemented with a constructed work, tested working and perfectly functional.