An Embedded System Development Design to Monitor Vehicle Tire Pressure

Abstract

Improper tire pressure is a safety issue that is often overlooked or ignored. A drop in tire pressure by just a few pounds per square inch (PSI) can result in the reduction of gas mileage, tire life, safety, and vehicle performance. To address this problem, an automated system that will alleviate the need for actively monitoring tire pressure was designed. This report documents the design process for an onboard tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) consisting of transmitter in each tire and a central receiver. The Pressure data is transferred to the central receiver through wireless transmission. The system takes periodic tire pressure readings and warns the driver at abnormal pressure readings. TPMS comes with several pre-defined tire pressure settings and allows the user to enter their own pressure setting if needed. Pressure settings, current pressures and flat/leak notifications are all displayed on a liquid crystal display (LCD) located in the dash. This system will take the maintenance out of upholding tire pressure and increase tire life, fuel efficiency and vehicle safety and performance. The system development process constitutes of defining the product requirements, Transmitter sensor selection, PCB design, circuit verification, and software development, testing and integrated testing.