Crash: collision response and sensor heuristics

The Senior Design Project was developed during the fall 2014/winter 2015 quarters at University of California, Irvine. During the first quarter, lectures on design practices in a professional environment were administered by various engineering professors. Teams conducted research to define the purpose and scope of their projects, and results were documented in a project proposal. Following proposal approval and acceptance from a faculty mentor, actual project design and development occurred in the second quarter. Lastly, completed projects were presented for review to panels of industry professionals.

Concept

The idea for this project was originally conceived a number of years ago and was inspired by my interest in automotive embedded systems. Collision Response and Sensor Heuristics (CRaSH) is a device intended for use in consumer vehicles. CRaSH implements vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) wireless communication to allow data exchange between colliding vehicles. In the event of a collision, information such as VIN, license plate, and make/model is exchanged between vehicle A and B. The primary advantage of CRaSH is to assist authorities in apprehending perpetrators of hit-and-runs. Additionally, authorities and insurance companies could utilize CRaSH to ascertain collision details and perform fault assessment.

For more information (e.g., executive summary and development plan) please see the project proposal.

Project Concept

Project Concept

team

Ryan Morrison - Computer Engineering

  • Team leader.
  • Conceived project concept/idea.
  • Researched component viability using data sheets.
  • Soldered and interfaced all components (e.g., motors, switches, shields, sensors).
  • Constructed vehicle prototypes, chassis reinforcements, and wiring harnesses.
  • Assisted in development of 'random back-off' algorithm for V2V communication.
  • Developed driver code for motor, switch, and LED control.
  • Authored project proposal and report.
  • Designed project poster and video.
  • Facilitated weekly online progress reports and bi-weekly meetings with faculty mentor.
  • Scheduled team meetings for collaborative development.

Omar Bravo - Computer Science and Engineering

  • Configured and tested XBee radios.
  • Developed 'random back-off' algorithm for V2V communication.
  • Developed code for packet handling.
  • Assisted in development of collision detection code.
  • Developed wireless communication tests and generated performance charts.

Nitish Sachar - Computer Science and Engineering

  • Researched component viability using data sheets.
  • Assisted with vehicle prototype construction.
  • Developed code for collision detection (accelerometer).
  • Developed collision detection tests and generated performance charts.

Faculty Mentor

Rainer Dömer

Ph.D., University of Dortmund, Germany, Information and Computer Science, 2000
Dipl. Inform., University of Dortmund, Germany, Information and Computer Science, 1995