Wireless Next-Generation Car Alarm and Security System

Author(s):
Robert Warham - Staffordshire University

Industry:
Automotive, Transportation, Consumer Goods

Products:
I2C and SPI, CompactRIO, LabVIEW, FPGA Module, Mobile Module, Real-Time Module

The Challenge:
Designing, prototyping, and deploying an intelligent vehicle security system that allows remote configuration and wirelessly communicates information back to the user.

The Solution:
Using NI LabVIEW with field-programmable gate array (FPGA) hardware to rapidly prototype a viable solution, deploy to a custom embedded solution to allow for minimal power consumption and target a variety of personal digital assistants (PDAs) with the LabVIEW Mobile Module for remote communication to a host application.

Attempts to gain illegal entry into vehicles can cause significant damage and current intrusion detection technology has failed to evolve at the rate of other car technologies. Two prevalent inadequacies in current systems include the lack of user configurable alarms that cannot be optimised for a specific vehicle, and localized deterrent and alert capabilities to within an audible distance of the vehicle.

With correct programming and analysis, using multiple vibration sensors permits the vehicle to make an informed decision on the current security situation so that the vehicle can adapt to the environment and retain the qualities required to identify an attempt to damage or gain access to the vehicle. By providing a wireless connection to a host device, the user can configure, control, and receive local alerts regarding the state of the vehicle.

Developing the Alarm System on Real-Time and FPGA

We developed a prototype to accurately ensure that our technology is viable within a vehicle. Because the system's sensors needed to be addressable, we converted the analogue signals to digital and then placed them onto an I²C bus as addressable slave devices. We used the NI PCI-7811R along with LabVIEW and the LabVIEW Real-Time and LabVIEW FPGA modules to create a rapid prototype capable of communicating with the sensor array. As the application development progressed, we needed a lower level of control. Because we quickly reprogrammed the personality of the onboard FPGA, we achieved the required flexibility. Using LabVIEW, we could also rapidly develop a higher-level application,  log large amounts of data and effectively present the data graphically. We quickly identified and fixed a circuitry fault from an I²C sensor, which would have taken considerable time to track down and solve in the final embedded system.

After analyzing the prototyping data, we created an embedded system for later use in the vehicle. With a complete understanding of how the sensors and network responded to environmental conditions such as vibrations, we reduced potential errors and architectural faults within the system.

Deploying to an Embedded System

After porting the application to the embedded system using a separate tool chain, we created the host application using the LabVIEW Mobile Module. This simplified the process of porting the application to a Windows OS mobile device and offered accessibility to different devices.

To minimise power consumption, we used a reduction instruction set computing (RISC) embedded development board based on Linux on the final vehicle system for reading the sensor network, making decisions based on all sensor information, remotely informing a user, and accepting data from the user over TCP/IP for control and configuration. We developed this application using the FOX Board LX tool chain and ANSI C programming language.

Rapid Prototyping and Development

We used NI hardware and software for rapid system prototyping and testing. LabVIEW and its easy integration to NI hardware simplified development with rapid prototyping and was invaluable in completing the system within a tight, seven-week design and development time frame.

In addition, the LabVIEW Mobile Module aided development by easing communication between different parts of the systems, and the installer transferred the necessary files using the LabVIEW Mobile Module project view. With the software we targeted many Windows mobile devices, from PDAs to mobile phones, without having to edit and recompile.

Overcoming Challenges

We received world-class technical support from National Instruments UK and Ireland to quickly resolve any issues that occurred during development and to complete the application within the tough time-to-market pressures.

Author Information:
Robert Warham
Staffordshire University
Stoke-on-Trent
United Kingdom
robwarham@googlemail.com

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