ISSN: 2277-9655

[Vinod * et al., 7(4): April, 2018] Impact Factor: 5.164

IC™ Value: 3.00 CODEN: IJESS7

IJESRT
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES & RESEARCH
TECHNOLOGY
SMART HELMET
Mr. G. V Vinod1 & Mr. K. Sai Krishna2
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Godavari Institute of Engineering and
Technology, Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, India
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Anurag Group of Institutions,
Hyderabad, Telangana, India

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1218547

ABSTRACT
The impact when a motorcyclist involves in a high-speed accident without wearing a helmet is very dangerous
and can cause fatality. Wearing a helmet can reduce shock from the impact and may save a life. There are many
countries enforcing a regulation that requires the motorcycle's rider to wear a helmet when riding on their
motorcycle, Malaysia is an example.
A smart helmet is a special idea which makes motorcycle driving safer than before. This is implemented using
GSM and GPS technology. The working of this smart helmet is very simple, vibration sensors are placed in
different places of helmet where the probability of hitting is more which are connected to microcontroller board.
So when the rider crashes and the helmet hit the ground, these sensors sense and gives to the microcontroller
board, then controller extract GPS data using the GPS module that is interfaced to it. When the data exceeds
minimum stress limit then GSM module automatically sends message to ambulance or family members. It also
has an alcohol detector sensor which detects whether the person is drunk and switches off the engine if the
sensor output is high.

KEYWORDS: Arduino UNO, Vibration Sensor, Alcohol Sensor, Temperature Sensor, GSM, GPS.

I. INTRODUCTION
Now a days most of the countries are enforcing their citizens to wear helmet while riding bike and not to ride a
bike when the person is under the influence of alcohol, but still rules are being violated.

1.1. Motivation
The motivation of this project comes from the real-world challenges that we face daily on the roads. Road
accidents are on the rise day by day and in countries like India where bikes are more prevalent many people die
to carelessness carried in wearing helmets. In present day scenario we encounter numerous cases of death due to
two-wheeler road accidents. Despite of the fact that helmets are available everywhere, people are not wearing
them. In the event of road accidents, the message is sent to the emergency contact through GSM.

1.2. Problem Definition

As the bikers in our country are increasing, the road mishaps are also increasing day by day, due to which many
deaths occur, most of them are caused due to most common negligence of not wearing helmets, also many
deaths occur due to lack of prompt medical attention needed by the injured person. The project aims at the
security and safety of the bikers against road accidents.

1.3. Objective of the Project

The objectives of this project are to design the circuit that can improve safety of motorcyclists, to develop a
smart safety helmet for complete rider.

1.4. Limitations of the Project

 Person rides the bike even in the areas where mobile network lacks, so GSM network is required for
sending SMS. It is expensive.
 When the helmet is dropped down accidentally, the system treats it as an accident.

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II. ANALYSIS

2.1. Introduction
There has been a sharp rise in the total number of deaths that occur due to road accidents in the past few years.
Reckless driving, ignorance of traffic rules and absence of protective shield have been some of the most
important reasons for these deaths. Most of the accidents occur due to drinking and then driving bikes and death
caused due to neglecting helmets. Government adopted few measures like helmet and alcohol checking by
traffic police but they are hardly useful.

2.2. Existing System

The existing project basically has a wireless telecommunication and is connected to a smart phone. This
prototype uses sensors to detect a crash or accidents and the communication hardware is used to automatically
dial a predefined emergency contact.

The other existing system is to control the speed in which the biker is going in. The helmet is fixed with all the
components and sensors that read the speed of the bike and accordingly instruct the rider to reduce or increase
the speed based on the obstacles ahead the bike.

This has following disadvantages:

 Rider does not wear helmet in regions where traffic checking is not done.
 Testing alcohol content present in blood in each individual rider in big countries like India is
impossible.
 Difficulty of implementation of traffic rules by traffic police.

2.3. Proposed System

The helmet checks if the rider is drunk and driving. If the rider is drunk then the ignition of the bike is avoided
and the hence not letting the rider to ride the bike. In this system we use an Arduino microcontroller interfaced
with alcohol sensor and it is used to monitor user’s breath and constantly sends signals to microcontroller. The
microcontroller on encountering alcohol signal from sensor and send the data to motor using RF transmitter and
we connect a RF receiver to the motor driver which stops dc motor to demonstrate as engine locking. The
system need push button to start the engine. If the alcohol is detected the system locks the engine.

The system also sends a message stating “Accident occurred” including the latitude and longitude location of
the incident using GSM and GPS. It uses a vibration sensor to detect an accident. It also has a temperature
sensor which notifies when the helmet gets heated up to avoid the circuit damage.

2.4. Software Requirement Specification

2.4.1. Purpose
As all the road accident fatalities involve motorcyclists, we see many accidents in the day to day life due to
alcohol consumption so we are trying to implement a project that can avoid the accidents.

2.4.2. Scope
The scope of the project is the safe two-wheeler journey is possible which should decrease the head injuries
during accidents and also reduce the accident rate due to driving bike after consuming alcohol.

2.4.3. Overall Description

Road accidents are on the rise day by day and in countries like India where bikes are more prevalent, many
people die due to carelessness carried in wearing helmets. Smart helmet has a feature of detecting accidents with
the help of knock sensor and informs to specific people.

It also includes another feature, if the driver is drunk and tries to drive, the system detects the alcohol presence
in his breath and locks the engine, so that the vehicle fails to start. If the driver is not drunk while he starts the
vehicle and engine is started but he drinks while driving the sensor still detects the alcohol in his breath and
stops the engine so that the vehicle could not accelerate any further.

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2.4.4. External Interface Requirements
ARDUINO IDE is used for writing and dumping code into microcontroller. Operating system will be Windows
versions.

III. MODULES

3.1. Module Description

Microcontroller (ARDUINO UNO)

The Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328. (It has 14 digital input/output pins (of
which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz ceramic resonator, a USB connection, a
power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller,
simply connect it to computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.
The Uno differs from all preceding boards in that it does not use the FTDI USB-to-serial driver chip. Instead, it
features the Atmega16U2 (Atmega8U2 up to version R2) programmed as a USB-to-serial converter.

"Uno" means one in Italian and is named to mark the upcoming release of Arduino 1.0. The Uno and version
1.0 will be the reference versions of Arduino, moving forward. The Uno is the latest in a series of USB Arduino
boards, and the reference model for the Arduino platform.

Figure 3.1.1: Arduino Uno

GPS Technology
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system that sends and receives radio
signals. A GPS receiver acquires these signals and provides the user with information. Using GPS technology,
one can determine location, velocity and time, 24 hours a day, in any weather conditions anywhere in the world
for free.GPS was formally known as the NAVSTAR (Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging).

Global Positioning System was originally developed for military. Because of its popular navigation capabilities
and because GPS technology can be accessed using small, inexpensive equipment, the government made the
system available for civilian use. The USA owns GPS technology and the Department of Defense maintains it.

How GPS works

 GPS provides specially coded satellite signals that can be processed in a GPS receiver, enabling the
receiver to compute position, velocity and time.
 Four GPS satellite signals are used to compute positions in three dimensions and the time offset in the
receiver clock.
 GPS is funded by and controlled by the U. S. Department of Defense (DOD). While there are many
thousands of civil users of GPS worldwide, the system was designed for and is operated by the U. S.
military.

The architectural components of GPS are typically referred to as the control segment (ground stations), the
space segment (satellites) and the user segment (receivers).

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Determining Position
Upon taking in all available satellite signals, the receiver compares the time that the satellite sent the signal to
the time it was received for each of the available signals. Trilateralization (similar to triangulation) then
calculates the position by comparing the difference among the signals.

Figure 3.1.2: GPS Module

GSM Technology

Definition of GSM
GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) is an open, digital cellular technology used for transmitting
mobile voice and data services.

GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) is a digital mobile telephone system that is widely used in
Europe and other parts of the world. GSM uses a variation of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and is
the most widely used of the three digital wireless telephone technologies (TDMA, GSM, and CDMA).

GSM digitizes and compresses data, then sends it down a channel with two other streams of user data, each in
its own time slot. It operates at either the 900 MHz or 1,800 MHz frequency band. It supports voice calls and
data transfer speeds of up to 9.6 Kbit/s, together with the transmission of SMS (Short Message Service).

Figure 3.1.3: GSM Module

Computers use AT commands to control modems. Both GSM modems and dial-up modems support a common
set of standard AT commands. In addition to the standard AT commands, GSM modems support an extended set
of AT commands. These extended AT commands are defined in the GSM standards. With the extended AT
commands, the following operations can be performed:
 Reading, writing and deleting SMS messages.
 Sending SMS messages.
 Monitoring the signal strength.
 Reading, writing and searching phone book entries.

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The number of SMS messages that can be processed by a GSM modem per minute is very low i.e., about 6 to 10
SMS messages per minute.

Introduction to AT Commands
AT commands are instructions used to control a modem. AT is the abbreviation of ATtention. Every command
line starts with "AT" or "at". That's the reason, modem commands are called AT commands. Many of the
commands that are used to control wired dial-up modems, such as ATD (Dial), ATA (Answer), ATH (Hook
control) and ATO (Return to online data state) are also supported by GSM modems and mobile phones.

Besides this common AT command set, GSM modems and mobile phones support an AT command set that is
specific to the GSM technology, which includes SMS-related commands like AT+CMGS (Send SMS message),
AT+CMSS (Send SMS message from storage), AT+CMGL (List SMS messages) and AT+CMGR (Read SMS
messages).

Some of the tasks that can be done using AT commands with a GSM modem or mobile phone are listed below:
 Get basic information about the mobile phone or GSM modem. For example, name of manufacturer
(AT+CGMI), model number (AT+CGMM), IMEI number (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
(AT+CGSN) and software version (AT+CGMR).
 Get basic information about the subscriber. For example, MSISDN (AT+CNUM) and IMSI number
(International Mobile Subscriber Identity) (AT+CIMI).
 Get the current status of the mobile phone or GSM/GPRS modem. For example, mobile phone activity
status (AT+CPAS), mobile network registration status (AT+CREG), radio signal strength (AT+CSQ),
battery charge level and battery charging status (AT+CBC).
 Establish a data connection or voice connection to a remote modem (ATD, ATA, etc.).
 Send (AT+CMGS, AT+CMSS), read (AT+CMGR, AT+CMGL), write (AT+CMGW) or delete
(AT+CMGD) SMS messages and obtain notifications of newly received SMS messages (AT+CNMI).
 Read (AT+CPBR), write (AT+CPBW) or search (AT+CPBF) phonebook entries.
 Control the presentation of result codes / error messages of AT commands. For example, the user can
control whether to enable certain error messages (AT+CMEE) and whether error messages should be
displayed in numeric format or verbose format (AT+CMEE=1 or AT+CMEE=2).
 Get or change the configurations of the mobile phone or GSM/GPRS modem. For example, change the
GSM network (AT+COPS), bearer service type (AT+CBST), radio link protocol parameters
(AT+CRLP), SMS center address (AT+CSCA) and storage of SMS messages (AT+CPMS).
 Save and restore configurations of the mobile phone or GSM/GPRS modem. For example, save
(AT+CSAS) and restore (AT+CRES) settings related to SMS messaging such as the SMS center
address.

AT commands may be different from that defined in the standard. In general, GSM modems, designed for
wireless applications, have better support of AT commands than ordinary mobile phones.

Serial Communication
The main requirements for serial communication are:
1. Microcontroller
2. PC
3. RS 232 cable
4. MAX 232 IC
5. HyperTerminal

When the pins P0.0 and P0.1 of microcontroller are set, UART which is inbuilt in the microcontroller will be
enabled to start the serial communication.

Liquid Crystal Display

LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. LCD is finding wide spread use replacing LEDs (seven segment LEDs
or other multi segment LEDs) because of the following reasons:
1. The declining prices of LCDs.

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2. The ability to display numbers, characters and graphics. This is in contrast to LEDs, which are limited
to numbers and a few characters.
3. Incorporation of a refreshing controller into the LCD, thereby relieving the CPU of the task of
refreshing the LCD. In contrast, the LED must be refreshed by the CPU to keep displaying the data.
4. Ease of programming for characters and graphics.

These components are “specialized” for being used with the microcontrollers, which means that they cannot be
activated by standard IC circuits. They are used for writing different messages on a miniature LCD.

Figure 3.1.5: LCD display

A model described here is for its low price and great possibilities most frequently used in practice. It is based on
the HD44780 microcontroller (Hitachi) and can display messages in two lines with 16 characters each. It
displays all the alphabets, Greek letters, punctuation marks, mathematical symbols etc. In addition, it is possible
to display symbols that user makes up on its own.

Automatic shifting message on display (shift left and right), appearance of the pointer, backlight etc. are
considered as useful characteristics.

LCD Connection
Depending on how many lines are used for connection to the microcontroller, there are 8-bit and 4-bit LCD
modes. The appropriate mode is determined at the beginning of the process in a phase called “initialization”. In
the first case, the data are transferred through outputs D0-D7 as it has been already explained. In case of 4-bit
LED mode, for the sake of saving valuable I/O pins of the microcontroller, there are only 4 higher bits (D4-D7)
used for communication, while other may be left unconnected.

Figure 3.1.6: LCD Connection

LCD Initialization
Once the power supply is turned on, LCD is automatically cleared. This process lasts for approximately 15mS.
After that, display is ready to operate. The mode of operating is set by default. This means that:
1. Display is cleared
2. Mode
DL = 1 Communication through 8-bit interface
N = 0 Messages are displayed in one line
F = 0 Character font 5 x 8 dots
3. Display/Cursor on/off
D = 0 Display off
U = 0 Cursor off
B = 0 Cursor blink off
4. Character entry
ID = 1 Addresses on display are automatically incremented by 1
S = 0 Display shift off

Automatic reset is mainly performed without any problems. If for any reason power supply voltage does not
reach full value in the course of 10mS, display will start perform completely unpredictably.

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Motor
Electric motors involve rotating coils of wire which are driven by the magnetic force exerted by a magnetic field
on an electric current. They transform electrical energy into mechanical energy.

There are several types of electric motors available today. The following outline gives an overview of several
popular ones. There are two main classes of motors: AC and DC. AC motors require an alternating current or
voltage source (like the power coming out of the wall outlets in your house) to make them work. DC motors
require a direct current or voltage source (like the voltage coming out of batteries) to make them work.
Universal motors can work on either type of power. Not only is the construction of the motors different, but the
means used to control the speed and torque created by each of these motors also varies, although the principles
of power conversion are common to both.

RF Technology
Radio frequency (RF) is a frequency or rate of oscillation within the range of about 3 Hz to 300 GHz. This
range corresponds to frequency of alternating current electrical signals used to produce and detect radio waves.
Since mostof this range is beyond the vibration rate that most mechanical systems can respond to, RFusually
refers to oscillations in electrical circuits or electromagnetic radiation.

RF Advantages
 No line of sight is needed.
 Not blocked by common materials: It can penetrate most solids and pass through walls.
 Longer range.
 It is not sensitive to the light.
 It is not much sensitive to the environmental changes and weather conditions.

The data is received by the RF receiver from the antenna pin and this data is available on the data pins. Two
Data pins are provided in the receiver module. Thus, this data can be used for further applications.

Alcohol Sensor (MQ2)

This module is useful for gas leakage detection (in home and industry). It is suitablefor detecting H2, LPG,
CH4, CO, Alcohol, Smoke orPropane. Dueto its high sensitivity and fast response time, measurement can be
taken as soon as possible. The sensitivity of the sensor can be adjusted by potentiometer.

Features
 Wide detecting scope
 Stable and long life
 Fast response and High sensitivity

Vibration Sensor
A piezoelectric sensor is a device that uses the piezoelectriceffect, to measure changes
in pressure, acceleration, temperature, strain, or force by converting them to an electrical charge. The
prefix piezo- is Greek for 'press' or 'squeeze'.

Piezoelectric sensors are versatile tools for the measurement of various processes. They are used for quality
assurance, process control, and for research and development in many industries. Pierre Curie discovered the
piezoelectric effect in 1880, but only in the 1950s did manufacturers begin to use the piezoelectric effect in
industrial sensing applications. Since then, this measuring principle has been increasingly used, and has become
a mature technology with excellent inherent reliability. They have been successfully used in various
applications, such as in medical, aerospace, nuclear instrumentation, and as a tilt sensor in consumer electronics
or a pressure sensor in the touch pads of mobile phones. In the automotive industry, piezoelectric elements are
used to monitor combustion when developing internal combustion engines. The sensors are either directly
mounted into additional holes into the cylinder head or the spark/glow plug is equipped with a built-in miniature
piezoelectric sensor.

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3.2. Project Architecture
Helmet Side

LCD

RF TRANSMITTER VIBRATION SENSOR

A
R
GPS D TEMPERATURE SENSOR
U
I ALCOHOL SENSOR
GSM
N
O

POWER SUPPLY SOLAR PANEL

Figure 3.2.1: Block Diagram of Helmet Module

Bike Side

Figure 3.2.2: Block Diagram of Bike Module

IV. CONCLUSION
The developed project efficiently ensures:
 Rider is wearing helmet throughout the ride.
 Rider should not be under the influence of alcohol.
 Accident detection.

By implementing this project, a safe two-wheeler journey is possible which would decrease the head injuries
during accidents and also reduce the accident rate due to driving bike after consuming alcohol.

The helmet may not be a 100% foolproof but is definitely the first line of defense for the rider in case of an
accident to prevent fatal injuries.

V. FUTURE ENHANCEMENT
It can be used in real time safety system. We can implement the whole circuit into small module later.
This safety system technology can further be enhanced into four-wheeler also by replacing helmet with seatbelt

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VI. REFERENCES
[1] International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319‐7064 Volume 3 Issue 3,
March 2014
[2] International Journal Of Computer Science And Applications Vol. 6, No.2, Apr 2013 ISSN: 0974-1011
(Open Access)
[3] Article from The Hindu [online] 2011 Feb. 10 Available
from:URL:http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/10/stories/2011021063740500.htm
[4] International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 2, Issue 12, December-2011 1
ISSN 2229-5518
[5] Bishop, R (2002). The road ahead for intelligent vehicle sytem: what”s in store for riders? 8th Annual
Minnesota Motorcycle safety conference
[6] Sayeed and A. Perrig, “Secure Wireless Communications: Secret Keys through Multipath,” Proc.
IEEEInt’l Conf. Acoustics, SpeechSignal Processing, pp. 3013-3016, Apr.2008
[7] William R. Reagen, (1979) ―Auto theft detection system‖ US4177466 (US Patent) Computer”, May
2011

CITE AN ARTICLE
Vinod, G. V., Mr, & Krishna, K. S. (n.d.). SMART HELMET. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
ENGINEERING SCIENCES & RESEARCH TECHNOLOGY,7(4), 270-278.

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