Sensor architecture allows real-time auto emissions monitoring, Pt. 2

Future challenges and scalability

The suggested mechanism of processing and displaying real time emission information can have the following complications during implementation and roll-out:

1. Probably, the biggest challenge in this implementation might come from the political will of different government agencies to roll-out the system. Investment needs to be done for setting up the infrastructure required for this, including servers, data-base management, norms-evolution, safety architecture, etc.
2. This implementation involves wireless transmission of data. Therefore, signal integrity and safety are prime concerns, which need to be addressed very seriously. Besides, one needs to make sure that the final system is tamper-proof. Therefore, we may require good encryption implementation, either in the hardware or software layer.
3. Automotive environments are usually very harsh and the surrounding conditions might change drastically—say for the temperature range, humidity, or conditions of the roads. Therefore, the sensors needs to be able to withstand vibration and shocks, and should be able to deliver accurate results irrespective of the conditions. This might require very good calibration process to deal with such changes.

Scalability options
The backbone of the proposed solution lies in the processing capabilities of the MCU and the adaptability of the firmware. Therefore, by some simple firmware changes, one can easily adapt the solution to meet various requirements like environmental changes, change in vehicle type, differences in geographical location, etc., thereby presenting a fully scalable and adaptable solution.

Conclusions
Real-time emissions data would give central regulatory and monitoring authorities and vehicle-owners a chance to have a closer look at the damage a vehicle might be causing to the environment. The information will not only help in reducing the harmful emissions but will also enhance the life of vehicle. And once the hardware is in place, upgrade to next standard of emission-adherence will be just a matter of software changes due to highly scalable nature of the solution. Although, initially this solution may be very challenging to realize, in the long term it can prove substantially beneficial.

References:
1 Inspection of Car’s Emission Using Infrared Spectrum Technique:
M Kong,Z Luo, Y Lu and W j Fan
2 http://www.vehicletest.state.ma.us/
3 http://www.implats.co.za/implats/Emission-standards.asp
4 http://www.theicct.org
5 http://lh3.ggpht.com/_SHPVwr-0FwA/SdYvlpbGPzI/AAAAAAAAA5s/k0mv_xc08wg/s800/96749.jpg


About the authors:
Ravindra Arora has worked at Freescale Semiconductor as senior design engineer for about six years. He has worked on automotive cluster and safety architecture MCUs. He earned his M.Tech (Instrumentation) from N.I.T Kurukshetra and B.Tech from R.E.C Kurukshetra (India).

Manmohan Rana has worked at Freescale as senior design engineer for about five years. He has worked on memory circuit design, analog and mixed signal design and simulation for various SoC architectures. He earned his BE (Electronics and Communications) from Delhi College of Engineering (Delhi University, India).

Sunil Deep Maheshwari has worked at Freescale as senior design engineer for about five years. He has worked on architectures ranging from motor control, power train, and metering to auto safety. He earned his BE (Electronics and Communications) from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (Delhi University, India).

If you liked this article, go to the Automotive Designline home page for the latest in automotive electronics design, technology, trends, products, and news. Also, get a weekly highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for our weekly automotive electronics newsletter here.