Role Of Automobile sensors

Sensors play an important role in the automobile manufacturing industry. Here, we discuss the different sensors that are used in modern cars.

Fremont, CA: Modern cars make thousands of decisions based on the data provided by various sensors that are interfaced with the vehicles' onboard computer systems. A car engine management system comprises many sensor devices, including engine sensors, relays, and actuators.

Many of these sensors function in rough and harsh conditions that involve extreme temperatures, vibrations, and exposure to environmental contaminants. Still, these provide vital data parameters to the electronic control unit (ECU) that effectively governs the various engine functions.

In older vehicles, engine sensors & instruments were simple. Modern vehicles are built with complicated electronic sensor systems. Digital computers now control engines using various sensors. Luxury cars have a crowd of sensors for controlling different features.

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Importance of sensors

Sensors play a vital role in automotives. These enable higher degrees of vehicle automation and futuristic designs. For instance, in manufacturing units, sensorised robotic arms are used for painting car bodies and measuring the thickness of the coatings being applied.

Manufacturers can monitor the thickness of the paint being sprayed on instruments, airbag claddings, and various internal parts of the vehicles utilizing sensors.

Sensors watch vehicle engines, fuel consumption, and emissions, aiding and protecting drivers and passengers. These enable car manufacturers to launch cars that are safer, more fuel efficient, and more comfortable to drive.

Electronic control unit

All vehicle sensors are connected to the ECU, which contains the hardware and software (firmware). The hardware consists of electronic components on a printed circuit board (PCB) with a microcontroller (MCU) chip as the main component. The MCU processes the inputs obtained from different sensors in real time.

Controlling and monitoring the latest vehicle is much simpler with the ECU. All mechanical and pneumatic controls have been substituted by electronic/electrical systems that are more flexible, easier to handle, lighter, and cheaper. Moreover, the ECU has decreased the number of wires and emissions and enabled easy diagnosing of problems.

Communications and Control

The ECU facilitates communication between various components and devices since long wires for each function are not required. It is nestled in the vehicle and connected to the nearest vehicle bus, including the controller area network (CAN), local interconnect network (LIN), FlexRay, and BroadR-Reach. A CAN bus standard allows MCUs, sensors, and other devices to communicate without a host computer.

Emission control

After sensing fuel level & calculating fuel quantity, the ECU sends signals to different relays and actuators, including ignition circuits, spark plugs, fuel injectors, engine idling air control valves, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valves. Then, it extracts the best feasible engine performance while keeping emissions as low as possible.

Engine fault diagnosis

ECU gathers signals from various sensors, including faulty ones, and stores these in its memory. Sensors diagnose these faults by reading ECU memory directly or by engine diagnostic equipment supplied by the vehicle manufacturer.

Modern luxury cars comprise hundreds of ECUs, but cheaper and smaller cars are only a handful. The number of ECUs rises with ever-increasing features.

Based on the vehicle make and model, the ECU(s) can be found beneath the wiper, under the bonnet in the engine bay, on the passenger front footwell, under the carpet, or near the glove compartment.

Some common vehicle sensors contain ambient light, battery current, differential oil temperature, door open warning, battery temperature, brake power booster, anti-lock braking system (ABS), auto door lock position, camshaft position, crankshaft position, cylinder head temperature, headlight level, humidity, diesel emissions fluid temperature, fuel cutoff, fuel temperature, hybrid battery voltage, ignition pass-lock, hybrid circuit breaker, manifold absolute pressure (MAP), mass airflow (MAF), oil level, oxygen, power steering fluid level, speed, steering angle, temperature, throttle position, transmission oil pressure, and windshield washer level.

Getting a replacement sensor demands attention to the product's genuineness, quality, and performance. As a car owner, you don't have to be aware of the functions of all sensors employed in the vehicle, but knowing the fundamentals can be helpful in case your car breaks down or something else goes wrong. A list of popular sensors used in modern vehicles is listed in the table to understand these functions.

Sensors in autonomous vehicles

With technological progress, a car can now drive alone. Navigating a car from start to end is likely with autonomous vehicle technology (viz, without a human driver), comprising avoiding road hazards and responding to traffic conditions. Modern sensors & technology can even help a driverless car drive at high speeds on the open road.

Autonomous cars employ many sensors, including radars and cameras. Lidar is the main sensor used in most driverless cars. It helps in sensing the world and bouncing laser light off nearby objects to create 3D maps of the surroundings.

Lidar does not detect objects; it profiles them by illuminating them and analyzing reflected light's path. It uses emitted light and gives high-resolution images. The light intensity is not affected much at any time (day or night), so the result is highly accurate.

Autonomous vehicles have existed for almost a decade, but lidar is somewhat new and expensive. Making it function on practical autonomous cars is not simple. The cars must be robust and dependable.

These should hold some form of artificial intelligence (AI) to care for rough paths, collisions, obstacles, potholes, traffic, etc. Although much improvement is still required, lidar has solved many problems in autonomous cars. Hence it is an indispensable component for completely-autonomous cars.

Although the race for autonomous cars has started, it has some limitations due to the limitations in current sensor technologies. Autonomous vehicles require a complex integration of sophisticated algorithms running on powerful processors, making critical decisions based on real-time data from a diverse and complex array of sensors. The vehicles need good and reliable sensors containing GPS, cameras, MEMS-based gyroscopes, and accelerometers.

Some sensors employed in advanced driver assistance systems (ADASes) include fuel delivery, lane departure warning, parking aid, tank pressure measurement, adaptive cruise control (ACC), blind-spot detection, brake booster system, collision avoidance system, filter monitoring, lidar, power-assisted steering, reversing aid, start-stop system, tank air intake and extraction, tank leakage diagnostics, traffic sign recognition and so on.

Today, electronic sensor systems & engine computers do all, from regulating and monitoring fuel to diagnosing problems. Modern electronic sensors monitor vital engine parameters like oil pressure, coolant temperature, and emissions and report to the driver when something goes wrong.

Sensors play a significant role in the automobile manufacturing industry. Hybrid vehicles need more sophistication in sensing and control. This demands a wide range of sensors, all operating properly. Such reliance on car engine sensors and electronic systems requires high quality and reliability.

Large arrays of sensors are necessary for modern autonomous vehicles. While this field has made good progress, many hurdles still exist. Safety and reliability are still a concern because of limitations in current sensor technologies.

Improvements in smart radar sensors such as lidar and AI algorithms could help automakers make truly reliable autonomous vehicles.