Development of alcohol sensor detector

with engine locking system for accident

prevention
Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 2129, 020196 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5118204
Published Online: 30 July 2019

Izanoordina Ahmad, Muhammad Firdaus Suhaimi, and Nur Asfarina Nasuha Yusri

AIP Conference Proceedings 2129, 020196 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5118204 2129, 020196

© 2019 Author(s).
 Development of Alcohol Sensor Detector with Engine
Locking System for Accident Prevention
Izanoordina Ahmad1,a , Muhammad Firdaus Suhaimi1 , and Nur Asfarina Nasuha
Yusri1
1
Electronics Technology Section, Universiti Kuala Lumpur British Malaysian Institute, Batu 8, Jalan Sungai Pusu,
53100 Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia
a
Corresponding author: izanoordina@unikl.edu.my

Abstract. The alcohol detection with engine locking system is proposed to eliminate the rise of number of roads
accidents caused by extreme intake of alcohol by drivers. The system is developed to monitor the level of alcohol in the
exhaled breath of a driver and the data is transmitted through the wireless communication to activate the engine locking
system. The Arduino Mega microcontroller with MQ-3 alcohol sensor, DC motor and HC-05 Bluetooh module are used
for the system development. The experimental results show that the presence status of passive in-vehicle driver breath
alcohol detection could be transmitted through the Bluetooth module and received by the dedicated phone number for
emergency notification purpose. Therefore, the prototype is useful for preventing fatal accident due to the drunken driver.

INTRODUCTION
A total of 710 fatal road traffic deaths was registered at the Department of Forensic Science, Kuala Lumpur
Hospital for the period of 2006 to 2009. The study revealed that 23.3% of fatal drivers were positive for alcohol,
11% positive for drugs and 2.3% were positive for both drug and alcohol. According to Home Ministry statistics
between 2010 and 2015, a total of 1,035 road accidents were recorded due to the influence of alcohol, which
resulted in 618 deaths. Also, according on research reports on February 2015 related cases of driving under the
influence of drugs or alcohol (DUI), 16.7% were tested positive for alcohol at Kuala Lumpur and 167 were recorded
as a number of deaths.
The fatal accident could be prevented through the frequent checking of alcohol level pf the driver. Therefore, the
research of developing the alcohol sensor detector is proposed as one of the solution to eliminate the rise in the
number of cases of roads accidents. The research is focusing on the development of monitoring system of the
alcohol concentration in the exhaled breath of the driver using the following hardware components in the design
such as an LCD, the MQ-3 alcohol sensor, DC Motor, Piezo speaker module and HC-05 Bluetooth module
combined with ATmega2560 microcontroller. The proposed system was design using circuito.io and the software
code was written in Arduino IDE sketch. The control system can be used in all kinds of vehicles to monitor the
alcohol content of drivers, thus prevent constant traffic accidents from happening caused by drunk driving. To
determine the alcohol content of the driver and protect the driver’s life and the safety of property, most countries
detects drunken driver by using alcohol breath tester. Plus, it can also monitor the alcohol concentration of a certain
environment to avoid destructive fire accidents and explosion. Hence, the safety of environment is secured. This
system principle is cheap and reliable in terms of performance.An alcohol detection and automatic engine locking
system is implemented using ATmega328 microcontroller, MQ-3 alcohol sensor, buzzer, LED’S, DC Motor, and an
LCD to notify the occupant of a vehicle[1]. The ATmega328 microcontroller has an on-board flash memory which
allows read-while-write capabilities.
W. Dong et al. proposed an automatic control system of anti-drunk driving. The AT89S51 controller, ADC data
acquisition, MQ-3 alcohol sensor, an LCD, voice annunciator and DC motor have been used in the design [2]. The

5th International Conference on Green Design and Manufacture (IConGDM 2019)

AIP Conf. Proc. 2129, 020196-1–020196-6; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5118204
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1871-4/$30.00

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AT89S51 controller has an on-board flash memory which allows fast development and reprogramming in a matter
of seconds. One of the contributions that could be adapted in our project is the voice annunciator to warn and remind
you, and the ADC data acquisition to store data which can be access remotely.An optoelectronic system for stand-
off detection of alcohol vapor is implemented in [3]. The method used two combined laser beams emitted by a laser
source that went through a moving car and were absorbed by a detector. The signal from the detector was
transmitted to the custom-built electronic board developed by INTSOL company. The signal with the same period of
5ms was analyzed by a computer using FFT analysis. However, the method is expensive in terms of cost and
maintenance. Thus it is not advisable to be applied in our project.
A. Paredes-Doig et al. proposed an alcohol detection based on Pd-doped SnO2 sensors[4]. It was found that Pd-
doped SnO2 nanorod thin film sensor exhibits six and two point produced five times better response to 1000 ppm H2
and ethanol at 300 °C. However, the process and methods seem to be complicated and hard to apply. A. Kumar et al.
proposed an automatic toll payment, alcohol detection, load and vehicle information using internet of things and
mailing system[5]. IR sensors was used in the system to detect the details of the vehicle. Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects.
Alcohol Detectors was installed in vehicles. MQ135 alcoholic sensor is used to sense the alcoholic driver and
automatically decelerates and helps to avoid accidents.
An alcohol detection and seat belt control system using Arduino is proposed in [6]. Global System for Mobil
communications (GSM) was used to allow broadcast of Short message service (SMS) in TEXT mode and PDU
mode. Also, Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based radio steering system that provides reliable
positioning, course plotting, and timing services to users on a continuous global basis -freely available to all. It can
be concluded that their work is effective and responsive. The safety of the driver and the car is secured with the seat
belt functionality and via GPS. These both can and should be applied to our project to become a full working,
effective and responsive system.
S. Shijiu et al. proposed a high sensitivity alcohol gas sensor based on TiO2 thin films[7]. Atomic Layer
Deposition has been used to deposit titanium dioxide thin films on soda-lime glass substrates. A series of films with
thicknesses from 2.6 to 260 nm has been created and the film structure has been studied with X-ray diffraction. It
has been observed that at a reaction temperature of 350 °C, titanium dioxide thin films initially grow as anatase (a
tetragonal mineral consisting of titanium dioxide and used especially as a white pigment) but after a certain
thickness, growth continues as rutile. D. Preetham et al. proposed safety helmet with an alcohol detection and theft
control for bikers[8]. They used AT89S52 controller, microcontroller, alcohol sensor, IR sensor, and viola jones
algorithm. The 89S52 has an on-chip flash to allows the program memory to be reprogrammed in-system or by a
conventional non-volatile memory programmer. IR sensor is for detecting whether the rider is wearing the helmet.
Viola Jones Algorithm is a widely used method for real time object detection[8]. S. Murugan et al.] proposed Elena:
A low cost portable electronic nose for alcohol characterization[9]. ELENA (Electronic Nose for Alcohol
characterization) for detecting trace quantities of ethanol and methanol in the air. ELENA comprises of a sampling
system, an array of chemical sensors, a data acquisition system and a pattern recognition system.
S. Al-youif et al. proposed the alcohol detection system for car locking system[10]. They used ATmega328
controller, MQ-3 alcohol sensor and DC motor shield. S. Kalpana et al [11] proposed an Arduino based embedded
system in passenger car for road safety. They used HT12E encoder, HT12D decoder, RF TX/RX module, relay
contactor and max232. HT12E Encoder is an encoder integrated circuit of 212 series of encoders. These modules are
paired with 212 series of decoders to be used in remote control system applications. HT12D Decoder is a decoder
integrated circuit that belongs to 212 series of decoders. The series of decoders are mainly used for remote control
system applications, like burglar alarm, car door controller, security system etc. P. Barhate et al. proposed an alcohol
detection system in vehicle using Arduino [12]. The proposed project used ATmega328, MQ-3 alcohol sensor,
buzzer and liquid crystal display (LCD) and amicrocontroller of PIC16F877A. PIC16F877A is a powerful 200
nanosecond instruction execution yet easy-to-program (only 35 single word instructions). It has an on-board CMOS
FLASH-based 8 bit microcontroller packs Microchip’s powerful PIC and is upwards compatible with the
PIC16C5X, PIC12CXXX and PIC16C7X devices.

METHODOLOGY
An investigation was carried out to testify the presence status of passive in-vehicle driver breath alcohol detection by
using MQ3 Alcohol Sensor by configuring the ability of Bluetooth module for transmitting and receiving the data
through wireless communication. The input data could determine the functional of the engine locking system of the

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car. The Arduino microcontroller acts as a heart and core of the whole system which control the system operation.
There are two inputs and four outputs for this project. The two components that act as input is MQ3 Alcohol Sensor
and Bluetooth Module. The MQ3 Alcohol Sensor detects the alcohol concentration of exhaled breath of the driver,
transmits the data to Arduino and prepare to send the message to the nearest relative members of the driver by using
the Bluetooth module.
The components such as buzzer, LCD I2C, Bluetooth and DC Motor are used as the output of the system. If the
alcohol level of the driver is high and above the limit, the buzzer will continuously ringing, the DC Motor will stop
operate, the LCD 12C will display the message accordingly and the Bluetooth module will send the alert message to
the nearest relative members. This is a continuous process up until the alcohol concentration of the exhaled breath of
the driver decrease to the respective level as shown in figure 1.

Experiment 1: To check the presence status of passive in-vehicle driver breathe alcohol detection by using MQ3
Alcohol Sensor.
Experiment 2: To determine the ability of Bluetooth module that can receive data as a replacement of GSM in short
distance.
Experiment 3: To develop the engine locking.

FIGURE 1. Schematic Diagram and flow chart for Alcohol Sensor Detector with Engine Locking system.

RESULTS
This project has been implemented in order to testify the presence status of passive in-vehicle driver breath alcohol
detection by using MQ3 Alcohol Sensor. Therefore the safety of the driver could be secured through the engine
locking that are able to reduce the accidents rate. The Bluetooth module could receive the data as a replacement of
GSM for a short distance.

Figure 2 to 4 shows the result for determining the presence status of passive in-vehicle driver breathe alcohol
detection by using MQ3 Alcohol Sensor. Figure 2 shows the reading of the alcohol level at 179. It can be assumed
that here is no alcohol concentration being detected in the exhaled breath of the driver using MQ3 Alcohol Sensor
due to the level is lower than 200. Therefore, it could be considered as undetected alcohol level.

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 FIGURE 2. The alcohol level that could be considered as undetected alcohol level.

Figure 3 shows the reading of alcohol level at 295 by MQ3 Alcohol Sensor that could be considered as
‘NORMAL” due to its alcohol concentration is in between 200 to 300. Therefore, the engine locking system is not
activated and the driver is allowed to drive the car.

FIGURE 3. Alcohol level for ‘NORMAL’ condition

Figure 4 show the reading of alcohol level in between 300 to 400. MQ3 Alcohol Sensor detects a slightly higher
concentration of alcohol in the exhaled breath of the driver. Thus, a ‘WARNING!!! ALCOHOL DETECTED’ will
be displayed and 5V Piezo Speaker Module will start to ring as a sign of warning to the driver. However, the engine
locking system is still deactivated and it could bel considered as safe.

FIGURE 4. Alcohol level in between 300 to 400 for ‘ALCOHOL DETECTED’ condition.

The following result in figure 5 shows the activation of the engine locking system. It shows the level of alcohol
which is more than 400 that allow the MQ3 Alcohol Sensor to detects a highly concentration of alcohol in the
exhaled breath of the driver. The LCD I2C will display ‘YOU ARE DRUNK!!!’ and the Piezo Speaker Module will
continuously ringging. Thus, the anti-lock braking system will be activated. The message will be sent by the
Bluetooh module to the dedicated relative’s phone number as indication of the risky situation. The alert system is to
secure the safety of the driver through the engine locking system that will reduce the accident rate.

FIGURE 5. Alcohol detection level of more than 400 for the activation of the brake locking system.
Figure 6 shows the result for determining the configuration of Bluetooth module that could receive the data as a
replacement of GSM in a short range..

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 FIGURE 6. Bluetooth module receiving message data using Arduino’s Software Serial Monitor.

DISCUSSION
The development of alcohol sensor with engine locking using Arduino MEGA and Bluetooth module is
implemented to reduce the number of accident rate. Three scenario has been discussed that identify the different
level of alcohol concentration in the exhaled breath of the driver; between 200 and 300, higher than 300 to 400, and
greater than 400. Note that LCD I2C will display alcohol level even if there is no alcohol detected.
The ‘NORMAL’ status shows the range of alcohol in between 200 to 300 that still allow the driver to start the
engine and drive. The notification of ‘WARNING!!! ALCOHOL DETECTED’ will be displayed if the range of
alcohol detection is higher than 300 and lower than 400, thus the Piezo Speaker Module will be ringing as the
indication that the driver had a little drink of alcohol. However, the driver still could start the engine and drive.
A notification of ‘YOU ARE DRUNK!!!’ will be displayed if the alcohol detector is higher than 400 which is set
for limit, 5V Piezo Speaker Module will rings continuously. Thus, DC Motor will be locked or deactivated, and
Bluetooth module will send a message to the respective relative member. This shows that the driver had a little too
much of drinking alcohol. However, at this stage, the driver could not start the engine and drive. Furthemore, the
driver has to wait until the alcohol concentration level in the exhaled breath has decrease.

CONCLUSION
Based on the results from this study, the system shows that the performance of monitoring the presence of alcohol
concentration in the exhaled breath of the driver with engine lock is successful. Three objectives in this project were
achieved; to testify the presence of alcohol concentration, to configure the ability of Bluetooth module and to secure
the safety of driver through the engine locking. It can be concluded that the system could efficiently checks the
drunken driver. A safe journey is possible which would reduce the injuries during accidents and the rate of accidents
due to drunken driving. The system can be improved by implementing the GPS vehicle tracker technology for the
identification of location of drunk driver’s vehicle.

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