Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
58 Automotive Window Icing Preventer for Cars
 Jiwon Bae
Joon Song
Taseen Karim
 Vishal Dayalan design_document2.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
photo1.HEIC
photo2.HEIC
presentation1.pdf
proposal2.pdf
video1.mp4
Team Members:
- Jiwon Bae (jiwonb2)
- JoonHyuk Song (js30)
- Taseen Karim (tkarim3)

# Problem

In colder climates, vehicle owners often face the challenge of ice formation on their vehicles. This ice accumulation can affect visibility, vehicle functionality, and overall safety. Removing ice manually can be time-consuming, labor-intensive, and sometimes ineffective, especially in severe weather conditions.
The motivation for the automotive icing preventer is to enhance safety, convenience, and efficiency for vehicle owners in cold climates. By preventing ice formation on vehicles, this solution aims to eliminate the need for manual de-icing, saving vehicle owners considerable time and effort, especially during early morning starts. Also, it ensures clear visibility and unobstructed vehicle operation, crucial for safe driving in winter conditions. Moreover, frequent scraping and chemical de-icers can damage a vehicle's exterior. A more gentle de-icing method can help preserve the vehicle's integrity.

# Solution

Our solution is to design an automotive heating system attached to the inside of the vehicle onto the windshield. The device will contain heating coils within a carefully selected burn-resistant material, heating the windshield from the inside to ultimately reduce the icing. The heating pad would utilize a temperature sensor and thermostat-like closed-loop feedback system controlled over a microcontroller, as well as an LED display which would give feedback to the users. Our device will also contain a small battery-powered unit that will deliver power to the sensors and activate/deactivate power to the coils based off of the sensor feedback.

# Solution Components

## Microcontroller
The microcontroller will be the control unit for the entire system. It would be connected to the temperature sensor, power supply, and the feedback to the users. We decided to use an Arduino microcontroller where we could easily monitor the exact temperature outside and specifically control the temperature of the heating pad. The control unit carefully detects the temperature of the windshield regularly and turns on the heating pad when the temperature of the outside of the windshield is well below freezing degrees. The windshield of a car typically endures a temperature of up to 100 degrees of directly applied heat before potentially cracking. Thus, for the heating pad, we are aiming for a temperature of 32-40 degrees(F) for the windshield, which is well over freezing degrees and would use less power as well. Consistently checking the temperature of the windshield and the heating pad, once the windshield reaches the capacity we determined (40 degrees), the heating pad will turn off.
The control unit also is responsible for outputting feedback to the users on the LED display. It would contain the indication of whether the heating pad is on or off. The LED would light green if the heating pad is on and would turn off when the heating pad is off.

## Power Unit
The power supply unit will utilize a variable voltage regulator to adjust power from 30W to 200W to the heating coils, with a fixed voltage of 3.3V to sensors and microcontroller. We will need long-lasting and rechargeable batteries (LiPo batteries are most ideal), along with a battery holder.

## Sensor Unit
The sensor unit will utilize some sort of temperature sensing technology (thermocouple, RTD, thermistors, this is TBD) and be integrated into a closed-loop feedback system that is linked to the power unit. Direct power to the heating coils will be fully determined by the sensor unit. If the sensor unit detects temperatures below freezing, it will queue the power unit to deliver power directly to the coils. If the sensor unit detects temperatures above freezing, the heating coils will stop receiving power. The sensor unit will be receiving low fixed voltage at all times.



# Criterion For Success

For the automotive icing preventer project, success can be defined by meeting the following specific and measurable goals:

Surface Temperature Regulation: The system maintains the vehicle's surface temperature consistently above 0°C (32°F), regardless of external weather conditions. This is verified by sensor data indicating that the surface temperature never falls below the freezing point during operation.

Power Regulation: The coils will only receive power when temperatures fall below freezing point. When temperatures are ideal, the coils will remain off and a constant voltage will be relayed to the microcontroller and sensor units to continue monitoring temperature fluctuations.

Feedback: We will incorporate some form of display to show whether or not the coils are receiving power as well as battery percentage. We will also have a variable voltage regulator display showing the amount of supplied voltage.

Healthy Chair

Ryan Chen, Alan Tokarsky, Tod Wang

Healthy Chair

Featured Project

Team Members:

- Wang Qiuyu (qiuyuw2)

- Ryan Chen (ryanc6)

- Alan Torkarsky(alanmt2)

## Problem

The majority of the population sits for most of the day, whether it’s students doing homework or

employees working at a desk. In particular, during the Covid era where many people are either

working at home or quarantining for long periods of time, they tend to work out less and sit

longer, making it more likely for people to result in obesity, hemorrhoids, and even heart

diseases. In addition, sitting too long is detrimental to one’s bottom and urinary tract, and can

result in urinary urgency, and poor sitting posture can lead to reduced blood circulation, joint

and muscle pain, and other health-related issues.

## Solution

Our team is proposing a project to develop a healthy chair that aims at addressing the problems

mentioned above by reminding people if they have been sitting for too long, using a fan to cool

off the chair, and making people aware of their unhealthy leaning posture.

1. It uses thin film pressure sensors under the chair’s seat to detect the presence of a user,

and pressure sensors on the chair’s back to detect the leaning posture of the user.

2. It uses a temperature sensor under the chair’s seat, and if the seat’s temperature goes

beyond a set temperature threshold, a fan below will be turned on by the microcontroller.

3. It utilizes an LCD display with programmable user interface. The user is able to input the

duration of time the chair will alert the user.

4. It uses a voice module to remind the user if he or she has been sitting for too long. The

sitting time is inputted by the user and tracked by the microcontroller.

5. Utilize only a voice chip instead of the existing speech module to construct our own

voice module.

6. The "smart" chair is able to analyze the situation that the chair surface temperature

exceeds a certain temperature within 24 hours and warns the user about it.

## Solution Components

## Signal Acquisition Subsystem

The signal acquisition subsystem is composed of multiple pressure sensors and a temperature

sensor. This subsystem provides all the input signals (pressure exerted on the bottom and the

back of the chair, as well as the chair’s temperature) that go into the microcontroller. We will be

using RP-C18.3-ST thin film pressure sensors and MLX90614-DCC non-contact IR temperature

sensor.

## Microcontroller Subsystem

In order to achieve seamless data transfer and have enough IO for all the sensors we will use

two ATMEGA88A-PU microcontrollers. One microcontroller is used to take the inputs and

serves as the master, and the second one controls the outputs and acts as the slave. We will

use I2C communication to let the two microcontrollers talk to each other. The microcontrollers

will also be programmed with the ch340g usb to ttl converter. They will be programmed outside

the board and placed into it to avoid over cluttering the PCB with extra circuits.

The microcontroller will be in charge of processing the data that it receives from all input

sensors: pressure and temperature. Once it determines that there is a person sitting on it we

can use the internal clock to begin tracking how long they have been sitting. The clock will also

be used to determine if the person has stood up for a break. The microcontroller will also use

the readings from the temperature sensor to determine if the chair has been overheating to turn

on the fans if necessary. A speaker will tell the user to get up and stretch for a while when they

have been sitting for too long. We will use the speech module to create speech through the

speaker to inform the user of their lengthy sitting duration.

The microcontroller will also be able to relay data about the posture to the led screen for the

user. When it’s detected that the user is leaning against the chair improperly for too long from

the thin film pressure sensors on the chair back, we will flash the corresponding LEDs to notify

the user of their unhealthy sitting posture.

## Implementation Subsystem

The implementation subsystem can be further broken down into three modules: the fan module,

the speech module, and the LCD module. This subsystem includes all the outputs controlled by

the microcontroller. We will be using a MF40100V2-1000U-A99 fan for the fan module,

ISD4002-240PY voice record chip for the speech module, and Adafruit 1.54" 240x240 Wide

Angle TFT LCD Display with MicroSD - ST7789 LCD display for the OLED.

## Power Subsystem

The power subsystem converts 120V AC voltage to a lower DC voltage. Since most of the input

and output sensors, as well as the ATMEGA88A-PU microcontroller operate under a DC voltage

of around or less than 5V, we will be implementing the power subsystem that can switch

between a battery and normal power from the wall.

## Criteria for Success

-The thin film pressure sensors on the bottom of the chair are able to detect the pressure of a

human sitting on the chair

-The temperature sensor is able to detect an increase in temperature and turns the fan as

temperature goes beyond our set threshold temperature. After the temperature decreases

below the threshold, the fan is able to be turned off by the microcontroller

-The thin film pressure sensors on the back of the chair are able to detect unhealthy sitting

posture

-The outputs of the implementation subsystem including the speech, fan, and LCD modules are

able to function as described above and inform the user correctly

## Envision of Final Demo

Our final demo of the healthy chair project is an office chair with grids. The office chair’s back

holds several other pressure sensors to detect the person’s leaning posture. The pressure and

temperature sensors are located under the office chair. After receiving input time from the user,

the healthy chair is able to warn the user if he has been sitting for too long by alerting him from

the speech module. The fan below the chair’s seat is able to turn on after the chair seat’s

temperature goes beyond a set threshold temperature. The LCD displays which sensors are

activated and it also receives the user’s time input.

Project Videos