[01] Vincent Andrew Akpan, The Department of Biomedical Technology, The Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. [02] Aghogho Stanley Eyefia, The Department of Physics Electronics, The Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria.

This paper presents the development of an autonomous vehicle with integrated sensor suite with an obstacle detection and avoidance system which incorporates an electronic alarm system together with a 25-watt audio amplifier system. The proposed autonomous vehicle consists of seven sections, namely: 1). three HC-SRO4 ultrasonic sensors; 2). an L298N motor driver module; 3). a vehicle of dimension of 0.35 m (length) by 0.18 m (width) by 0.14 m (height); 4). an MQ-5 gas; 5). an MQ-2 smoke detector module; 6). an electronic alarm system which incorporates a 25-Watt audio amplifier; and 7). an Internet Protocol (IP) wireless camera system based on IPv4. Each of the three ultrasonic sensors has been attached to the front and both sides of the vehicle and they are able to detect obstacles within a 1m range. The H-bridge drive circuit built around L298N motor driver module in conjunction with the three ultrasonic sensors constitutes the obstacle detection and avoidance system and hence the autonomous nature of the vehicle. The MQ-5 and MQ-2 gas and smoke sensor module are attached to the top of the vehicle to detect hazardous gas and smoke in the atmosphere respectively. Two cascaded NE555N timer circuit forms the tone generator circuit. The output of the tone generator circuit is the input to the 25-watt audio amplifier built around TDA2050 integrated circuit. The outputs of the gas and smoke sensors are connected together via a four NAND-gate system to bias the tone generator circuit. The IPv4-based wireless camera system has been mounted on the autonomous vehicle for live streaming video of the environment at the base station. The performance of the autonomous vehicle with integrated sensor suite base on Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies has been evaluated and its performance meets and satisfies the goal and aim of the study. The proposed autonomous vehicle can be adapted and deployed as a wireless security surveillance monitoring system and also in hazardous environments for waste management systems, mining sites, e.t.c.

Autonomous Vehicle, Gas and Smoke Detection, Internet-of-Things (IoT), Machine Vision, Obstacle Detection and Avoidance, Wireless Communication

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