Prototyping of Bluetooth-Based Wireless Strain Measurement System for Freight Overload Prevention

Abstract

Commercial freight vehicle is essential for daily goods distribution from one place to another. It is quite common that freight operators load their trucks beyond the allowable weight limit to maximize profit. This behavior leads to deterioration of road surface in Indonesia, which significantly increases road maintenance cost. To remedy the situation, anterior strategy would be to provide overload prevention device, while posterior strategy should measure vehicle weight while it is moving and detect the overloaded vehicle. This paper deals with the first strategy, in which a bluetooth-based wireless strain measuring system is developed. The main subsystem which consisted of strain gauge, Wheatstone bridge, Arduino Uno plus strain amplifier and Bluetooth modules, is placed on the load picking component of the vehicle, while additional subsystem consisted of Arduino Uno plus Bluetooth module and relays, is attached to the ignition wiring. Laboratory experiment showed that the system works and the design achieved the intended purpose, in the sense that it will cut engine power supply and trigger the alarm when the vehicle is overloaded. As a future work, we will install the system in a real freight vehicle to observe the performance of the system in an actual situation.