Deployment of Alcohol Detection System in the Operations of Mechanical Systems

The paper addressed the development of an alcohol detection device and its deployment in the operation of mechanical systems. The aim of the device is to prevent accidents caused by alcohol impairment of drivers/operators of the systems. The device was based on a micro-controller (ATmega328P) used to set a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) limit authorized from the operators’ breath. When this limit is reached by the input signal received from the MQ-3 alcohol sensor detected from the drivers' breath, a buzzer alarm would go off, and a Light Emitting Diode (LED) would start blinking. At this stage, the system will disable the installed Direct Current (DC) motor through a relay that received a signal from the micro-controller. A Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) integrated into the system will provide information about the driver’s level of intoxication. The mechanical systems (the vehicle's engine and machinery power switch) were represented by the DC motor in this work. The LED stood for the vehicle's emergency light, which would warn oncoming traffic about the vehicle identified to be under the control of an alcohol-impaired driver. This was tested using various experiments put into practice using the created system, and evaluated. The results of each experiment done on the intended system demonstrated that the system was capable of detecting BAC of a driver of a mechanical system. It was shown that blowing air could increase the sensitivity of the MQ-3 sensor. The device was able to incapacitate the mechanical system from running at the detection of higher than normal BAC thus preventing any unexpected mishaps. It then means that rate of road crashes or accidents at shop floors caused by alcohol impairment maybe significantly reduced.