DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMPUTER BASED AUTOMOBILE FAULT DIAGNOSIS SYSTEM

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page i
Certification page ii
Approval page iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Abstract vi
Table of content vii
List of figures x
List of table xi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background of study 1
1.1 Statement of problem 1
1.2 Objectives of the study 2
1.3 Significance of project 2
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction 3
2.1 Theoretical background 5
2.2 Review of related literature 8
2.3 Future of automobile systems. 9
2.4 Advantages of systems over conventional mechanics. 9
CHAPTER 3: SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
3.0 Introduction 18
3.1 Description of existing system 18
3.2 Analysis of proposed system 22
3.3 Design of the proposed system 23
3.3.1 Database design 23
3.3.2 System architecture 26
CHAPTER 4: SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
4.0 Introduction 27
4.1 Development tools. 27
4.2 Implementation of architecture. 30
4.3 Software testing 31
4.4 Input and output specifications. 41
4.5 Program flowchart 42
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
5.0 Summary 44
5.1 Conclusion 44
5.2 Recommendation 45
References 46
Appendices
Appendix A: source code
LIST OF FIGURES
4.1 System architecture implementation 31
4.2 Public registration form. 33
4.3 User verification form. 34
4.5 Programme flowchart. 35
LIST OF TABLES
3.1 Model database. 19
3.2Admin Registration table. 20
3.3 User Registration table. 20

CHAPTER ONE/ 1.0 INTRODUCTION

In present time most households own at least one car. This figure shows that a car is very important to people’s lives as it completes the cycle of living. Having that we are in the era of computer age and internet application, it would be nice if a web-based expert system can be developed to diagnose mechanical and other related faults in our vehicles.
Software for car faults diagnosis is a system that detects information about car faults and provides possible solutions to fixing the problem. It works by entering the type of fault your car is giving you, and then it will retrieve the information of the possible fault and also display the result of how you can solve the problem without the presence of an expert.
So, this web-based software is hoped to help those who are in need of guides to deal with their cars problems. Although it might not give a complete guide and help as a human expert, namely mechanics, at least it can give temporary assistance to those who are in need of instant help, as a result of the limitation of time and distance.
Faults occur in vehicles or automobiles very often than not. This can be due to several reasons.The ability to detect and isolate these faults in complex technical systems such automobile is important in order to fulfill dependability requirements. Fault detection and isolation in automobiles is very important because it helps to maintain high vehicle operational efficiency, low exhaust emissions, high vehicle uptime, fuel consumption reduction or fuel economy, highvehicle safety and it guarantees efficient repair. These factors are very important because they help to reduce overall life-cycle cost of a vehicle.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

With the help of a car, movement from one place to another has been made easy especially for those who are always mobile in their jobs. Cars simplify our lives and make time to be more valuable as we can save more time using the car. But at the same time, people who own cars definitely don’t want to have a problem with their cars as the troubleshooting of a car can be a nightmare to them, especially women[2]. Some of those own a car individually don’t know how to deal with their cars whenever it has a problem. All they know is to start the engine, drag the clutch if it is not automatic, press the paddle and break when they need to. An even the worse situation is that they don’t even know how to fill the fuel tank, and that is not good. They won’t know what to do when something happens to their cars. All they can do at best is, call the automobile repairer for help.
So, this web-based software is hoped to help those who are in need of guides to deal with their cars problems. Although it might not give a complete guide and help as a human expert, namely mechanics, at least the expert system can give temporary assistance to those who are in need of instant help, as a result of the limitation of time and distance.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In dealing with problems of a car and troubleshooting, automobile repairers are those who can help to solve them. The use of a computer expert system is beneficial in different ways. It gives a temporary and instant guide to car owners in different situations like:
• Assistance in the absence of automobile repairers.
• Being an alternative considering the distance of automobile repairers.
• Situations where automobile repairers diagnosis wrongly, etc.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

• Developing a system for car maintenance and troubleshooting that is capable of assisting car owners in dealing with their cars problems and troubleshooting them whenever time is limited and the human experts, also known as mechanics is not available at that very time.
• Providing recommendations in cases of automobile break down.
• Providing maintenance advice to users in order to avoid future fault from occurring.
• Testing and validating the system’s performance.
• Helping automobile repairers diagnose serious faults and repair vehicles at a faster rate through the pre-diagnosis and advice a web-based software.
• Developing appropriate representation architecture to the proposed car failure and malfunction diagnosis assistance system.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The proposed system can help inexperienced automobile repairers or drivers in diagnosing the fault of the car.
In addition, the system has the following benefits:
• Improvement of productivity: Having this system will enable mechanics to do more work in less time.
• Reduces the need for skilled mechanics: The repairs of a car require a high level of expertise. With this system, inexperienced mechanics can be guided to find the fault.
• Places expert knowledge into machine readable form, where it can be summoned at any time.

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This software may contain certain limits and flaws, as it is only a prototype. We commonly know that a car has many parts on its body and even in the body itself. However, the system will only deal with problems that are commonly found in the engine part of the car as the system is just a prototype, which means the function will be expanded through time. The system will also deal with only cars produced from the year 2000 till date.