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Description of Invention
In this generation, usage of transportation vehicles has drastically increased. Couple to this, many researchers have contributed to research and development on smart windshield wiper mechanism in the automotive industry. Based on the critical review works carried out from year 1903 to 2015, it has been found out that much attention had been paid on the safety factors of the wiper mechanism of a vehicle. However, to the best of author’s knowledge, there is little work reported on the temporary blindness to the driver as a result of wiper washer usage during driving. In lieu to this, it has also been reported that many road accidents are initiated with the sudden blindness to the driver during front windscreen cleaning while driving. This motivates the current work to be carried out focusing on the design and development of a smart wiper system to avoid temporary blindness to the driver. First and foremost, a prototype was designed using Solid Works 2019 software. Stress and strain analysis was carried out on the whole assembly of the prototype to determine its optimum design parameters before actual fabrication process. Upon passing this stage, the entire prototype was fabricated using low-cost materials such as recycled plastic panels, aluminum, wood, salvaged gears, rods, pulleys, belt drives and etc. Different source of power input was used to power up the prototype; i.e. 12V DC supply to power up the washer water pump; Air compressor to supply a constant 100 PSI of compressed air for the purpose of drying the windscreen; 240V main circuit breaker (MCB) to protect and charge the 12V DC battery and to power up the air compressor. It was found that the prototype is capable to wash and dry the windscreen of the vehicle in 10 ± 2 seconds respectively. A fogging machine was used to determine the aerodynamic air flow subjected to the prototype. It was found that the entire washing and drying of the windscreen could be achieved in 10 seconds when the windscreen was tilted to 120 degrees with respect to its base. Finally, a cost price of RM600.00 is proposed to fabricate the entire prototype into a ‘plug-and-play’ attachment to an actual car.
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Intellectual Property (IP) Status