International Journal of Innovative Research in Electronics and Communications (IJIREC)

Volume 1, Issue 4, July 2014, PP 46-53

ISSN 2349-4042 (Print) & ISSN 2349-4050 (Online)
www.arcjournals.org

Design and Implementation of a Vehicle Theft Control Unit

using GSM and CAN Technology
Ch. Bhanu Prakash

K. Sirisha

Assistant Professor, ECE Dept

Malla Reddy Engineering College
Secunderabad, A.P, India

PG scholar, DSCE
Malla Reddy Engineering College
Secunderabad, A.P, India

Abstract: This project deals with the design & development of a theft control system, which is being used
to prevent/control the theft of a vehicle. The developed system makes use of an embedded system based on
Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) technology with CAN bus along with RFID system. The
RFID reader will be interfaced with the microcontroller through serial interface to detect the hospitals,
hotels, petrol bunks, temples etc. The developed system makes use of an mobile phone that is embedded in
the vehicle with an interfacing to Engine Control Module(ECM) through Control Area Network(CAN) Bus,
which is in turn, communicated to the ECM. The proposed system can be implemented using keil software.

Keywords: Vehicle theft controlling unit, GSM, GPS, CAN, Mobile phone, Engine control unit.

1. INTRODUCTION
These days car theft cases are higher than ever, give your car an excellent protection with the
only reliable anti-theft device. Car Electronic control unit ensures the best guarantee to protect
your car from different kinds of theft cases. It is a car security device that offers excellent
protection to your car. A car with Electronic control unit security system helps the user to lock
and unlock doors at the press of a button. Mainly two types of Electronic control unit are used in
Auto industry -Automatic Electronic control unit and Manual Electronic control unit that ensures
smoother and secured operation. Again this system could not prove to provide complete security
and accessibility of the vehicle in case of theft. So a more developed system makes use of an
embedded system based on GSM technology. The designed & developed system is installed in the
vehicle.The main concept in this design is introducing the mobile communications into the
embedded system.Automotive industry uses Controller Area Network (CAN) as the in-vehicle
network for the Engine Management, the body electronics like door and roof control, air
conditioning and lighting as well as for the entertainment control. Nowadays all most all car
manufacturers have also started implementing CAN based vehicle automation. CAN networks
used in engine management to connect several ECUs.Based on the discussion and data related to
stolen cars, it is observed that the car theft is a global problem. Nobody likes his or her car to get
stolen. The car manufacturers installed a minimum standard security system such as an alarmbased security system. Due to the inefficient conventional car security alarm system, the
possibility of the car can be stolen is high However, this device is not effective enough. It does
not have any pager system attached to it. The car thief takes only a few minutes to deactivate the
security system. Furthermore, nobody will pay an attention when the car alarm goes off. Based on
these reasons, it is proposed that a GSM-based vehicle anti-theft system development is designed
and developed to improve the performance of the current vehicle security system. Somehow if
there is another way of transmitting the alarm to the car owner that is not limited to the audible
and line of sight, the system can be upgraded. SMS is a good choice of the communication to
replace the conventional alarm, because it can be done and does not require much cost. Although
most of people know GPS can provide more security for the car but the main reason people does
not apply it because the cost. Advance car security system is too expensive. Cost for the gadget is
too high. Besides that, people also must pay for the service monthly. The main objective of this
project is to design, construct and test a GSM-based vehicle anti-theft system that can be used to
improve the performance of car security system. The proposed system also allows the user to lock
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Ch. Bhanu Prakash & K. Sirisha

and unlock the engine of the vehicle remotely using the mobile phone. The objective of the
project is to build an additional feature to the present security system that will warn the owner of
the vehicle by sending SMS when there has been an intrusion into the vehicle. To provide a
solution to avoid car stolen in the lower cost than advance security car system (GPS). In this
project, the RFID reader will be present at the underneath of vehicle to trace out the places, which
are landmark to the present place like schools, hospitals petrol bunks and temples etc. Every road
will be attached with a RFID tags. These RFID tags will contain the information like name of the
places around it.
The proposed theft control system retrieves a geographical address and provides a facility to
control the further movement of the vehicle. The system is intended to provide a feature that
would control the speed of the vehicle by (engine lock/unlock) only upon receipt of a predefined
code from the owner, who may be at a remote place by using mobile phone technology. The rest
of the paper is organized as follows: section II gives the complete details about the design and
working principle of CAN bus. Section III gives the complete details about the implementation of
existing approach. The complete details about the design and implementation of the proposed
approach are illustrated in section IV. Section V gives the details about the results and finally
section VI concludes the paper.

2. CAN BUS
CAN bus (for controller area network) is a vehicle bus standard designed to allow
microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other within a vehicle without a host
computer.CAN bus is a message-based protocol, designed specifically for automotive applications
but now also used in other areas such as aerospace, maritime, industrial automation and medical
equipment. CAN is a multi-master serial bus standard for connecting ECUs.
2.1. CAN architecture
Each node requires a
Central processing unit or host processor
o The host processor decides what received messages mean and which messages it wants to

transmit itself.
o Sensors, actuators and control devices can be connected to the host processor.

CAN controller; hardware with a synchronous clock.

o Receiving: the CAN controller stores received bits serially from the bus until an entire

message is available, which can then be fetched by the host processor (usually after the CAN
controller has triggered an interrupt).
o Sending: the host processor stores its transmit messages to a CAN controller, which

transmits the bits serially onto the bus.

Transceiver
o Receiving: it adapts signal levels from the bus to levels that the CAN controller expects and

has protective circuitry that protects the CAN controller.

o Transmitting: it converts the transmit-bit signal received from the CAN controller into a

signal that is sent onto the bus.

Fig1. Overview of Controller Area Network

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Design and Implementation of a Vehicle Theft Control Unit Using GSM and CAN Technology

Each node is able to send and receive messages, but not simultaneously. A message consists
primarily of an ID (identifier), which represents the priority of the message, and up to eight data
bytes. The improved CAN FD extends the length of the data section to up to 64 bytes per frame. It
is transmitted serially onto the bus. This signal pattern is encoded in non-return-to-zero (NRZ)
format and may be received by all nodes.The devices that are connected by a CAN network are
typically sensors, actuators, and other control devices. These devices are not connected directly to
the bus, but through a host processor and a CAN controller.
Fig. 1 shows that the CAN network topology, follows the bus network topology, which gives it
the advantage of easily adding new CAN nodes to an existing network. Furthermore, the
standardization of the protocol means all ECUs will conform to the CAN standards while
transmitting data.
2.2. Working Principle
Data messages transmitted from any node on a CAN bus do not contain addresses of either the
transmitting node, or of any intended receiving node. Instead, the content of the message is
labeled by an identifier that is unique throughout the network. All other nodes on the network
receive the message and each performs an acceptance test on the identifier to determine if the
message, and thus its content, is relevant to that particular node. If the message is relevant, it will
be processed; otherwise it is ignored.
Each CAN message has an identifier which is 11 bits (CAN specification part A) or 29 bits (part
B). This identifier is the principle part of the CAN arbitration field, which is located in the
beginning of each, CAN message. The identifier identifies the type of message, but is also the
message priority. The bits in a CAN message can be sent as either high or low. The low bits are
always dominant, which means that if one node tries to send a low and another node tries to send
a high, the result on the buses will be a low. A transmitting node always listens on the bus while
transmitting. A node that sends a high in the arbitration field and detects a low knows that it has
lost arbitration. It stops transmitting, letting the other node, with a higher priority message,
continue uninterrupted. Two nodes on the network are not allowed to send messages with the
same id. If two nodes try to send a message with the same id at the same time arbitration will not
work. Instead, one of the transmitting nodes will detect that his message is distorted outside of the
arbitration field. The nodes will then use the error handling of CAN, which in this case ultimately
will lead to one of the transmitting node being switched off (bus-off mode).

Fig2. Information Exchange of a message on the CAN Bus (Broadcast Principle)

3. EXISTING SYSTEM
Commercially available anti-theft vehicular systems are veryexpensive. Unitracking Vehicle
Tracking Unit has the ability tointegrate the GPS tracking system with existing vehicle alarmor
provide alarm features when someone is tampering withowner vehicle. It allows detecting the
security threat before thevehicle is driven away and gives the ability to track the vehicleover the
internet.The ability to track the vehicle over the internet is done byutilizing Global Positioning
Satellites. Data such as GlobalPosition, Speed Velocity and Time (PVT) are transmitted over the
Cellular network. The information transmitted from thetracking device is disseminated and stored
on your privateconfidential account or sent over the wireless network. Thedata is cross referenced
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Ch. Bhanu Prakash & K. Sirisha

on a street level map for viewing. Thepositioning information provided is cross reference to
theclosest geographic address and displayed in residential /commercial address format.
The main disadvantage of the existing system is that thesystem provides only a broad layout of
the geographical address, providing and does not provide street wise address.Speed of the vehicle
and engine is no way controlled by theexisting systems, thus exposing the vulnerability of a
systemthat provides only tracking.

4. PROPOSED DESIGN
This section gives the complete details about the design and implementation of a Theft Control
System for an automobile,which is being used to prevent or control the theft of a vehicle.The
developed system makes use of an embedded system and nGSM /GPS technology. The proposed
system, installed in thevehicle can be easily controlled by the owner of the vehicle bysending a
message from his/her mobile to the vehicle engine byinterfacing with CAN bus and GSM
modem.The proposed system is very reliable, when a cellular network is available and a
trackingdevice is connected it transmits data to a server; when a network is not available the
device stores data in internalmemory and will transmit stored data to the server later whenthe
network becomes available again.Vehicle tracking has been accomplished by installing abox into
the vehicle, either self-powered with a battery orwired into the vehicle's power system. For
detailed vehiclelocating and tracking it is still the predominant method butmany companies are
increasingly interested in the emerging cell phone technologies that provide tracking of
multipleentities, such as both a salesperson and their vehicle. These systems also offer tracking of
calls; texts and Web use andgenerally provide a wider range of options.
4.1. Operating Principle
The block diagram of the proposed system is as shown inFig. 3.The design & development of the
proposed systemcarried out in two modules, first the design of module toretrieve the location and
second module to control the vehicleengine by either to lock or unlock the engine by
sendingON/OFF message from the user to the Theft Control Unit. Fig.3 accomplishes the various
control units of the vehicles areconnected to one another through CAN Bus.

Fig3. Block Diagram of the engine ignition control module

Whenever the vehicle is started, a msg with the GPS coordinate of the location of the vehicle is
sent as an SMS to the owners number. An RFID device can be fixed to the vehicle to give the
information about the particular places like hotels, hospitals etc., whenever the vehicle crosses
that instance. On receiving the message the owner can send a reply to lock or antilock that is stop
the vehicle or allow the vehicle to run through a keypad. The system at first checks and verifies
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Design and Implementation of a Vehicle Theft Control Unit Using GSM and CAN Technology

the owner number and if exact it checks the SMS sent and performs the corresponding action. All
this process is achieved through vehicular network, CAN. When the engine is started it sends the
information to the Master node in CAN which in turn fetches the location coordinates attached
with it and generates the SMS. On receiving locking or anti-locking code it sends the respective
command to the slave node which takes the intended action.If the vehicle is in danger then the
speed of the car will be decreased by using dc motor. At a time buzzer also giving alert when the
vehicle is in danger.
4.2. Location Retrieval of the Vehicle
Location of the vehicle is a two way process. Initiallylatitude and longitude of the vehicle is to be
obtained from the satellites. Obtained latitude and longitude is used for furthercomputation of
geographical address by invoking geo-coder.The owner can retrieve the location only upon
sending asolitary message. This solitary message is set by the ownerbefore deploying the system.
Retrieval of the vehicles locationis explained in the activity diagram shown in Fig. 4.

Fig4. Activity Diagram to Retrieve the Location of the Vehicle

Only upon receipt of corresponding message code, theapplication would start the service. As an
acknowledgement, the owner is sent with latitude, longitude and the geographicaladdress. Mobile
network is a matter of concern as only inpresence of substantial network coverage solitary
message andits receipt is possible. Design of location retrieval moduletakes into consideration
both the network factor and user codeauthentication. Only upon receiving an authenticated code
thathas been defined earlier, the owner is sent the location. Henceuser code authentication is also
considered.
4.3. Ignition/fuel flow Control of the Vehicle
Design of ignition/fuel flow control module involves astimulus to drive the process. This stimulus
is obtained throughan owners message. Upon receiving the location of thevehicle, the owner can
either stop or start the ignition of theengine. The design parameter that is considered in this
moduleis receiving a message from the owner to perform furtheraction. Another design parameter
considered is authenticatingthe genuine nature of the message. Design involves processingthe
message only if it is from the owner. Even if the lockingcode is known to others, locking cannot
be performed. Ownerthus has a discrete control over the ignition of the engine. Thecrux of the
design involves controlling the ignition the enginebeing at a remote place by sending a message.
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Ch. Bhanu Prakash & K. Sirisha

Fig5. Block Diagram of the engine ignition control module

Upon receiving the message and verifying itsauthentication, the micro controller installed on the
vehiclewould send a signal to the relay to lock or unlock the engine.A SIM card on GSM module
installed on the vehicle would receive the message and would forward it to the microcontroller. A
MAX232 would perform the action of bothdriver and receiver to forward the message to and from
themicro controller as shown in Fig. 5. An LCD display is used to notify the
changes.Corresponding messages would be display on the LCD when anew message is received,
when locking or starting the engineis performed. This kit however is not essential for
actualdeployment of the system and is used only for demonstrationpurpose.

5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
This section gives the details about the experimental results of the proposed approach. The
implementation of realization of locking and unlocking of theft vehicles using can document is
done successfully. The communication is properly done without any interference between
different modules in the design. Design is done to meet all the specifications and requirements.
Software tools like keil uvision simulator, proload to dump the source code into the
microcontroller, orcad lite for the schematic diagram have been used to develop the software code
before realizing the hardware.
Fig. 6 shows the hardware part of the project. This kit consists of an ARM Controller, Relay
circuit, GSM Module and LCD Display are interfaced on a single board and embedded on single
board which is embedded to a vehicle as a control unit. The relay is connected to the Vehicle
Engine Unit of the Automobile.

Fig6. Hardware part of project

When OFF message sent by the owner of the vehicle to the mobile embedded in the control
unit, the controller displays the message in the LCD as shown in Fig.7 and invokes the relay that
is connected to the vehicle engine which will stop fuel flow thus locking the vehicle engine by
sending message through the CAN Bus in the CAN readable format.

International Journal of Innovative Research in Electronics and Communications (IJIREC) Page 51

Design and Implementation of a Vehicle Theft Control Unit Using GSM and CAN Technology
Fig7. LCD displaying ENGINE OFF message,

Similarly when ON message sent by the owner of the vehicle to the mobile embedded in the
control unit, thecontroller displays the message in the LCD as shown in Fig.8 and invokes the
relay that is connected to the vehicle engine which will in turn allows the fuel flow by unlocking
the vehicle engine by sending message through CAN Bus.

Fig8. LCD displaying ENGINE ON message.

Fig9. Location details received

The Fig. 9 shows the typical message displaying the location in terms of latitude, longitude and
geo-graphical address of the location.

6. CONCLUSION
The developed system in this paper for avoiding vehicle theft makes use of anmobile phone that is
embedded in the vehicle with an interfacingto Engine Control Module(ECM) through Control
Area Network(CAN) Bus, which is in turn, communicated to the ECM. Thevehicle being stolen
can be stopped by using GPS feature ofmobile phone and this information is used by the owner of
thevehicle for future processing. The owner sends the message to themobile which is embedded in
the vehicle which has stolen whichin turn controls the vehicles engine by locking the working of
theengine immediately. The developed system accept the messageand broadcasted to the Vehicle
Network through CAN Bus. Theengine can be unlocked only by the owner of the vehicle
bysending the message again. The goal behind the design is todevelop security for vehicles and
embedded system tocommunicate with engine of the vehicle.

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AUTHORS BIOGRAPHY
CH. Bhanu prakash is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the
department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, MREC,
Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. He is having 5Years of teaching
experience. His areas of interest are VLSI and Embedded systems.

K. Sirisha is presently pursuing final semester M.Tech in Digital Systems &

Computer Electronics at Malla Reddy Engineering College, Secunderabad. She
received degree B.Tech in Electronics and communication from Nova College
of Engineering & Technology for Women. Her areas of interest are Digital
system designs, Embedded Systems and VLSI.

International Journal of Innovative Research in Electronics and Communications (IJIREC) Page 53