Volume 6, Issue 4, April – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

Smart Fuel Level Indicator System

Shweta Bhongade Yamini Dabhane
Department of Electronics and Telecommunications Department of Electronics and Telecommunications
Amravati , India Amravati , India

Sarang Pathak Saurabh Khajone

Department of Electronics and Telecommunications Department of Electronics and Telecommunications
Amravati , India Amravati , India

Dr. Nikkoo Khalsa

Prof., Department of Electronics and
Telecommunications
Amravati , India

Abstract:- In the recent times, we constantly hear about I. INTRODUCTION

petrol bunk frauds. In countries like India with a lot of
vehicles, the consumption of fuel from fuel stations is in With the increase of population and usage of vehicle
very large quantity. Most of the times, consumers are not all over the world, fuel necessity has become a huge
satisfied with quantity of the fuel given at fuel stations problem. Moreover in today’s world fuel saving has become
,because the consumers are provided with less quantity an important factor. In the digitized world, if the fuel
and are cheated. Most of the petrol bunks today have indicator in the vehicles are also made digital it will help to
manipulated the pumps such that it displays the amount identify the exact amount of fuel that is available in the fuel
as entered by the provider but the quantity of fuel that is tank. The above fact is considered for our project and we
filled in the customer’s fuel tank is much lesser than the have found a proper solution for indicating the exact
displayed value i.e, the pumps are tampered for the availability of fuel in the fuel tank digitally. Here, we are
benefit of the petrol bunks owner. This results in large indicating the amount of fuel in the fuel tank in liters. This
profits for the petrol bunks owners but at the same time value fuel in liters will be in numeric form i.e, in the form of
the customers are cheated. All the vehicles in India digits (ex: 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4).
consist of analog fuel meters hence it does not show the
exact amount of fuel currently in the vehicle and also it is This project in the main concentrates about the
not possible to check the quantity of fuel that is filled in indication of fuel level in two- wheeler tanks. Various other
the petrol bunk. So, in Today's world, if the fuel features like the distance that can be travelled by the vehicle
indicator in automobiles is also made digital it will help to the corresponding fuel, is added with this arrangement
us to know the exact amount of fuel that is available in which will help to explain the clear performance of the
the fuel tank. The main objective of our project is to vehicle to the corresponding fuel in fuel tanks.Mainly this
present a proper solution for indicating the exact project helps to avoid a lot of problems like fuel bunks at
availability of fuel in the tank digitally. Smart fuel level fuel stations, fuel theft and also prevents us from getting into
meter is a micro-controller board which will calibrate circumstances where we have to push our vehicles due to
the exact amount of fuel flowing into the fuel tank with assumptions of the level of fuel in fuel tanks. Nowadays the
the help of an ultrasonic sensor. In this project, we fuel indicator system for the two wheeler are made digital
mainly focus on creating a digital display that shows but they do not display the exact amount of fuel in the tank
exact amount of fuel contained in the vehicles tank. i.e. it shows the amount of fuel in terms of bars and not in
numbers or digits. So this problem is taken into
Various other features like the distance that can be consideration for our project work of developing the digital
travelled to the corresponding fuel in the fuel tank in (numeric) fuel indicator system for two wheeler which
kilometers, speed of the vehicle in kilometer per hour, shows exact amount of fuel in terms of Liters(L).
mileage in kilometer per liter is added with this
arrangement which will explain the clear performance of In this project we initially surveyed the existing fuel
the vehicle to the corresponding fuel. This project mainly level indicator systems and fuel tanks of different bikes and
concentrates on the indication of fuel level in two- scooters. During this survey we examined that the shape of
wheeler tanks. the fuel tanks is different for different vehicles. But due to
irregular shape of the tanks there were lot of complexities
that rose up for the installation of an electronics kit and level
sensors which are used for calibration of fuel amount in the
tank. Hence we have taken all the problems into

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Volume 6, Issue 4, April – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
consideration and prepared a project and found an IV. REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE USED
appropriate solution to it. The fuel level indicator system can
be used for any type of fluid and the level is automatically 1) ARDUINO RS-328:
detected and displaying the output on LCD. Features of Micro-controller ATmega328:
1. Operating Voltage: 5V.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Input Voltage (recommended): 7-12V.
3. Input Voltage (limits): 6-20V.
Till now ,the accuracy of the fuel level measurement in 4. Analog Input Pins: 6.
fuel level indicators has not been of great importance. The 5. DC Current per I/O Pin: 40 mili Ampere.
purpose of measuring the fuel level in the fuel tank has been 6. DC Current for 3.3V Pin: 50 mili Ampere.
to present the information on the dashboard with a fuel level 7. SRAM: 2 KB (ATmega328).
meter. Instead of accuracy the two most important factors 8. Digital I/O Pins: 14 (of which 6 provide PWM output).
are to avoid rapid changes in the fuel level displayed and the
meter must indicate that the tank is empty when the fuel
level is below a predefined level. This system is not capable
to provide the exact value of fuel level in the fuel tank. Also
such system cannot protect us from getting cheated at petrol
pumps as they costs us more for less amount of fuel filled.
So it becomes necessary for developing such a system which
gives exact (numeric) value of fuel in fuel tank.
2) Ultrasonic Sensors: Ultrasonic sensors are the devices
III. BLOCK DIAGRAM that generates or sense the ultrasound energy. They are
divided into three broad categories: transmitters,
The block diagram of the smart fuel level indicator receivers and transceivers. Ultrasonic sensors works on
system consists of a tank, an ultrasonic sensor, a power the principle of echo. The Ultrasonic waves are sent to an
supply, an Arduino, an LCD, and a Hall effect sensor. object and the reflected waves are received by the
sensors.
The proposed system aims in measuring the fuel in the
vehicle tank using ultrasonic sensor. The ultrasonic sensor These sensors are easy to install. Generally, any
has a better accuracy and and it is easy to calibrate and opening above the tank, such as vent pipe can accommodate
interface it with an Arduino controller which is used for our these sensors. This means the tank need not to be modified ,
project work. The ultrasonic sensor sends ultrasonic waves by drilling holes just for a sensor installation. Also, they
and reflects it back to the receiver of the ultrasonic sensor. need not to be in contact with the fuel during measurement
In this way we can find the level of fuel in the fuel tank if of fuel level. That means it can work effectively even in
we know the time required by the ultrasonic waves to travel. corrosive environments.
We have used an arduino because it is more reliable than the
8051 controller. In addition to this we have also used Hall
Effect sensor which will calculate the mileage of the vehicle.
The Hall Effect sensor will count the number of rotations
done by the wheel of the vehicle and accordingly it will
calculate the mileage of the vehicle.

In this arrangement , the ultrasonic sensor is directly

connected to the fuel tank of the vehicle. Accordingly the 3) LCD Display: It features 20x4 means that 20 characters
ultrasonic sensor will find the level of fuel in fuel tank in can be displayed in each of the 4 rows of the 20x4 LCD,
litres. The Hall Effect sensor is connected to the wheel of thus a total of 80 characters can be displayed at any
the vehicle with the magnet connected on one of the spoke instance of time. It features 5X8 dots with cursor. It has a
of the vehicle. So it will calculate the number of rotations built in controller.. It operates on +5V power supply. It
easily. And the distance covered by the vehicle can be easily posses 1/16 duty cycle.
calculated by knowing the rotations.

In this arrangement, ultrasonic sensors are connected

to the fuel tank of the vehicles whose output is given as
input to the Arduino. The output of the Hall effect sensor is
also given as input to the Arduino. The power supply is
connected to the Arduino. After all the inputs or data are
given to the Arduino, the code is executed and the desired
outputs like fuel in liters, the distance that can be travelled 4) Hall effect sensor: Hall effect sensors is consists of a thin
by vehicle in kilometers, speed in kilometers per hour, and piece of p-type semiconductor material that passes a
mileage in kilometers per liter is displayed on the LCD. continuous electric current through itself. When the hall
effect sensor is placed within a magnetic field, which is

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Volume 6, Issue 4, April – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
constructed at right angle to the device, the magnetic flux V. WORKING
lines exert a force on the semiconductor material.
Generally , a south pole is used to generate a potential • In this system, the Arduino RS-328 controller is used.
difference across the device and the effect of generating This controller is extremely helpful to utilize, and the
measurable voltage by using magnetic field is called Hall coding or programming of this controller is additionally
effect. simpler.
• Here we also use the hall effect and ultrasonic sensors
The Arduino Hall effect sensor code can be used to • The ultrasonic sensor and flow sensor is installed in the
detect a magnet and counts the number of times it detects it. fuel tank to sense the level of petrol.
• The hall effect sensor is used to count the rotation of the
wheel.
• The Arduino sends a trigger to the ultrasonic sensor at a
regular interval of time which in turn makes the
transmitter emit an ultrasonic pulse. This pulse hits the
surface, reflects, and returns. The receiver on the sensor
picks up this pulse and reports it to the microcontroller.
• The Arduino keeps the track of the time it takes for the
above process to complete and then calculates the
distance using a formula.
• Distance travelled bu the wave = (T x Speed of wave) / 2
5) Flow sensor: A flow sensor is an electronic device that
• Where, T = time taken by the wave to transmit and
measures or regulates the flow rate of liquids and gases
reflect.
with pipes and tubes. They are generally connected to
• The whole term is divided by 2 because Time is the
guages to render their measurements but can also be
combination of time required for come and go of wave.
connected to computers and digital interfaces.
• The distance calculated using ultrasonic sensors is then
sent to the Arduino which has to be calibrated to obtain
Flow sensors are able to detect leaks, blockages , pipe
the level of fuel in liters.
bursts and any changes in liquid concentration due to
• In addition to this, the hall effect sensor is used. It is
contamination or pollution. Flow sensor can detect the
connected to the wheel of the vehicle with the magnet on
amount of fuel flow having 0.3 to 6 liter per minute flow
one of the spokes of the vehicle.
rate.
• So it will easily calculate the number of rotations and the
distance covered can be easily calculated by knowing the
rotations.
• The distance travelled can be calculated using the
formula:
• Distance travelled = (circumference x number of
rotations).
• After calculating the distance travelled, we can find the
mileage using the formula:
• Mileage = ( distance travelled / Quantity of fuel
consumed )
.
• The quantity of fuel consumed is calculated by the flow
6) Power Supply: The Arduino board can operate on an
sensor connected at the outlet of the tank.
external voltage supply of 6 to 20 volts. If it supplied
• After receiving the value of the quantity of fuel that
with voltage less than 7V, however, the 5V pin may
remains in the tank, we get the estimated distance that
supply less than five volts and the board may be unstable.
can be covered by the vehicle with the corresponding
If used more than 12V supply , the voltage regulator may
fuel to remain in the tank with the same formula of
overheat and it may damage the Arduino board. The
mileage:
recommended range is between 7 to 12 volts.
• Estimated distance = mileage x Quantity of fuel
remaining in the tank
• All these entities are calculated by the Arduino using the
inputs coming from ultrasonic sensors, flow sensors and
hall effect sensors which is then displayed on the LCD.

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Volume 6, Issue 4, April – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
VI. RESULT [5]. AdventTechnology.
[6]. Jaimon Chacko Varghese, Binesh Ellupurayil
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This smart fuel indicator is best in its field and will be Balachandran “Low Cost Intelligent Real Time Fuel
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2, Issue-5, April 2013.
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