Fuel theft is a common problem round the world that causes financial and economic losses to organizations as well as private vehicle owners. It is a common problem faced by public and private vehicle owners with its incidence rising due to the skyrocketing fuel prices over the past year. Each year in Pakistan, fuel theft results in a heavy financial loss for Pakistani government as fuel is stolen from vehicles owned by different organizations such as the municipal corporation, NHA etc. Similarly, fuel is either stolen from private vehicles or fuel stations are seen committing fraud. Furthermore, fuel theft causes financial loss as government employees misreport their fuel usage and get significantly higher reimbursements.
In order to tackle the aforementioned issues, a smart fuel monitoring kit is developed using Internet of Things (IoT) and embedded systems which provides real-time fuel monitoring and an alert system for the prevention and control of fuel theft. This kit uses the existing mechanism of the car to ensure minimum damage to car body and to maximize the reliability of the product.
The system initiates as the fuel tank door is opened. The system detects the opening of the fuel tank and then fetches data from the fuel gauge. Relevant authorities are notified that the fuel tank door has been opened along with the fuel level at that time. After a few minutes, the microcontroller once again fetches data from the fuel gauge and processes it to provide the updated fuel level. In case power is unavailable to and fuel reading cannot be extracting, the system waits till power is available to generate an alert regarding the updated fuel level.
Benefits of the developed system:
- As the system sends the first alert regarding the opening of the fuel tank door, in case of unauthorized action, immediate action can be taken.
- If refueling was expected, the system will tell how much fuel has been added to the tank. Conversely, it will also tell fuel has been removed or stolen from the vehicle
- A track of records can be kept for all public or government owned vehicles to monitor their fuel consumption and prevent any possible theft
- Private vehicle owners can track their fuel consumption for better budgeting, tracking vehicle mileage, and knowing if refueling station give the appropriate amount of fuel.
