Unilorin produces automobile speed limiter

IN response to the challenge thrown at institutions of higher learning in the country by the National Universities Commission (NUC), the University of Ilorin has produced an automobile speed limiter, becoming the first University to do so.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University and Chairman of the Association of West African Universities (AWAU), Prof AbdulGaniyu Ambali (OON), disclosed this penultimate Friday (December 23, 2016), during a chat with Unilorin Bulletin in his office.

While explaining the motives for the production of the speed limiter, Prof Ambali said, “We were at a meeting of the committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU) some time ago at Abuja and we were told to double our research efforts to solve Nigeria’s social problems particularly with regards to automobile limiting devices in the wake of increasing accidents on Nigerian roads.”

According to the Vice Chancellor, “This is an assignment that we considered very important and germane because lives are being lost daily on our roads due to over speeding. The efforts of the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) in this regard are noteworthy and should attract attention of serious minded researchers and institutions.”

“It has been tested. I had firsthand experience of it when it was fixed to a vehicle that I used. I can attest to its functionality,” he said, further promising to fund any research effort of any staff that will lead to the production of prototypes if he gets appropriate requests.

Earlier, the Director of Laboratory to Product  (LABTOP) Centre, Prof Sulyman Age AbdulKareem, whose office is to build networks between university researchers and the industry, said, “immediately the Vice Chancellor hinted me of this assignment, it occurred to me that it should be possible to process control the speed at any set limit.

“We then assembled a team including an instrumentation technologist from Mechanical Engineering Department, Mr Ganiyu Adeyemi Adedokun; an automobile expert also from that department, Mr Oluwasanmi Adekunle Adewuyi; an embedded system programmer from Computer Engineering Department, Mr Abdulrahman Yusuf; a computer control specialist, Mr Hafeez Mahmud; Dr. J. O. Aweda from Mechanical Engineering; my deputies and my humble self. Dr Aye Ajiboye, who is the Head of Department of Computer Engineering, was also chosen to be the team leader,” he further explained.

This design, Prof AbdulKareem further disclosed, has universal applications. It can be used on any vehicle be it jeep, car, bus, truck, etc. “We have modelled it and we have a tested working prototype, thus, becoming the first university in Nigeria to respond to this challenge. Our hope is now to mass produce it,” he added.

“Our approach is to find a local or foreign company that will produce a unit to establish the unit cost price and from there we can work on mass production,” he again revealed, pointing out that “the FRSC is currently emphasising the use of speed limiter on all vehicles plying our roads and at appropriate time, we shall approach them.”

The team leader, Dr Ajiboye said, “We are not resting yet, though the prototype is here and working perfectly, we hope to get to the point of mass production soon.”

Asked if it will be durable and reliable, Dr Ajiboye disclosed that “it is a micro-controller based device. It is working, using computer programming. So, failure rate to be modest is extremely low if not completely impossible and reliability rate is very high.”