2014 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Communication Control and Computing Technologies (ICACCCT)

ISBN No. 978-1-4799-3914-5/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE 136

Fuel Saving of an Automobile Using Fuzzy Logic
Based Embedded Controller

M. D. Baldania
1
, D. A. Sawant
2
, A. B. Patki
3

1,2,3
Department of Electronics & Telecommunications, COEP
baldaniamd12.extc@coep.ac.in
1
,sawantda12.extc@coep.ac.in
2
,abpatki.extc@coep.ac.in
3


Abstract In the last two decades, in the transportation sector,
use of air conditioner in buses, cars, trains and aviation
industry increased rapidly. Further, with the growth in
agriculture sector towards food processing industry, including
storage plants which need high capacity refrigeration plants
for storage, preservation and transportation of end products,
use of an air-conditioner or refrigeration is increased. As fuel
consumption is the only available energy in transportation for
mobile air conditioner, reduction of fuel consumption has
direct positive effect in improving fuel consumption efficiency,
reducing pollution and saving economy. So far as moving
vehicles are concerned, the air conditioner (passenger based
transportation) or refrigeration (preservation of different food
items during transportation) units are in the form of pay-loads
carried on vehicles. Thus, the primary objective is
transportation, while luxury, comfort and preservation are the
secondary considerations. In this context, the availability of
embedded processor based electronic modules installed in air
conditioner or refrigeration units is the technological need. In
order to realize such embedded systems, the associated
electronic hardware has to have built-in features for energy
saving. The emphasis at the technical specification (including
tender document requirement) for incorporating these energy
saving modules does not appear specifically since most of the
times, these units do not support the hardware features for
energy saving. This paper brings out fuzzy logic based
approaches for energy saving in the design and
implementation of electronic hardware systems for air
conditioner units.This paper proposes an off-the shelf method
for making air conditioner units more energy efficient, which
reduces fuel consumed by mobile air conditioner facility
available in different transportation vehicles. Reduction in fuel
consumption has direct impact on the environment which is
very unique thing while addressing issues in the renewable and
non-renewable energy sectors. The electronic hardware
implementation is carried out using Xilinx ISE Design Suite
14.2 with Verilog-HDL.
Keywords Air conditioner; Compressor; Energy saving; Fuzzy
logic; Embedded electronic systems; Verilog-HDL; Xilinx.
I. INTRODUCTION
In 1902, Willis Haviland developed the first modern air-
conditioner to solve the humidity problem in an industry and
gave a birth to a new technology. In a very short time, air
conditioner started popping up at different public places to
achieve comfort level in temperature and became integral
part of almost every institution.
HAVC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning)
systems are developed, which is an extended version of a
simple air-conditioner, to get better control of an
environment, which led to the wide use of an air-conditioner
not only in industry but also at business and commercial
places, storage plants and storage vehicles, automobile
industry, home applications, aviation and train. Because of
that power consumption became one of the very important
factors to take into consideration. Different researches are
carried out every year to get better and efficient performance
with as much as possible energy saving of an air-conditioner
while maintaining comfort level.
The use of an air-conditioner can increase the fuel
consumption as much as 20% in the automobile as it adds its
own weight to the vehicle and draws power from the engine
which affects the fuel efficiency. As passenger requires more
cooling, the air-conditioner consumes more fuel and affects
the vehicle performance also [1].
Fuzzy logic is capable of simulating operators behaviour
into mathematics i.e., transferring human knowledge and
expertise into mathematical model with the help of if-then
rules [2, 3]. While designing an energy efficient model of an
air-conditioner, it behaves as multi-input and multi-output
non-linear system. Normally PID (Proportional, Integral and
Derivative) controllers are used in real time applications for
air-conditioner which gives better performance when the
system is a linear system. As fuzzy logic has the potential to
deal with non-linear problems with better performance
guaranteed [4, 5, 6, 7], it gives more stable and efficient
output as compare to PID controller which is proved based
on researches carried out in past [8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
16].
Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) is available for different
applications. Normally, off the-shelf approach is followed
for FLCs design. So, at the outset, one gets an impression
that such off-the shelf FPGA controller can be used with rule
base modification anywhere as application varies. However
this, off-the shelf approach is not suitable in view of the
inherent characteristics of air-conditioners installed in a
vehicle.
This paper proposes a methodology to control an air-
conditioner of an automobile with taking engine load into
consideration because air-conditioner compressor takes
required energy from a vehicle engine, which finally leads to
the fuel consumption. Hybrid vehicle approach is suggested
i.e., engine heat can used in cold or winter conditions to
warm the vehicle, which is very efficient and fuel saving
2014 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Communication Control and Computing Technologies (ICACCCT)
137

approach. The whole system is designed based on a priority
level i.e., considering engine load, battery load, atmospheric
conditions etc.
This paper is divided into three different modules. Section
2 discusses energy consumption related blocks of an air-
conditioner where power can be saved. Section 3 explains
methodology to develop electronic hardware to save energy
consumption by an air conditioner based on fuzzy logic
using Verilog-HDL (Hardware Description Language) and
Matlab.
II. ENERGY SAVING BLOCKS OF AN AIR
CONDITIONER

The automotive air-conditioner must be capable of doing
four basic things:
1. Must cool the air.
2. Must circulate the air.
3. Must purify the air.
4. Must dehumidify the air.

There are different kinds of units in an air-conditioner
which can be controlled to save energy consumption. Out of
them, compressor is the one which consumes more energy.
When the module is mobile or portable (car, truck, buses,
etc. in automotive industry.), compressor uses power of an
engine to work. By controlling the pressure parameter of
refrigeration into a pipe, compressor generates hot and cold
environment in pipes. This paper proposes a method to run
compressor at a various speed with respect to its maximum
% efficiency. The Delphi (Harrison) V5 compressors are
variable stroke or variable displacement compressor and
other companies have also developed variable speed
compressor which can be useful in FLC system design.
Expansion valve is another main block which controls
pressure of an air-conditioner and has a significant role in
cooling cycle. Fan located near evaporator and condenser is
used to circulate air inside and outside of the room and can
be saved significant amount of energy with faster response if
controlled properly. While controlling pressure parameter,
freezing of a refrigerant must be avoided otherwise damage
to the component will occur.
Humidity controlling is one of the very important factors
of an air-conditioner. In dehumidification, chilled air is
passed through the hot side of heat exchanger which can be
achieved without any change in output temperature. The
average person feels comfortable when the temperature is
between 21C to 26C, with a relative humidity between
45% to 50% [17]. Conventional air-conditioners are capable
to control humidity automatically. Different kind of
researches were carried out in past to control humidity
according to user preference [18, 19, 20], but it has a demerit
of more energy consumption and thus reducing efficiency.
Therefore, authors have left humidity controlling operation
on the automated feature of an air conditioner.



III. FUZZY LOGIC BASED IMPLEMENTATION

As concluded previous sections and proved from different
researches, air-conditioner is a non-linear system as it has
more number of input parameters which have
interdependency on different output parameters. Fuzzy
Expert System (FES) is especially capable to deal with non-
linear and uncertain systems whose mathematical behaviour
is unknown because of its complexity [21, 22, 23, 24, 25,
26].
Figure 1 shows the basic block diagram of a fuzzy logic
controller. The outputs from all sensors are input to the FLC.
Fuzzification is the first step in which all inputs are
categorized based on its value. First of all, the input to an
FLC is converted into Hexadecimal format and membership
value is assigned to it based on its value.
The authors have followed a unique approach in which
every calculation inside a controller is performed and
processed into hexadecimal format. Please refer to reference
[27] for more information about FLC controller
implementation in Xilinx ISE Design Suite 14.2 using
Verilog-HDL coding language.


Fig. 1. Fuzzy Control System [21].
In our implementation, current temperature of the room,
difference between the current room temperature and user set
temperature which can be positive of negative to switch ON
air-conditioner or heater (finally both are in-built
functionality of an air-conditioner), load on the engine are
taken as inputs to the FLC.
As previously mentioned, compressor is the main unit in
an air-conditioner which uses significant amount of energy
and it draws required energy from engine i.e., belt is
connected via a pulley to the engine. Transportation is the
main priority in an auto-mobile as compare to air-
conditioner, so there is a need to design an electronic
embedded system which is capable to take decisions based
on engine load. The vehicle may be climbing up the hill,
moving freely at higher speed on a highway or climbing
down the road, the load on the engine varies. The authors
have taken engine load into consideration to make a system
2014 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Communication Control and Computing Technologies (ICACCCT)
138

which is capable to take decision based on priority by its
own to get better performance. Inputs are divided into
different ranges and different linguistic variables are
assigned to them with detailed research data and expertise
knowledge. Table 1 shows the current temperature and
temperature difference range division and linguistic variables
assignment. Please refer reference [28] to get detailed
classification and range division information for every input
and output variables.
Authors have divided temperature difference input into
two basic categories i.e., whether heater should be turned
ON or cooler should be turned ON. In table 1, PVerySmall
stands for Positive temperature difference Very Small and
NVerySmall stands for Negative temperature difference
Very Small. As nowadays, HAVC systems are capable to act
as a heater or cooler, this type of system implementation is a
very unique approach to save space and energy by
integrating two different functionalities into one unit.
After dividing different inputs into different linguistic
variables, the next step is to design Rule Base which is the
heart of the FLC. Design of a rule base is one of the very
important tasks and requires deep and expertise knowledge
of a system under design [22].

Table 1. Temperature and temperature difference linguistic variables
assignment.

Current
Temp.
Linguistic
Variables
Current Temp.
Range
Division(C)
Temp.
Difference
Linguistic
Variables
Temp.
Difference
Range
Division(C)
VeryLow Less than 13 PVerySmall Less than 2
Low 12 to 20 PSmall 1 to 3
Medium 19 to 27 PNormal 2 to 4
High 26 to 36 PMuch 3 to 7
VeryHigh More than 35 PVeryMuch More than 6
NVerySmall Less than 2
NSmall 1 to 3
NNormal 2 to 4
NMuch 3 to 7
NVeryMuch More than 6

Stability is one of the important criteria while designing
any system and whole system performance parameters are
dependent of stability factor. As closed loop system are more
stable in performance as compare to open loop systems
which is achieved in fuzzy logic by different rule connectors
like AND, OR, NOT. As the number of input parameter
increases, the number of rules also increases and rule base
design task gets very complicated because of parameter
dependency
Before defining rule table, output range parameters of the
system is also defined in Matlab implementation. Here, the
output variables are compressor speed, expansion valve and
fan speed and air-conditioner mode i.e., heater or cooler.
Output variables are also divided into different ranges and
different linguistic variables are assigned to them based on
expertise knowledge. All output variables are considered into
% efficiency form as compared to its maximum capacity.
Figure 2 is the compressor speed range division in %
efficiency of X-axis with different linguistic hedges
assignment.
Rule table is the one which contains combinations of all
possible inputs and based on those combinations what should
be the output. As defined previously, current temperature
input is divided into 5 different linguistic hedges,
temperature difference is divided into 10 different linguistic
hedges and engine load is divided into 3 different linguistic
hedges which gives total 150 different rule combinations and
based on that 4 different outputs i.e., compressor speed (%),
fan speed (%), expansion valve open condition (%) and air-
conditioner mode are decided.
Authors have taken care of proper effect of
thermodynamics second law i.e., heat flow rate and based on
that the rules are designed. For instance, consider this rule:

IF temperature is VeryHigh AND temperature difference is
PVeryMuch AND engine load is Low THEN fan speed is
Fast, compressor output is VeryHigh (i.e., higher
compression), Expansion valve is Almost Close, cooler is
ON.


Fig. 2. Compressor Speed (%) is divided into different linguistic hedges
(generated in Matlab 2013).

Above stated rule defines the proper decision making
condition to achieve cooling comfort at faster rate with lesser
power consumptions i.e., running compressor and fan at
more than 80% capacity rather than running it at lower speed
for more time and wasting energy which is completely based
on heat transfer logic i.e., 2
nd
law of the thermodynamics. It
is worth to mention that final decisions are taken based on
outputs from the rule table.
Defuzzification is the last block of an FLC where final
outputs of a controller, which are fuzzy in nature, are
converted into crisp or non-fuzzy form to perform required
actions. Different kind of defuzzification methods are used,
like center-of-gravity (COG), MIN-MAX defuzzification etc.
and among them, COG is the most widely used method in
practice because of its more stability and higher accuracy.
Different output variables are also used to calculate final
output of the defuzzification block which is explained in
detail in [27]. Figure 3 is the SurfView plot of the
2014 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Communication Control and Computing Technologies (ICACCCT)
139

compressor speed (%) output, which is generated using
Matlab, signifies the maximum performance of the air
conditioner with full-filling its energy saving goal.
Similarly, SurfView plot for the expansion valve (%) and
fan speed (%) can be generated. Figure 4 shows the ISim
generated waveform diagram with input temperature 70H (H
stands for Hexadecimal form) and input temperature
difference is 6CH and calculated outputs are as follows at the
time when inputs are applied to the controller: compressor
speed (%) is 92H, expansion valve (%) is AEH and fan
speed (%) is 8CH.
The simulator generated output are same as theoretically
calculated outputs which ensures that generated hardware in
Xilinx 14.2 using Verilog-HDL is functioning correctly. For
further information of how to develop hardware in Xilinx
14.2 using Verilog-HDL, refer [27].
The controller is designed in Xilinx 14.2 with
synthesized results and with the help of simulations
waveform; the final output is cross-checked which matches
with the theoretical calculations.


Fig. 3. SurfView plot of the Compressor Speed (%) output.

IV. CONCLUSION:

The fuzzy logic controller gives fast response as
compare to normal air conditioning systems with reaching
steady state position as soon as possible. The overall
response of an FLC system is 1.6 times faster than the PID
controller which is highly dependent on how rule base is
created. Variable speed of compressor, expansion valve and
fan speed gives better results with better fuel saving and at
the same time, with better cooling effect with faster response
and efficiency.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

The authors would like to thank to the Department
of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, COEP
for their infrastructure and lab facility and in particular Prof.
(Mrs.) Vanita Agarwal for her help and support.

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