Ever felt suspicious about being cheated during fuel refills at petrol pumps? If yes, then here comes a device to assuage your doubts --Fuel Manager. The appliance has a display screen and when installed in a vehicle records the exact quantity of fuel filled during each refill and even records the data for future reference.
It is the brainchild of former IIT-Delhi students Arpit Gupta and Sankalp Srivastav. They were guided by P.M.V. Subbarao, Associate Dean and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, IIT-Delhi.
Analog fuel meters used currently in vehicles only give a rough estimate of the fuel present, says Sankalp, adding that this helps some petrol pump attendants to hoodwink customers. Also, the analog meters give no idea about the amount of fuel present when in reserve mode.
In Fuel Manager, the height of the fuel in the tank is converted to voltage output which is processed by the microprocessor that is also interfaced with GPS (Global Positioning System) and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) modules. The final processed signal is displayed on the display screen.
“The best thing about this technology is that now there is no need to step out of the car to see how much fuel is actually filled in the vehicle during refilling,” says Raj Verma, who provided technical assistance to Arpit and Sankalp.
Another interesting feature of the device is a SIM that is fitted to send an SMS automatically to the mobile number of the user registered with the device whenever a fuel refill is done in the vehicle. The SMS provides the user with information like the amount of fuel filled (in Rupees), exact volume of fuel filled, place at which fuel is filled and the vehicle number.
The issue of fuel thefts are also addressed as the device will instantly send a SMS on the mobile phone informing the user about the amount of fuel stolen and even the place where it took place. “Fuel Manager will also warn the driver if there is any fuel leakage,” says Sankalp.