DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

Car park management in Nigeria is largely manual, inefficient, and insecure, often relying on handwritten tickets and rope-operated barriers. These methods, coupled with an unreliable power infrastructure, lead to significant congestion and safety risks. This project addresses these challenges through the design and fabrcation of a cost-effective, solar-powered, automated car park access control system. The system architecture is based on a Master/Slave configuration using two ESP32 microcontrollers that communicate via the ESP-NOW protocol. The Master ESP32 serves as the central "brain," handling RFID authentication and image capture via an ESP32 camera. Upon an access attempt, the system immediately captures the driver's image and validates the RFID tag against a local database stored on an SD card. This process creates a secure visual audit trail by logging all attempts (granted or denied) with a timestamp and the corresponding image. The Slave ESP32 manages the physical "muscle", controlling the barrier's geared motor and monitoring an ultrasonic sensor for vehicle safety

The transportation and logistics sector could become much safer and more efficient with the use of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. This project presents the design, development, and evaluation of a mini autonomous vehicle aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of low-cost, compact automation for indoor and controlled outdoor environments. The vehicle uses an ultrasonic sensor for real-time obstacle detection, with a microcontroller(ESP32)-based control system to execute navigation and collision avoidance maneuvers. A modular architecture was implemented, incorporating sensor data processing, path planning, and control algorithms to ensure responsive and adaptive vehicle behaviour. Both simulation and field tests were conducted to validate system performance, with results indicating reliable obstacle detection, effective trajectory tracking, and robust control response under various operating conditions. The successful realization of this mini autonomous vehicle project not only underscores the potential of accessible, cost-effective autonomous systems but also provides a solid foundation for future enhancements and applications in small-scale robotics.

This study investigated the effectiveness of activated coconut shell as an adsorbent for carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture, with a specific emphasis on the influence of particle size and gas flow rate on the adsorption efficiency. Coconut shells were collected locally from Benin City, Nigeria, and subjected to carbonization at 400°C for one hour, followed by acid activation using 10% hydrochloric acid. The carbonized material was classified into four particle size fractions: >500 μm, 250-500 μm, 100-250 μm, and <100 μm.

This research work, evaluated the speed bumps in the Osasogie Community with the use of geospatial techniques. Speed bumps, are important traffic calming devices seen on our roads, which help to physically reduce traffic speed. The work was done in two phases, which were the field study and the questionnaires. During the field study, the coordinates of each speed bump was taken as well as the geometric properties of each speed bump which were the height, length, width and the clear spacing. A comparison was done on the geometric properties of these speed bumps, using the standard of the ‘Federal Heights Municipal Code of Colorado, USA’. A handheld GPS receiver was used to take the coordinates, while measuring tapes were used to measure the geometric properties. The standard width of speed bump was between 0.6m and 1.2m, the standard height was between 0.07m and 0.1m, while the standard length was between 3.65m and 5m. In total, 22 speed bumps were analyzed from 4 streets, of which only 4 speed bumps met the design criteria, which was 18.18% of the entire speed bumps. Also the clear spacing of the speed bumps in all the locations, did not meet the design criteria, as they were either too close to each other, or too far apart. From the questionnaire survey, it showed a vast variation in the response, based on the point of view of each respondent, however, majority of the respondents, were satisfied with the application of speed bumps, in the study area