VEHICLE TRACKING SYSTEM WITH ANDROID APP SUPPORT ABSTRACT M. Sudhakar Professor Dept of ECE CMR College of Engineering & Technology Kandlakoya, Medchal Rd, Hyderabad e-mail: vp@cmrcet.org K.Kalyani PG Scholar Dept of ECE CMR College of Engineering & Technology Kandlakoya, Medchal Rd, Hyderabad e-mail: kalyanikasyaparushi@gmail.com A reliable vehicle tracking system is designed and implemented for tracking any equipped vehicle from any location at any time. The system made good use of a popular technology that combines a smart phone application with a microcontroller. The in-vehicle device works using Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) technology for tracking the intended vehicles. An arduino microcontroller used to control the GPS and GSM modules. The vehicle tracking system for college buses uses the GPS module to get geographic coordinates at regular time intervals. The GSM module is used to transmit and update the vehicle location to a database. A Smartphone application developed for continuously monitoring the vehicle. The Google Maps API have been used to display the vehicle location on the map in the Smartphone application. Thus, the developed facility enables the users to track the vehicle easily to know its exact location using their android based mobile phone. Keywords: Vehicle tracking; Arduino Microcontroller; Google Maps API; Smartphone application; GPS and GSM technology INTRODUCTION In this competitive world where technology is growing at a fast pace, automated vehicle tracking system[5] can be used in a variety of ways to track and display vehicle locations in real-time. The users could be passenger using public transport, students using their college buses, transport owners track their trucks/ cabs etc., This paper proposes a vehicle tracking system using GPS and GSM technology and a Smartphone application[13] to provide improved and reliable service. Smart phones have become more familiar to the people and finding extensive use in the day to day lives, their influence on society continues to grow. In our paper we have developed a Smartphone application along with the in-vehicle tracking device. In vehicle tracking systems[11], a vehicle location is one of the most important parameter. The location and time information anywhere on earth is provided by GPS[7].. most important parameter. The vehicle tracking system proposed in the paper has following features: 1
Acquisition of a vehicle geographic coordinates and a vehicle unique ID from the vehicle mounted device in real time using the GPS module[2]. Transmission of vehicle location information along with the vehicle ID to a web server after a specified time interval using the GSM module[3]. Database is designed to store and manage the received vehicle location information. Whenever a user requests the vehicle location, it can be accessed from the database and monitored on Google maps in real-time using a Smartphone application[5]. II. BLOCK DIAGRAM OF TRACKING SYSTEM Fig 1: Block diagram Vehicle tracking systems is based on GPS and GSM technology. Vehicle monitoring system is based on android application which has been specially developed. The Google Maps API is used to display the vehicle on the map in the Smartphone. III. IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS The vehicle tracking system is controlled by an Arduino microcontroller. The required hardware and software design techniques have been developed. Arduino Microcontroller The Atmega 328 based Arduino UNO R3 microcontroller[1] is used as the brain to control the vehicle tracking. Arduino Shields are used for the GPS and the GSM/GPRS modules. A software program to control them is written in the C programming language, compiled and then saved into the microcontroller s flash memory. Fig2.Arduino Uno Board 2
Reasons for choosing Arduino are: The Arduino software runs on Windows, Macintosh OSX, and Linux operating systems. Simple, clear programming environment Open source and extensible software Open source and extensible hardware Inexpensive GPS module The Global Positioning System in vehicle tracking systems is commonly used to provide users with information such as the location coordinates, speed, time, and so on, anywhere on the Earth. The GPS module[2] consists of GPS receiver with antenna. There are two slide switches and one push button switch. Fig3. Skg13CGPS module The Skylabs SKG13C[8] series is a complete GPS module that features super sensitivity, ultra low power and small form factor. The GPS signal is applied to the antenna input of module, and a complete serial data message with position, velocity and time information is presented at the serial interface with NMEA protocol or custom protocol. Features: Ultra high sensitivity : -165 dbm Extremely fast TTFF at low signal level Built in high gain LNA Low power consumption: Max 30 ma@3.3v NMEA-0183 compliant protocol or custom protocol Operating voltage: 3.0V to 3.6V SMD type with stamp holes Small form factor: 13x15x2.6mm RoHS compliant (Lead-free)Performance Specification 3
Once the arduino microcontroller and the GPS module are interfaced, the GPS module is ready to get the vehicle location information. GSM Module The GSM/GPRS module[3] is responsible for establishing connections between an in-vehicle device and a remote server for transmitting the vehicle location information, using TCP/IP connection through the GPRS network. GPRS is based on Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communication and complements existing services such circuit-switched cellular phone connections and the Short Message Service (SMS). The Arduino GSM Shield[9] allows an Arduino board to connect to the internet, make/receive voice calls and send/receive SMS messages. The shield uses a radio modem M10 by Quectel. It is possible to communicate with the board using AT commands. The GSM library has a large number of methods for communication with the shield. HTTP communication Fig4: Arduino GSM shield A HTTP communication takes place usually through TCP/IP connection. The standard port for HTTP servers is 80. In order to send data over the internet, a socket connection needs to be established. In this work, the socket is useful for working with our server and it enables users to establish a TCP socket connection for sending data. The socket is characterized by three main entities, a protocol, an IP address / a host name, and a port number. The commands AT+SDATACONF and "AT+SDATASTART" are used to configure remote host and port and open socket for TCP connection respectively. These commands look as follows: AT+SDATACONF=1, \"TCP\", \"Server address\", 80 AT+SDATASTART=1,1 4
Web Server and Database A free web hosting service is used for a web server construction. A web page was composed of simple PHP that can directly connect to and manipulate a database table. The command "mysqli_connect" is used to establish a connection to a MySQL database. The command syntax is: Scon=mysqli_connect (Shostname,Susername,Spassword) After the connection is established, the vehicle s location information can be entered into a designated table by executing SQL INSERT statement through PHP function mysqli_query. A simple example to insert the vehicle s location information into a GPSDATA table in relational database is shown below. Google Maps API Google maps API is used to display the college bus location on a Smartphone application in realtime using an HTTP request. The Google maps API[4] automatically handles access to the Google Maps servers, displays map, and responds to user gestures such as clicks and drags. The legs array contains information about two locations within the given route. Distance and Duration fields from the legs array are used in the Google directions API. Those fields provide users with the calculated distance and time information between the current location of a college bus and the user location within the given route. start_address and end_address fields are used to indicate an address of a vehicle and a user, respectively. Android is an open source and Linux-based operating system for mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. Android offers a unified approach to application development for mobile devices. Android Studio[6] is an integrated development environment (IDE) for developing app on the Android platform APPLICATIONS The Tracking system provides the required information to the users for monitoring and management of the intended vehicle. After installing a tracking device in vehicles, a person can easily locate the exact position of the specific vehicle. Vehicle tracking systems are also popular in consumer vehicles as a theft prevention and retrieval device. Vehicle tracking systems are commonly used by fleet operators for fleet management functions such as fleet tracking, routing, dispatch, on-board information and security. 5
Asset tracking: Companies needing to track valuable assets for insurance. Better Customer Service. ADVANTAGES By having detailed information on the whereabouts of all employees, business owners are far more in touch with their business operations. Meaning they have greater levels of control over their company. Update the vehicle location and time information anywhere on earth is provided by using GPS technology. Vehicle tracking systems will vastly reduce phone bills as it is no longer a necessity to constantly call employees to find their location. Best time management will be done Cost effective Provide better service Flowchart 6
RESULTS We have tested this system for appropriate outputs the following section includes experimental section of these VIII. CONCLUSION A reliable and simple tracking system for intended vehicles to track the exact location of a moving or stationary vehicle in real-time has been developed. GPS and GSM/GPRS technology has been used to obtain vehicle location information and transmission to the server. Monitoring System has been developed using android app supported by Google Maps API. Furthermore, our implementation is low-cost that is based on easily accessible off-the-shelf electronic modules REFERENCES 1. Arduino microcontroller, www.arduino.cc 2. GPS module, https://www.sparkfun.com/products /10709 3. GSM/GPRS module, https://www.sparkfun.com/ products/9607 4. The Google Directions API https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/directions/ 5. SeokJu Lee, Girma Tewolde, Jaerock Kwon Design and Implementation of Vehicle Tracking System Using GPS/GSM/GPRS Technology and Smartphone Application Electrical and Computer Engineering Kettering University Flint, MI, USA 6. http://developer.android.com/tools/studio/index.html 7. "TinyGPS", http://arduiniana.org/libraries/tinygps/ 8. Skg13C GPS module http://t7.up71.com/en/product_detail.aspx?id=559727&userinfo_id=707901 9. https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/arduinogsmshield 10. Yasha Sardey, et.al. A Mobile Application for Bus Information System and Location Tracking using Client-Server Technology 7
11. Dalip GPS and GSM based Passenger Tracking System MMEC, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Haryana, India. 12. MITALI WASEKAR et al., BUS ASSISTANCE APPLICATION USING GPS, GSM AND ANDROID Proceedings of 4th IRF International Conference, Pune, 16th March-2014, ISBN: 978-93-82702-66-5. 13. Rohitaksha K, Madhu C G, Nalini B G,Nirupama C V Android Application for Vehicle Theft Prevention and Tracking System International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technologies, Vol. 5 (3), 2014, 3754-3758 8