Development of auto tracking and auto locking of vehicle for security concerns
Nowadays, the number of vehicles is rapidly increasing in a lot of developing countries including Pakistan. At the same time, the vehicle theft has become a serious issue in the societies. According to the survey in 1st October 2015 in Myanmar Times News, the number of vehicles on roads has been nea
2025-06-28 16:32:04 - Adil Khan
Development of auto tracking and auto locking of vehicle for security concerns
Project Area of Specialization Internet of ThingsProject SummaryNowadays, the number of vehicles is rapidly increasing in a lot of developing countries including Pakistan. At the same time, the vehicle theft has become a serious issue in the societies. According to the survey in 1st October 2015 in Myanmar Times News, the number of vehicles on roads has been nearly doubled since 2011. It is jumping from 2,363,947 to 5,077,699 due to the Ministry of Transportation, Myanmar [1]. Then, a Vehicle Anti-theft Tracking (VAT) system that can be installed into a vehicle with a low cost at any time, is strongly demanded, since a conventional VAT system is very expensive and is usually installed into a luxury car when it is produced.
On the one hand, the Internet of Things (IoT) has come out as a popular technology changing the concept of “connecting people” to “connecting things”. The IoT provides a network of sensors, actuators, machines, and home appliances. They are embedded with computing devices and software, which enable these things to be connected with each other and exchange data over Internet. A variety of low-cost devices and cloud platforms for the IoT have become available. In this project, we propose a very low-cost VAT system for authorities and personal use using the IoT cloud platform. This system allows people in developing countries to be easily installed into their vehicles at any time. This system has the following features: (1) the vehicle theft is detected using an Arduino-connected GPS module, (2) the alarm mail is sent to the email of the vehicle owner, (3) automatic door locking of vehicle is done if someone tries to remove GPS module, (4) the location data of the vehicle is periodically stored in the IoT cloud platform called Thing Speak, (5) the web server is always showing exact location of the vehicle to the authorities for all kind of security and theft concerns. We implement this system and confirm the correctness of the designed functions through trial applications.
Project Objectives- Recently, the vehicle theft has become the serious issue in developing countries, due to the rapid increase of vehicles. Then, a Vehicle Anti-theft Tracking system can play an important role to protect it. Unfortunately, a conventional VAT system is too expensive to be introduced for many people in such countries. On the one hand, the Internet of Things (IoT) has come out as a popular technology changing the concept of “connecting people” to “connecting things”, where low-cost IoT devices and cloud platforms have become available. In this project, we propose authorities level use VAT system using IoT platform that can be easily introduced due to the very low cost. This system has the following features: (1) the vehicle theft is detected using an Arduino-connected GPS module, (2) the alarm mail is sent to the email of the vehicle owner, (3) automatic door locking of vehicle is done if someone tries to remove GPS module, (4) the location data of the vehicle is periodically stored in the IoT cloud platform called Thing Speak, (5) the web server is always showing exact location of the vehicle to the authorities for all kind of security and theft concerns. We implement this system and confirm the correctness of the implemented functions through trial applications.
- Methodology
The proposed system is composed of the vehicle tracking and auto door locking of vehicle if theft occur, the cloud IoT platform in the Internet, and the authorities web server. The theft detection device consists of a GPS module, and a microcontroller. For the microcontroller, Arduino Uno is adopted, where Arduino IDE and Android Studio are used in developing software for this device. They are available at very low costs. For the IoT platform, ThingSpeak Server is adopted where the basic function can be used free.
We will come up with the desired project using the following equipments and the following methodology:
Microcontroller
Arduino Mega 2560 is used as the microcontroller for this system. Arduino Mega 2560 is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega2560. It has 54 digital input/output pins (of which 15 can be used as PWM outputs), 16 analog inputs, 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports), a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connects it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.
GPS module
Ublox Neo 7N-0-002 GPS module is used in this system. This module has an external antenna and built-in EEPROM. It requires a power supply of 3V to 5V and a default baud rate of 9600 bps. It works with NMEA sentences.
Software description
The details of the adopted software are described as follows.
Thingspeak server
ThingSpeak server is an open data platform and API for Internet of Things that allows data to be collected, stored, analyzed and visualized. ThingSpeak provides instant visualizations of data posted from the devices to ThingSpeak. With the ability to execute MATLAB code in ThingSpeak, online analysis and processing of the data can be performed.
Arduino IDE
For the communication between the microcontroller and the modules and for sending and receiving vehicle location information between the microcontroller and the server, the microcontroller and the modules are programmed by the Arduino IDE software.
IoT architecture of proposes system
From the perspective of the IoT five-layer architecture, the GPS module works in the perception layer, where it collects the location information of the vehicle. The GSM module sends the alarm message to the owner’s mobile phone by the SMS, and transfers data back and forth between the ThingSpeak server and the microcontroller by using the GPRS. Thus, GPRS module is responsible for the transport layer. The location information detected by the GPS module is analyzed at the microcontroller and is stored in the ThingSpeak server. Thus, the microcontroller and the ThingSpeak server are responsible for the processing layer.
By using the above methods we will try to come up with the desired output, other things can also be used depending on the issues if we counter.
Benefits
- Vehicle Anti-theft Tracking system can play an important role to protect it. Unfortunately, a conventional VAT system is too expensive to be introduced for many people in such countries. On the one hand, the Internet of Things (IoT) has come out as a popular technology changing the concept of “connecting people” to “connecting things”, where low-cost IoT devices and cloud platforms have become available. In this project, we propose authorities level use VAT system using IoT platform that can be easily introduced due to the very low cost. This system has the following features: (1) the vehicle theft is detected using an Arduino-connected GPS module, (2) the alarm mail is sent to the email of the vehicle owner, (3) automatic door locking of vehicle is done if someone tries to remove GPS module, (4) the location data of the vehicle is periodically stored in the IoT cloud platform called Thing Speak, (5) the web server is always showing exact location of the vehicle to the authorities for all kind of security and theft concerns. We implement this system and confirm the correctness of the implemented functions through trial applications.
Technical Details of Final
By the end of the research results we will be able to implement it in the real life applications and make our vehicles more secure and connected to the authorities all the time to make the environment more secure. By the all time tracking mechanism the user and the authorities the users will stay more secure as there vehicle will be in the supervision of the authorities. Adding the all time tracking and IoT controlled door lock will help in catching the burglar acted the theft. So, This project presented the very low-cost personal, and authority level use vehicle tracking and anti theft system using the cloud IoT platform called ThingSpeak. The anti-theft device for a vehicle is implemented with the Arduino microcontroller and the GPS module. The all time vehicle tracking is represented on the webserver. The correctness of the implemented functions will be confirmed through trial applications. The future works include the extension of Android applications for vehicle owner services, the durability test of the device, and the evaluation through the long term use.
Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry SecurityOther Industries Transportation Core Technology Internet of Things (IoT)Other Technologies OthersSustainable Development Goals Industry, Innovation and InfrastructureRequired Resources| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 58781 | |||
| Arduino Mega 2560 | Equipment | 1 | 5856 | 5856 |
| Ublox Neo 7N-0-002 GPS module | Equipment | 4 | 5671 | 22682 |
| iot wifi module | Equipment | 4 | 7561 | 30243 |