2014 IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT)

Design and Implementation of Vehicle Tracking

System Using GPS/GSM/GPRS Technology and
Smartphone Application
SeokJu Lee, Girma Tewolde, Jaerock Kwon
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Kettering University
Flint, MI, USA
{lee7704, gtewolde, jkwon}@kettering.edu

Abstract An efficient vehicle tracking system is designed

and implemented for tracking the movement of any equipped
vehicle from any location at any time. The proposed system made
good use of a popular technology that combines a Smartphone
application with a microcontroller. This will be easy to make and
inexpensive compared to others. The designed in-vehicle device
works using Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global system
for mobile communication / General Packet Radio Service
(GSM/GPRS) technology that is one of the most common ways
for vehicle tracking. The device is embedded inside a vehicle
whose position is to be determined and tracked in real-time. A
microcontroller is used to control the GPS and GSM/GPRS
modules. The vehicle tracking system uses the GPS module to get
geographic coordinates at regular time intervals. The
GSM/GPRS module is used to transmit and update the vehicle
location to a database. A Smartphone application is also
developed for continuously monitoring the vehicle location. The
Google Maps API is used to display the vehicle on the map in the
Smartphone application. Thus, users will be able to continuously
monitor a moving vehicle on demand using the Smartphone
application and determine the estimated distance and time for
the vehicle to arrive at a given destination. In order to show the
feasibility and effectiveness of the system, this paper presents
experimental results of the vehicle tracking system and some
experiences on practical implementations.

basic mobile phones [1]. As Smartphones become more

familiar to people and finding use in the day to day lives, their
influence on society continues to grow. The main driving force
for this accelerated growth in Smartphone usage is the
availability of a large variety of applications to meet the needs
of a wide range of users. In our project we developed a
Smartphone application along with the in-vehicle tracking
device. The two parts work together to offer the most
convenience to the users as they become handy to track vehicle
locations in real-time.

KeywordsVehicle tracking; Microcontroller; Google Maps

API; Smartphone application; GPS/GSM/GPRS technology;

Fig. 1. Changes in phone ownership, 2011-2012. The number of Smartphone

owners increased 11% from 2011 to 2012. [1]

I.

INTRODUCTION

Vehicle tracking systems were first implemented for the

shipping industry because people wanted to know where each
vehicle was at any given time. These days, however, with
technology growing at a fast pace, automated vehicle tracking
system is being used in a variety of ways to track and display
vehicle locations in real-time. This paper proposes a vehicle
tracking system using GPS/GSM/GPRS technology and a
Smartphone application to provide better service and costeffective solution for users.
On the basis of statistical data shown Fig. 1, one can
observe that the world is experiencing accelerated growth in
Smartphone ownership. As a result, Smartphone users are now
more prevalent within the overall population than owners of

978-1-4799-3459-1/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

353

A vehicle tracking is a prerequisite of the most basic

function in all fleet management systems. A fleet management
is the management of a companys transportation fleet. The
fleet management system aims at improving the quality and
efficiency of the industry by identifying major obstructions on
the road and tracking real-time locations of their fleet on a map
[2],[3]. Most of the vehicle tracking systems are designed by
using GPS/GSM technology [4]. In vehicle tracking systems, a
vehicle location is one of the most important components. The
location and time information anywhere on earth is provided
by using GPS technology [5].
For wireless data transmission, GSM and SMS technology
are commonly used. The SMS technology through GSM
network and GSM modem provide a user with vehicle location

2014 IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT)

information [6],[7]. Utilization of SMS technology has become

popular because it does not require much cost. It is convenient
and accessible way of transferring and receiving data with high
reliability [8]. Instead of using SMS, the proposed vehicle
tracking system uses the Smartphone application to track and
monitor a vehicle location obtained from the in-vehicle
tracking device controlled by a microcontroller. The vehicle
location is automatically placed on Google maps, which make
it easier for tracking a vehicle and provides users with more
accurate vehicle location information.

Kalman filter [11] to reduce positional errors, thus improving

the accuracy of the position determination. When a vehicles
ignition is turned on, a vehicles owner receives a confirmation
SMS that a vehicle is running now. If the access to the vehicle
is illegal, the vehicles owner sends a SMS to turn off the
vehicle. A laptop embedded with Google Earth is used for
tracking and viewing the location and a status of the vehicle on
a map. A Smartphone will be good alternative to replace the
work that the laptop performs. Fig. 2 shows block diagram of
the proposed system.

The basic purpose of a vehicle tracking system is to track a

specific target vehicle or other objects. The tracking device is
able to relay information concerning the current location of the
vehicle and its speed, etc. Most of such tracking systems
consist of an electronic device as usually installed in-vehicle
and can be used for tracking motor cycles, buses, and trains.
The vehicle tracking system proposed in the paper has the
following features:
 Acquisition of a vehicle's geographic coordinates and a
vehicles unique ID from an in-vehicle device in realtime using the GPS module
 Transmission of a vehicle's location information and a
vehicles ID to a web server after a specified time
interval using the GSM/GPRS module
 Database is designed to store and manage received
vehicle's 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
II.

RELATED WORKS

Vehicle tracking systems are used around the world in

many fields such as vehicle position tracking systems, vehicle
anti-theft tracking systems, fleet management systems, and
intelligent transportation systems (ITS).
A. Bus Tracking System
Lau [9] proposed simple bus tracking system in UCSI
University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The tracking system
provides students with the location information of a bus within
a fixed route. The students are provided with a status of the bus
after specified time interval using LED panel and a
Smartphone application. Real-time bus tracking systems are
beneficial to college students who attend colleges with large
campuses. With the bus tracking system, they can spend more
time studying, sleeping, or relaxing rather than waiting for a
delayed bus. Spending less time waiting for a bus improves the
comfortable and effective time management of the students as
well. Also, the bus tracking system helps improve childrens
safety when it is equipped in school buses.
B. Vehicle Tracking and Anti-Theft Tracking System
An anti-theft tracking system is one way to prevent or
detect unauthorized access of devices considered valuable.
Ramadan, Al-Khedher, and Al-Kheder [10] proposed design
and implementation of a vehicle tracking and anti-theft system
for protecting a vehicle from any intruders using GPS/GSM
technology based on tracking systems. The system used

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Fig. 2. Block diagram of Vehicle Tracking and Anti-theft System [10]

C. Vehicle tracking system using Social Network Service

Vehicle tracking systems based on social network services
such as Twitter and Facebook has attracted interest in a number
of users [12]. Each in-vehicle device has an account of the
twitter social network and can identify the vehicle location in
social network on a regular basis. A web interface is used to
display a vehicle location placed on Google maps, and a status
of a vehicle like door open/close, and ignitions on/off. Also,
users can send commands from the web interface to the invehicle device to restart the vehicle or to shut down the vehicle.
The proposed system can be accessed from a Smartphone more
easily because the Smartphone has available social network
services. So, the system would become more efficient to users
of social network and Smartphone, they allow quick
monitoring of the location and status of the vehicle.
III. IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
In the development of the vehicle tracking system
controlled by a microcontroller, hardware and software design
techniques are needed.
A. Arduino Microcontroller
The Atmega328 based Arduino UNO R3 [13]
microcontroller is used as the brain to control the vehicle
tracking system. 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 microcontrollers flash memory.

2014 IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT)

B. 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
Earth. In this work, a GPS module and a GPS receiver
available from the Sparkfun website, is adopted to implement
the in-vehicle device. The GPS module has the GPS receiver
with antenna. There are two slide switches and one push button
switch.
The GPS module is identical to the one shown in Fig. 3.
Ref. [14] offers detail about the GPS module. In Fig. 3, (1) is
the switch for UART and DLINE selection. When the DLINE
is selected, Rx and Tx in the GPS module will be connected to
microcontroller digital pins 2 and 3, respectively. If the UART
was selected, Rx and Tx in the GPS module will be connected
to microcontroller digital pins 0 and 1, respectively. In this
work, Tx and Rx in a GSM/GPRS module uses microcontroller
digital pins 2 and 3. So, the GPS switch 1 must be set to the
UART position, otherwise if DLINE position is selected its
digital pins will overlap that of the GSM/GPRS module. Even
when UART is selected, while trying to uploaded program
code to the Arduino, users will see error message in the
microcontroller because the UART uses the same pin numbers
that are used for programming, but nothing should get
damaged. For these reasons, the GPS module should select the
switch in the UART position after the source code is uploaded.
In Fig. 3, (2) is the GPS receiver. It is required for getting the
location information. The GPS receiver module uses the 20
channel EM-406A SiRF III receiver.

cellular module. The SM5100B chip on the GSM/GPRS shield

is a compact quad-band cellular module. A SIM card and a
cellular antenna are functionally essential for working with a
GSM/GPRS module. The SIM card manufactured by AT&T
needs enough data quantity for testing. The GSM/GPRS
module and the cellular antenna were purchased through the
Sparkfun website. As shown in Fig. 4, a GSM/GPRS module, a
SIM card (pre-paid or straight from your phone), and a cellular
antenna are required to implement the proposed vehicle
tracking system.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Fig. 4. (a) GSM/GPRS module with SM5100B, (b) AT&T SIM card (50MB),
and (c) Quad-band Cellular Duck Antenna SMA

The Serial.begin() command is used to set up the

communication data rate in bit per second (baud) for the serial
port.
Serial.begin(9600)
For communicating with the computer, the SM5100B
cellular module works at 9600 bps. When a GPRS module is
turned on, the microcontroller responds the following messages
which is used for checking the operating conditions and
whether a SIM card is connected or not.

 








Fig. 3. GPS module. (1) UART and DLINE selection switch, (2) GPS
Receiver, (3) Reset switch, (4) Power switch

Once the microcontroller and the GPS module have

everything assembled, the GPS module is almost ready to get
the vehicles location information. The TinyGPS library [15]
was used to communicate with and access data from the GPS
module. The EM-406 works at 4800 bps, but if users are using
another type of GPS, they should identify the correct baud rate
for their specific device.
C. GSM/GPRS module
The GSM/GPRS module [16] is responsible of establishing
connections between an in-vehicle device and a remote server
for transmitting the vehicles location information, using
TCP/IP connection through the GSM/GPRS network.
1) Hardware
The cellular shield for a microcontroller includes all the
parts needed to interface the microcontroller with an SM5100B

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2) AT Command
Devices like modems use the so-called AT commands to
communicate with other devices. AT commands are used to
control TCP/IP on SM5100B. The AT commands for TCP/IP
and their parameters for SM5100B can be found at [17]. The
AT command syntax is as follows.
AT<command> <CR>
Almost every line with commands starts with the AT,
followed by one or more commands, and terminated with a
carriage return (CR) character. The first step is to attach a
GPRS to the network. Therefore, the microcontroller sends the
following command to attach to a GPRS network.
AT+CGATT=1
The next step is to set or edit the Packet Data Protocol
(PDP) context parameters such as the Access Point Name
(APN). It is important that the correct APN is used (for
example, wap.cingular for the service provider AT&T).
Otherwise the SIM card will not be allowed to connect to the
network. The APN needs to acquire access to the Internet when

2014 IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT)

communicating information between a GPRS module and the

mobile network through a gateway. The command looks as
follows: (The APN is provided by a network service provider.)
AT+CGDCONT=1, \IP \, \APN \

After the connection is established, the vehicles 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 vehicles location information
into a GPSDATA table in relational database is shown below.

The network service provider (AT&T) offers a user name

and a password to authorize a network connection. The next
step is to get authorization from the network service provider
using the user name (WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM) and the
password (CINGULAR1). The command looks as follows:
AT+CGPCO=0, \ user name \, \ password \ , 1
The command of the next step is used to activate a PDP
context.
AT+CGACT =1,1
D. HTTP communication
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:

The structure of the GPSDATA table is listed in TABLE I.

It consists of ID fields (ID, VehicleID) and a vehicles location
information fields (Time, Latitude, and Longitude). The ID
field is a Primary Key designed to have auto_increment
attribute so it can be used to distinguish respective rows.
Sequence numbers are assigned automatically when the
vehicles location information is inserted. VehicleID field
can be used to store as a vehicles unique ID if users want to
track multiple vehicles. The Time field automatically stores
current time due to use of CURRENT_TIMESTAMP when the
location information of a vehicle is received.
TABLE I. 
Field

THE STRUCTURE OF THE GPSDATA TABLE IN THE DATABASE

Type

ID

int(5)

Attributes

Default

VehicleID

int(5)

AT+SDATACONF=1, \"TCP\", \"Server address\", 80

Time

timestamp

AT+SDATASTART=1,1

Latitude

double(7,5)

0.00000

Longitude

double(7,5)

0.00000

The first parameter means the transport protocol type

(TCP/UDP), second parameter is the IP address / the host name
of a web server, and the last parameter is the port number.
When the connection to the server is established, the
microcontroller is ready to send the location information to the
server. There are two difference ways to send the location
information by AT commands for the SM5100B. In this work,
the command AT+SDATATSEND is used instead of
AT+SSTRSEND. This command "AT+SSTRSEND" is
terminated by the line breaks (carriage return and line feed).
Instead, the command AT+SDATATSEND does not
interpret the characters as any kind of control codes. First, the
command needs to give the GSM/GPRS module the length of
the packet we are sending. And then, we should wait for >
character from the module to tell us if it is ready to send the
packet. Once it is ready we transmit the packet and terminate it
with Ctrl+Z character (0x1A). The initial part of the command
looks as follows:
AT+SDATATSEND=1, +String(packet length)+\r
E. 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:

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ONUPDATE
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

CURRENT_
TIMESTAMP

F. Google Maps API

A Google maps API for iOS is used to display a vehicle
location on a Smartphone application in real-time using an
HTTP request. The Google maps API 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 [18]. Those fields provide users with
the calculated distance and time information between the
current location of a vehicle 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.
IV. RESULT
Fig. 5 shows our vehicle tracking system layout. It can help
understand how the project is implemented.
A. Testing In-vehicle device
As shown in the diagram, starting from the satellite at the
top of the diagram, the GPS module receives geographic
coordinates from the satellites. The vehicles location
information is read in from the GPS module by the
microcontroller. The vehicles location information and the
vehicles ID are then transmitted to the web server through
GSM/GPRS network. The GSM/GPRS module is used for

2014 IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT)

TCP/IP communication. The received vehicles location

information and the vehicles ID are sent from a form with the
GET method for transmission to the server. The GET method
looks as follows:

Smartphone application with the most recent vehicle's location

information from a database.

GPS Satellites

Vehicle Tracking Device

Web Server
TCP / IP
(HTTP)
Communication

GPS/GSM/GPRS Module

User

HTTP
Communication

Smartphone

MySQL

Database

(a)

Fig. 5. The proposed vehicle tracking system layout

B. Testing Web Server and Database

The web server is connected to a database, and then the
vehicles location information is stored in the database. Some
real experimental data for a vehicles location information,
collected and uploaded to a database based on a test run, is
listed in TABLE II. The experimental results show the
minimum time interval of 8 seconds for updating the vehicles
location information. This time interval is actually configurable
according to the movement of the vehicle. So for fast moving
vehicles we could update the position information faster than
for slow moving or stopped vehicles.
TABLE II. 

A REAL VEHICLE'S LOCATION INFORMATION

C. Testing Smartphone application

In order to demonstrate operation of the vehicle tracking
system successfully, an iPhone was configured with the
developed Smartphone application. Two locations, one for the
vehicle and the other remotely located user appear on the
Google map. The location of the vehicle is updated from the
in-vehicle tracking device. Also, the distance and time
information between the two locations within the given route
can be displayed. Whenever a vehicle location changes, the
vehicles address will be updated regularly. Fig. 6 shows our

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(b)
Fig. 6. Vehicle Tracking Application test. The arrow indicates a user location
(a) Initial position of the vehicle (b) The vehicle is approaching to the user.

V.

CONCLUSION

We developed and tested a vehicle tracking system to track

the exact location of a moving or stationary vehicle in real-time.
This paper has described the design and implementation of our

2014 IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT)

vehicle tracking system. An in-vehicle device, a server and a

Smartphone application are used for the vehicle tracking
system. In this work, the in-vehicle device is composed of a
microcontroller and GPS/GSM/GPRS module to acquire the
vehicle's location information and transmit it to a server
through GSM/GPRS network. On the other end, the web
interface written in PHP is implemented to directly connect to
a database. A vehicle's geographic coordinates and a vehicles
unique ID obtained from an in-vehicle device are recorded in a
database table. And a Smartphone application has been created
to display a vehicle location on Google maps. The system was
able to experimentally demonstrate its effective performance to
track a vehicles location anytime from anywhere. Furthermore,
our implementation is low-cost that is based on easily
accessible off-the-shelf electronic modules.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank to Mengyi Zhou and
Junsheng Xu from Tongji University for valuable contributions
on the Smartphone application and the web service system.
The authors would also like to acknowledge an initial project
work done by a Kettering University undergraduate student,
Lex (Joseph) Lombardi, under supervision of one of the
authors. The project was on a GPS tracking and data logger,
with a prototype built for a proof of concept.

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