International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering & Technology (IJARCET)

Volume 4 Issue 4, April 2015

Vehicle Tracking System using GPS and

Android OS
Amol Dhumal, Amol Naikoji, Yutika Patwa, Manali Shilimkar, Prof. M. K. Nighot

 vehicle is and where it has been, how long it has been. The
Abstract—In today’s era everyone is using mobile phones for system uses geographic position and time information from
communication. At the same time Mobile Providers are also the Global Positioning Satellites.
providing the variety of services to users. In attempt to expand
on this, we propose a GPS based vehicle tracking system for an
organization to help to find addresses of their vehicles and locate
Currently, mostly the existent tracking systems use
their positions on mobile devices. The organizations are techniques of virtual fence known as Geofence which
investing money in monitoring and tracking vehicles aiming at compares the entity position with a predetermined zone or a
improving services and ensuring the safety in cargos transports. point of interest, checking if the entity is inside or outside an
The proposed technology allows organizations to track real-time area. Those techniques do not allow full coverage of the
information about their organizational vehicle during travel. course, making difficult to determine if a truck or another
Today for local transport most people use Bus as a medium. But
due to their irregularity public faces various problems like not
delivery vehicle is travelling in a planned path [2]. Therefore,
reaching on time, bus failure, no proper schedule etc. By this we need to use an alternative technique that allows continuous
scenario author has created an Android application which monitoring of travels, obtaining information of probable
provides the exact location of all organizational vehicles. deviations or even emergency situations.
The system contains single android mobile that is equipped
with GPS and GSM modems along with processor that is This system consists of an android mobile which contains
installed in vehicle. During vehicle motion its location update
can be continuously reported to a server using GPRS service. GSM and GPS modem along with the processor that is fitted
This location information will be plotted using Google maps on in the vehicle permanently. This device is called as tracking
monitoring device. device which is continuously accessing its current location
and is sending updates to server. At monitoring device which
is an android application is providing the user with the exact
Index Terms— GPS, GSM, Monitoring Unit, Tracking Unit location of the vehicles of his interest.

The paper is organizes as following sections:

I. INTRODUCTION
India has progressed on enormous rate that many companies  Literature Survey is explained in Section II.
have establish themselves here. These companies have a huge  Proposed System is described in Section III.
work force. Arranging the transportation to such huge force is  Implementation of the System is shown in Section IV.
difficult task. This transportation is arranged through local
 Result of the System is shown is Section V.
transport vehicles on yearly basis. But this has causes many
mishaps like rape, burglary etc. Therefore the proposed
II. Literature Survey
tracking system will help users in finding the location of
vehicle through satellite communication. To determine précised location of object Abid khan And
Ravi Mishra have proposed tracking unit which it is attached
GPS and GSM based vehicle location and tracking and using GSM modem this information can be transmit to
system will provide effective, real time vehicle location, remote user. This system contains GPS and GSM modems
mapping and reporting this information back to monitoring along with ARM processor that is setup in the vehicle.
device and improving the level of service provided [1]. A Through SMS the location of vehicle can be reported. GSM
GPS based vehicle tracking system informs user where the and GPS technologies helps to track the vehicles exact
information. Real time control is provided by SMS system.
Manuscript received April, 2015. You can monitor the location from anywhere using this
First Author Amol Dhumal, Department of Computer Engineering, system [1].
K.J. College of Engineering & Management Research, Pune, India,
Second Author Amol Naikoji, Department of Computer Engineering,
K.J. College of Engineering & Management Research, Pune, India, Rodrigo R. Oliveira, Felipe C. Noguez, Cristiano A. Costa,
Third Author Yutika Patwa, Department of Computer Engineering, Jorge L. Barbosa and Mario P. Prado has proposed a model to
K.J. College of Engineering & Management Research, Pune, India, get the exact position of vehicle. The device used for tracking
Fourth Author Manali Shilimkar, Department of Computer the location of vehicle is named as SWTRACK. The
Engineering, K.J. College of Engineering & Management Research, Pune,
India, distributor companies use this model to get the location of
Fifth Author Prof. Mininath Nighot, Department of Computer their respective vehicles. It also provides the mechanism to
Engineering, K.J. College of Engineering & Management Research, Pune,
India.

ISSN: 2278 – 1323 All Rights Reserved © 2015 IJARCET 1220

 International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering & Technology (IJARCET)
Volume 4 Issue 4, April 2015

monitor the detours coming in the planned route and sends a

alarm message through the device [2]. Parameters GPS GLONASS Galileo
Satellites per 32(Block 24 27+3
complete III) spares
The vehicle Positioning monitoring system was designed constellation
by Zechun Huang, Dingfa Huang, Zhu Xu and Zhigen Xu Orbital Planes 6 3 3
using CORS and Mobile GIS. The accuracy and precision is Plane 55 deg 64.8 deg 56 deg
provided by CORS service network and Mobile which has Inclination
also verified the feasibility to integrate CORS and Mobile Radius of 26650 km 14100 km 23222 km
GIS for mobile location services.GPS helps in to get accuracy Orbit
and high speed for performing in faster way. It is best suited
Period 12 hrs 11 hrs 15 11 hrs 15
for taxi monitoring and navigation, vehicle anti-theft and
required for min min
other fields [4].
complete
cycle
Tushar Saxena, Deepak Kumar and J.S. Jadon has Civil Data 50 bps, 50 bps 50 bps,
presented all the satellite navigation systems available or in Rate of up to 100 up to 100
process today. Every system from GPS to IRNSS has been Satellite sps sps
properly introduced and signaling schemes and modulation Accuracy 5-20 m 50-70 m Claimed
schemes are studied. Satellite navigation now days are what 1m
every country desire to have to become on great power as Operation L1,L2,L5 L1,L2,L3,L E1,E5,E6
most importantly it serves military applications and rescue Bands of 5
operations. The next generation of satellite navigation are Satellite
giving services to the civil users and hence a very good market Table 1: Comparison of GNSS
for commercial point of view [7].
The Table 1 shows the comparison of three GNSS
technologies from which we conclude that GLONASS and
To help individuals in finding addresses and locate their Galileo provide more accurate location then GPS but they are
services of interest using their mobile devices Hassan I. still under construction and costly. GPS (Global Positioning
Mathkour has propose and develop a GPS-based Mobile System) is highly available GNSS technology. As per the
Service Locator System. To determine the approximate system is concern, GPS is the best technology considering its
distances between the user and the locations of the desired availability and receiver cost. Because today every Android
place this system was developed. This system is flexible and phone comes with inbuilt GPS receiver installed in it.
extendible to easily get the location of the users interest Therefore there is no need of purchasing a separate GPS
places. A main purpose of departure from existing similar receiver for each client. In this system author is decided to
systems is that it is the GPS-based rather than the use an android mobile which consist of inbuilt GPS and GSM
mobile-based service provider to allow for a more accurate modem.
location calculation [10].
In existing system owner use to get SMS from tracking
device, which did not provide the exact location of tracked
Using GPS and GLONASS Changsheng Cai and Yang Gao vehicle. But it didn’t provide the exact location of the tracked
has proposed a model which provides precise point vehicle. So as to overcome this system author made a
positioning. In order to assess the positioning accuracy and solution. As per the observation existing system provides only
convergence time improvement of the combined GPS and some features like SMS services and tracking user location.
GLONASS data processing, a 2-hour and four 3-hour The contribution which author made was like locating
sessions of datasets have been used in the data analysis [11]. multiple vehicles location on Google Map. This will enhance
the user with complete information about his organization
vehicle location.
In Vehicle Tracking System for tracking the vehicle any This will be useful for organization to easily track their
tracking device is required. Now a days, three navigation vehicles. And help the organization to Bann the illegal
systems are available and people use those for tracking any activities performed by the vehicle carrier.
object. The GNSS consist of three main satellite navigation
systems. They are GPS (Global Positioning System),
GLONASS and Galileo. The comparative study of these three III. PROPOSED METHODOLOGY
navigation systems is mentioned in following table:
GPS based vehicle tracking system uses the GPS
technology, GSM service and Android mobile. As per
shown in Fig. 1 this system has three main modules
transmitting unit, monitoring unit and server. Transmitting
side performs tracking functionality. It tracks the vehicle
through GPS and transmits its current location to the
server. The main function of monitoring side is to provide

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 International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering & Technology (IJARCET)
Volume 4 Issue 4, April 2015

login interface to user and to show the google map with b) GSM:
vehicle locations. Server woks as a central connector for
transmitting unit and monitoring unit. As both transmitting GSM is a Global System for Mobile Communications. It is
developed by European Telecommunications Standards
side and monitoring side communicate with each other
Institutes (ETSI). It describes the protocol for Second
through Server only. As shown in Fig. 1 mobile application Generation digital cellular networks. A GSM modem is
communicates with server and access the remote database. wireless modem that works with a GSM wireless network. It
Where at transmitting side Tracker application obtained its behaves like a Dial-up modem. The working of GMS modem
current location through GPS technology and update it to is based on commands; The Commands always start with
server. <AT> (ATention) and finish with a <CR> CRacter. The AT
Commands are given to the GSM Modem with the help of PC
or Controller.
In Vehicle tracking system author is using GSM service for
communication between all three modules.

2) Monitoring unit:

Monitoring unit is an Android Application through which

user will get to know the actual position of proposed vehicles.
This android provides the user interface through which user
communicate with system. It provides login to the system.
After login to the system user is will get google map with
exact location of vehicles.

Fig. 1 System Architecture B. Work Flow

A. Project Components: The workflow of GPS based Vehicle Tracking System is

It consists of two units: as per the given Fig.2. Users can use this system by
performing actions mentioned in flowchart.
1) Transmitting Unit:

Transmitting Side contains Android mobile which has

inbuilt GPS, GSM modem and GPRS functionality. Therefore
the mobile will be used as transmitting unit.

a) GPS:

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The Global

Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite radio navigation
system developed by the Department of Defense (DoD)
owned by the United States Government (USG) and operated
by the United States Air Force (USAF) [3].GPS has provided
positioning, navigation, and timing services to military and
civilian users on a continuous worldwide basis since first
launch in 1978. An unlimited number of users with a civil or
military GPS receiver can determine accurate time and
location, in any weather, day or night, anywhere in the world
[3].The system makes use of a medium earth orbit satellite
constellation transmitting microwave signals allowing a GPS
receiver to determine its position, velocity and time. Different Fig. 2 Work Flow
types of positioning can be carried out using GPS receivers Tracking Device:
depending on the algorithms, type of measurements and
corrections used in the navigation solution. 1) The tracking device will continuously request to
the GPS satellite for its location information.
GPS is a main module in this Vehicle tracking system. As 2) At the same time GPS satellite will provide the
vehicle is tracked using GPS technology. Author has used it to location information to tracking device
get the exact location of respective vehicles. But to get exact installed in vehicle.
location of any vehicle it need to be in a focus of four 3) The tracking device will send the location
satellites. information back to the server through GPRS
and continuously update the database.

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 International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering & Technology (IJARCET)
Volume 4 Issue 4, April 2015

Monitoring Device:

1) Monitoring device will continuously access the

database from server.
2) From that database the location information will
be plotted on Google maps.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION

Monitoring unit, tracking unit and server are the main Fig.3 Login Page Fig. 4 Sign Up Page
pillars of GPS based vehicle tracking system. In this system
GPRS service is used to perform communication between If user is operating system for first time then firstly he need
monitoring and tracking unit to server. Author has used to perform signup activity. While signing up user need to
Android platform and Java language for implementation of provide some basic information i.e. First name, Last name,
Monitoring as well as tracking unit. Monitoring side consist Email Id etc. Fig. 4 shows the necessary fields which user
of Login page, Signup page and Google Map with the location must fill while signing up. After sign up users all data gets
of required vehicles. As user can easily use this application by store at server. The user name and password provided at a
sign up and he will get all login rights. time of sign up is used for login to application.

At monitoring side Google Map is obtained by using As this application is made for an organizational so the all
Google APIs. Author has created online MySQL database vehicles of organization must be registered. Registration of
server to stores the information receiving from tracking and vehicle required organization name, vehicle no. and username
monitoring units. The database operations are performed as shown Fig 6. But for registering vehicle user must do login
through the Structured Query Language (SQL). Tracking to the application. The login is done by providing username
device will continuously communicate with GPS satellites and vehicle no. As you can see in Fig. 6 vehicle registration
and it will provide the current location of vehicle. The also requires username. This is because to provide more
tracking device will receive its current location in the form of security to application user.
longitude and latitude and it will send the update to server by
using HTTP post method. On the Google map the tracked
location of vehicle will get plotted. And we are plotting it with
by using the Java Script.

V. Result

After successful implementation of Vehicle Tracking

System we obtained following results:
At monitoring side, initially user needs to perform Login
activity. Login page shown in Fig. 3 provides Login interface
to the user. When user will enter user name and password then
system will do validation to check whether the entered
username and password is correct or not. If the entered
Fig. 5 Vehicle Login page Fig. 6 Vehicle Registration
username or password is wrong then system gives an error
message. And if it is correct then user gets directed to next
After clicking on sign up button the following page get
page with successful login.
displayed. The given information gets store at server. So that
when user wants to see his organizational vehicles sever will
provide the required vehicles only. And user can register
vehicles by providing valid user name only.

For plotting the location of vehicle its Longitude and

Latitude must be known. For tracking vehicle author has
designed Transmitter Page. Transmitter page provides the
current location of vehicle in the form of longitude and
latitude as shown in Fig. 7.

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 International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering & Technology (IJARCET)
Volume 4 Issue 4, April 2015

VIII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to take this opportunity to express our
profound gratitude and deep regard to our project guide ―Prof.
M. K. Nighot‖, for his guidance, valuable feedback and for
constant encouragement for the project. Working under him
was extremely knowledgeable experience for us.

IX. REFERENCES
[1] Abid Khan & Ravi Mishra, ―GPS – GSM Based Tracking
System‖, International Journal of Trends and Technology, ISSN:
2231 – 5381, Volume 3, Issue 2, 2012

[2] Rodrigo R. Oliveira, Felipe C. Noguez, Cristiano A. Costa, Jorge

L. Barbosa & Mario P. Pardo, ―SWTRACK: An Intelligent
Model for Cargo Tracking based on off-the-shelf Mobile
Devices‖, ELSEVIER – Expert Systems with Applications 40
Fig. 7 Transmitter Page Fig. 8 Dash Board (2013) 2023 – 2031

[3] ―Global Positioning System Standard Positioning Service

At monitoring side when user login to the application the Performance Standard‖, Department of Defence – USA, 4th
Edition (2008)\
dash board get displayed. Dash board provides choice
selection to user. As shown in Fig. 8 Dash board have two [4] Zechun Huang, Dingfa Huang, Zhu Xu & Zhigen Xu, ―GPS
buttons i.e. show map and log out. It gives two options i.e. Vehicle Positioning Monitoring System Integrated with CORS
and Mobile GIS‖, ELSEVIER - Procedia Environmental
user wants to leave or stay login. Sciences 10(2011)2498–2504
If user click on show map button then google map will get
[5] ―Federal Space Agency‖ – Information Analytical Centre
displayed with the location of required vehicle as shown in [https://glonass-iac.ru/en/index.php]
Fig. 8.
[6] Andrew Wilson, ―The First Galileo Satellites GIOVE‖, ESA
Publications Division (BR-251)

[7] Tushar Saxena, Deepak Kumar, J.S. Jadon, ―A Literature Study

of Various Satellite Navigation Systems with Reference to Their
Signalling Scheme‖, International Journal of Research Aspects of
Engineering and Management, ISSN: 2348-6627, Vol. 1, Issue 1,
FEB 2014

[8] ―Europe’s Satellite Navigation Programmes – GALILEO and

EGNOS‖, European GNSS Supervisory Authority

[9] Katina Michael & Roger Clarke, ―Location and Tracking of

Mobile Devices‖, ELSEVIER - Computer Law & Security
Review 29(2013) 216-228.

[10] Hassan I. Mathkour, ―A GPS Based Mobile Dynamic Service

Locator system‖, Applied computing and informatics(2011)
Fig. 9 Google Map 9,95-106

[11] Changsheng Cai & Yang Gao, ―Precise Point Positioning Using
VI. CONCLUSION Combined GPS and GLONASS Observations‖, Journal of Global
Positioning Systems (2007), Vol.6, No.1: 13 - 22
This proposed system allows organizations to track their
vehicles and to get exact location of vehicle. The system Amol Dhumal is a B.E. Computer Engineering student of K.J. College of
allows those companies to monitor the travelled routes Engineering & Management Research, Pune. His interests are Android
through a web client that uses the Google Maps API and Development & Web Development.
Amol Naikoji is a B.E. Computer Engineering student of K.J. College of
shows colors on the map to indicate if the devices on route. Engineering & Management Research, Pune. His interests are Android &
The general evaluation result is that the system proved to be Global Navigation Satellite System.
reliable as to view the positioning of the devices. Yutika Patwa is a B.E. Computer Engineering student of K.J. College of
Engineering & Management Research, Pune. Her interests are Android
Development & Database Management.
VII. Future Scope Manali Shilimkar is a B.E. Computer Engineering student of K.J.
College of Engineering & Management Research, Pune. Her interests are
In the proposed system we can add features like Car locking, Android Development & Database Management.
thief photo capturing. This will help the user to have an
anti-thief feature.
Upgrading this system is very easy which make it open to
future requirement without the need of rebuilding everything.

ISSN: 2278 – 1323 All Rights Reserved © 2015 IJARCET 1224