GPS Based Low Cost Intelligent Vehicle Tracking System (IVTS)
GPS Based Low Cost Intelligent Vehicle Tracking System (IVTS)
GPS Based Low Cost Intelligent Vehicle Tracking System (IVTS)
Professor, Geomatics Engineering Section, Department Of Civil Engineering Student, Geomatics Engineering Section, Department Of Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India.
Abstract. Intelligent Vehicle tracking systems (IVTS) are used for the purpose of tracking and navigation of vehicles. The paper describes the implementation of Global positioning systems (GPS) in IVTS systems. Further a critical GPS based low cost IVTS architecture has been described. The first part of the paper describes the need and the basic architecture of a general GPS based IVTS system. The three IVTS units (i.e. In-Vehicle unit, Communication link and Base station) are described individually. Further the paper describes how and why cost plays a major role in popularizing an IVTS system. The modification that should be carried out in the individual units to obtain a low cost GPS based IVTS system which suits the present dynamic urban environment are explained. The modifications carried out in IVTS units also help in finding a reliable and accurate planimetric solution in case of poor visibility of the GPS satellites, which usually is common in urban environment. The GPS based low cost intelligent vehicle tracking system can be successfully designed and applied in the urban environment of a developing country like India. This if implemented in a well planned manner will bring significant revolutionary enhancement in the I n d i a n transportation industry.
Keywords: IVTS, GPS, Tracking, Navigation
1. Introduction
Maps are older than alphabets. It is one of the most primitive natures of the human being to know their exact location on the surface of earth and at present Radio Navigation Systems (e.g NAVSTAR GPS (USA), GLONASS (Russia), GALELIO (European Community)) are the most efficient, accurate and reliable technology available to determine the precise position of any point on or above the surface of earth. In the present fast moving urban life, transportation is among the most common and frequent needs. With the technological advancement in the transportation sciences the need of secure. dynamic and highly efficient system is felt. Use of radio navigation system best fit these entire high end requirements of transportation community (Kulkarni, 2001). With the implementation of radio navigation system in vehicles they become capable of transmitting the information about their current geodetic position. Use of this information can be done in many systems like real time intelligent dynamic vehicle tracking and navigation system, mobile asset management system, fleet management system, travel time studies, traffic control etc. In order to make any technology popular and bring it to masses cost plays the most crucial role. The paper describes a low cost intelligent vehicle tracking system based on NAVSTAR GPS, a radio navigation system by USA Department of Defense (DOD).
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track of the vehicle whereas Navigation guides the user to the desired destination. The basic methodology remains same in both tracking and navigation (Padmanabhan, 2001). A standard IVTS is as shown in Fig.l.
In an urban environment due to the poor visibility of the GPS satellites the in vehicle unit receiver is usually integrated with other sensors ID aid the navigational solution. A dig ital map databases for altitude aiding, an odometer and heading sensor, or Gyroscopes to provide a dead reckoning capability, are the commonly adopted approaches (Brown, 1992). But all these aiding solutions do increase the equipment cost as well as installation and maintenance cost of the system.
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(http://www.trackmyvehicle.eoni) Communication systems that are commonly used for this purpose includes VHP, cellular radio and even satellite links. To make full use of the system, the communication link installed must be full duplex (i.e. both way transmission between in vehicle unit and the base station). This facilitates the display of vehicle location at tracking server as well as allowing the dispatch of routing information from the tracking server to the vehicle being tracked (Brown, 1992).
Facility
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The In Vehicle Unit incorporates the GPS unit consisting of a receiver, a controller/processing unit and a communication interface (Cellular Modem). To reduce the cost of GPS unit we should try to minimize the number of on board computations taking place at the GPS unit. The cost of the unit may be significantly reduced by eliminating the navigational solution computations and simplifying the digital signal processing functions. These functions may be shared between the In Vehicle Unit and the Base station, as shown below in Table 1.
Table 1: In Vehicle Unit and Base Station shared functions (Brown, 1992)
CONVENTIONAL FUNCTIONS
AT IN VEHICLE UNIT
AT BASE STATION
Satellite Selection Signal search and acquisition Code and carrier tracking Data demodulation Satellite position computation Atmospheric model computation Navigation solution
Further the GPS sensor should be designed by using off-the-shelf components already manufactured in large quantities for other applications of communication market. The sensor may also be integrated into the vehicle communication link. Thus by sharing the common functions in the mobile communication radio and the GPS sensor further significant cost reduction can be achieved. The simplicity of the design of the GPS sensor proposed allows mass production of the units while maintaining the quality which is an important consideration for the Intelligent Vehicle Tracking systems commercial market.
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of the current sensor clock offset. This further limits the list of possible intersection points to points inside a radius. The GPS sensor should always report four measurements to the base station. If at present four GPS satellites are not visible then the previous set of measurements made from the shadowed data should also be included. This approach allows the Base Station to derive a highly accurate position fix, even when only two GPS satellites are visible, by propagating the last fix made.
4. CONCLUSION
The Information Superhighway in India is dynamically heading towards a new dimension in Geometrics Industry. Geometrics is the synergy of geo related sciences, mainly including Surveying (Land/Geodetic), Photogrammetric, Remote Sensing, GPS, GIS. With advancement in Information Technology these sciences have emerged as real growth engine of the nation Economy. Implementation of GPS in vehicles can certainly bring a revolutionary impact in transportation science in a developing country like India where there is an extremely high urban as well as rural vehicular transition every day. The low cost IVTS combined with available high performance processors can provide a highly accurate yet inexpensive vehicle tracking and navigation solution which is the need of the hour in fast moving urban cities of India. A rial ion wide integrated business plan for including automobile companies and GPS system providers is desired to bring this revolution.
5. REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] J. Padmanabhan, GPS based Vehicle Tracking System, The Asian GPS Conference, October 2001. M. N. Kulkarni & V. S. Choudhary, GPS : A useful tool for intelligent vehicle- highway systems(IVHS), The Asian GPS Conference, October 2001. Dr. Allison Brown, Low Cost vehicle location and tracking using GPS, NAVSYS Corporation, AM 1992. Lynn Stoddart, Open Architecture, A New Concept in Vehicle Location Syslems, (IPS 1994. Patrick Herron, Chuck Powers & Michael Solomon, Global positioning technology in the intelligent transportation space, Motorola Inc., USA. Peng Fei, Zhang Wenzheng, Mohammed Hossam-e-Haider, Liu Zhongkan and /Jiang Qishan, Intelligent Land-Vehicle Navigation System using GPS, GPS 2000. Kaplan 1995, Understanding GPS, ArcTech House. Dr. K.K. Arora, Surveying, Volume 1.
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