2017 IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC)

21 - 23 Dec 2017, Dhaka, Bangladesh

IoT​ ​Based​ ​Smart​ ​School​ ​Bus​ ​Monitoring​ ​and

Notification​ ​System
​ ​ ​ ​Judy​ ​Thyparampil​ ​Raj ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Jairam​ ​Sankar
Department​ ​of​ ​Computer​ ​Science ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Department​ ​of​ ​Electronics​ ​&​ ​Communication
College​ ​of​ ​Engineering,​ ​Poonjar Rajagiri​ ​School​ ​of​ ​Engineering​ ​&​ ​Technology,​ ​Kochi,
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​India-686582 India-682039
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​[email protected] [email protected]​m

Abstract​— It is important for every school to have a comprehensive school bus monitoring device that tracks the
trustworthy and secure transportation service to ensure the location, the speed, the people onboard, adherence to route
safety of the students. It helps the school administration to
effectively manage their bus fleet and potentially reduce mishaps. and​ ​schedule​ ​and​ ​other​ ​information​ ​pertinent​ ​to​ ​school​ ​buses.
This is where vehicle monitoring takes effect. The proposed Real time tracking of the bus allows the children to have more
system provides real time information about various parameters time for activities instead of waiting for a delayed bus and the
of the vehicle like the location, the route, the speed, the list of
notification system ensures the individual safety of each
passengers, the adherence of drivers to schedule and much more.
The system further allows the parents to be notified when their student. Moreover, educational boards like CBSE has also
ward alights or boards the bus. In this system, we make use of started advocating the necessity for school bus monitoring
RFID and GPS technologies and connect them to a remote server systems[1], thus making an affordable and reliable solution the
over WiFi using an ESP8266 microcontroller. An Ublox 6M GPS
module is used to find the current geographic coordinates of the need​ ​of​ ​the​ ​hour.
vehicle's location as well as the speed it is going at. An MFRC522 The tracking is achieved by reading the geographic
RFID reader identifies each student as they board or alight the coordinates of the bus from the GPS[5] module and uploading
vehicle by reading the id from their RFID tags. The system uses
it to a MySQL database in the remote server over WiFi using
the ESP8266 to upload the information from the peripherals to a
database in the web server. The information can be accessed by the microcontroller. This information can then be accessed by
the parents through a mobile application and this helps them a user base that includes the parents, bus drivers and school
track their wards effectively. The school administration can also administration through a mobile application which takes the
access the application to ensure student safety and contact a
driver or a parent. The application also allows the administration location​ ​from​ ​the​ ​database​ ​and​ ​plots​ ​it​ ​on​ ​a​ ​map.
to​ ​be​ ​informed​ ​of​ ​emergencies​ ​or​ ​complaints. The notification system alerts the parent when the id from
their child’s RFID tag is read by the RFID reader, which
Keywords—Vehicle Tracking; ESP8266; GPS; IoT; RFID; Smart
causes the microcontroller to invoke a server script to push
Systems.
notifications to the parent’s mobile[7]. Thus the bus and the
I. INTRODUCTION students onboard will be monitored accurately throughout the
The commute of students from home to school and back has commute.
always been a source of concern for parents. Students often
II. COMPONENTS
get on the wrong buses and get off at the wrong stops. Bus
The proposed prototype used the following hardware
drivers may not be able to identify all the students and will not
components:
know in time if a student is missing. Parents have no way of
knowing if their ward is safe until the evening when the bus A. GPS​ ​Tracker​ ​[3]
returns. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​The​ ​Ublox​ ​6M​ ​GPS​ ​performs​ ​the​ ​following​ ​functions:-
While some schools have already implemented GPS tracking ● Continuously monitor the bus by reading parameters
of buses using GSM[5] and other means, they do not ensure like the speed, the geographic location and the route
in real time which is uploaded to the server by the
absolute safety. Some of these devices do not give real time
microcontroller and viewed through a mobile
information whereas some are too expensive to be a
application.
ubiquitous solution. A tracking system that do not identify ● Read the geographic coordinates and time as each
individual students may also lull the guardians into a false student boards and alights the bus which is included
sense of security. The proposed system describes a low cost

978-1-5386-2175-2/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

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 2017 IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC)
21 - 23 Dec 2017, Dhaka, Bangladesh

in​ ​the​ ​push​ ​notifications​ ​to​ ​the​ ​respective​ ​parents. within[6]. The system will also identify each student as they
board or alight the bus and push notifications to the respective
parents’ mobile device with the time and location of the event.
B. RFID​ ​Reader​ ​[2]
Figure 1 shows the overall block diagram and the flow of the
The MFRC522 RFID Reader is used to identify each student system.
uniquely by reading the student’s ID from the ID card. The ID
card​ ​of​ ​each​ ​student​ ​is​ ​embedded​ ​with​ ​RFID​ ​tags. The hardware assembly is kept at the entrance of the school
bus. The two main sensor integrations to the microcontroller
C. ESP8266​ ​Microcontroller​ ​[4] are the GPS system and the RFID reader. The GPS system
ESP8266-12f is a WiFi chip and microcontroller that is used obtains the coordinates of the current location of the bus while
here to read the sensor data(GPS and RFID readings) and the RFID reader uniquely identifies each student entering the
upload it to a MySQL database hosted on a remote server. It bus by means of the RFID tag embedded in the student ID
further invokes scripts to push notifications to the parents as cards. Both these readings are fed to the ESP8266
input from the RFID is received. In addition, it verifies the microcontroller[4]. Figure 2 shows the circuitry that connects
validity​ ​of​ ​the​ ​input​ ​before​ ​it​ ​uploads​ ​the​ ​data​ ​to​ ​the​ ​database. the​ ​sensors​ ​to​ ​the​ ​microcontroller.

III. SOFTWARE​ ​SPECIFICATION

In this prototype, the front end development was done using
Java, XML and embedded C in Android Studio and Arduino
IDE wherein the android application was built using Android
Studio and hardware functionality using Arduino IDE
respectively. The backend database were developed using
PHP and MySQL. The push notification service was
implemented using cURL requests to the Firebase Cloud
Messaging​ ​service.

Figure​ ​2.​ ​Circuit​ ​diagram

IV. PROPOSED​ ​SYSTEM​ ​DESIGN
The GPS module has mainly two functions. It continuously
Ensuring the safety of school children during their commute to reads the geographic coordinates of the bus’s current location
and from school requires making the school journey entirely as well the speed it is going at, which is subsequently read by
transparent and accountable. The proposed model the microcontroller[5]. This data is continuously uploaded to
conceptualizes a comprehensive monitoring system which the status datatable in the MySQL database that is hosted on a
would​ ​track​ ​the​ ​bus​ ​continuously​ ​in​ ​real​ ​time. remote server via an HTTP POST request using WiFi along
with the bus id and the timestamp. The WiFi connectivity is
assumed to be provided by a WiFi adapter placed onboard the
bus.
The RFID reader reads the unique id embedded in the passive
tag of each student as they approach the entrance of the bus
where the hardware ensemble is placed[2]. This is read by the
microcontroller which invokes a PHP script on the server
which uses a toggle to change the status of the student to
either onboard or offboard, finds the device id of the
corresponding parent and pushes a notification message
including the location and time from the status datatable to the
smartphones of the respective parent via an android
application,​ ​using​ ​the​ ​Firebase​ ​Cloud​ ​Messaging​ ​service.
Figure​ ​1.​ ​ ​Block​ ​diagram
The front-end mobile application for the proposed model
The functionalities of the proposed model includes tracking
works on the Android operating system[7]. The application
the location, the speed, the list of passengers onboard and the
can accommodate three types of users, administration,parents
route of the bus and plotting these information on a map
and drivers. On signing up, a unique device id is generated
integrated using the Google Maps API, to the user interface of
using Firebase Registration Service and stored in the database
an android application which serves the administration,
parents and drivers, to monitor the bus and the students

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 2017 IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC)
21 - 23 Dec 2017, Dhaka, Bangladesh

with login credentials. A Google Map API is integrated to the and fetch the latitude, longitude and speed values
application​ ​UI​ ​to​ ​plot​ ​the​ ​location​ ​and​ ​route​ ​of​ ​the​ ​bus. corresponding to a bus id[7], encoded as JSON in the POST
request.
A parent can scan the database for their child using the unique
id provided for each student and choose to follow them. This
would allow the parents to view the information of the bus
their child takes, like the location, route and speed, plotted on
map and contact the bus driver or the administration and get
notified whenever their child boards or exits the bus. Firebase
Cloud Messaging service is used to push the notifications
using a cURL request in the PHP script that is invoked each
time the hardware ensemble reads an RFID tag[6]. The
Firebase token corresponding to the respective parent is
fetched from the database and the notification is pushed to
their​ ​device​ ​as​ ​can​ ​be​ ​seen​ ​in​ ​Figure​ ​3.

​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Figure​ ​4.​ ​ ​Status​ ​Database​ ​Table

The value of bus id would vary with the user type. The query
from a parent would retrieve the data from the column which
matches their child’s bus id whereas the query from a driver
would equal the id of the bus he drives.The id field is set to
auto increment so that the values retrieved by the query will be
the​ ​last​ ​known​ ​information​ ​about​ ​the​ ​bus.

V. USER​ ​INTERFACE

The user interface of the android application is implemented

Figure​ ​3.​ ​Parent​ ​Message​ ​Notification
for the three modules i.e. admin, driver and parent. Each of
parent, admin and driver has to login using their unique
The application allows the administrators to add or update
password and username. Figure 5 shows the login and sign up
student information and bus schedules, view information of all
screen which appears when the mobile phone application is
buses, the list of students on board and the driver details and
run in an android device[7]. In addition, it shows the three
contact parents and drivers. A toggle variable marks students
roles in which a user can sign up which would consequently
as on or off board when their RFID tags[6] are read. Drivers
determine the type of functionalities they will receive. All
have the provision to contact the administrators or emergency
three types of users are directed to a Google Map activity after
services as well as view the details of their bus stored on the
login with customized menu options[6]. The map plots the
database.
route covered, the last known location and the speed of the
The administrator can modify details like that of the buses, bus. The settings screen which is also shown in Figure 6 is
drivers and students. They can view details including the common to all three types of users for account management.
current location and speed of each bus and also the list of the The admin’s menu gives the option to view students which
passengers onboard each bus. The bus driver can view the lists all the students who take a particular bus and their
route, speed, location and the scheduled stops of his bus and attendance,​ ​as​ ​seen​ ​on​ ​the​ ​right.
can further contact the administrator and emergency services
like the ambulance or the highway police directly from the VI. RESULTS
mobile application using the touch interface. The proposed The completed system meets all the specifications and
model assumes that a WiFi Dongle provides the required provides all the functionalities identified in the design phase.
internet​ ​connection​ ​on​ ​board​ ​the​ ​bus. Using this system, the parents can easily track the school bus
and ensure it is moving at safe speeds, hold the school
Figure 4 shows the online status database table with fields to authorities accountable for delays or deviations, be updated on
store the location coordinates, bus id, the speed and the time of the changes in schedule and contact drivers or authorities if
entry. This table is constantly populated by the data read from necessary. Working parents can rest at ease knowing when
the GPS module by the microcontroller. The mobile app on their kids reach safely even though kids aren’t allowed
loading will immediately send an HTTP POST request to this phones.
table to arrange the entries by entry id in the descending order

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 2017 IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC)
21 - 23 Dec 2017, Dhaka, Bangladesh

​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Figure​ ​6.​ ​Sample​ ​data​ ​from​ ​status​ ​table

.​ ​ VIII. FUTURE​ ​SCOPE

This software could be modified and developed for future use.
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Figure​ ​5.​ ​User​ ​Login​ ​ ​&​ ​Admin​ ​Panel Provisions for detecting theft,restricting entry and verifying
assigned passenger list on id can be added. The range of the
Admin can see the location of all buses, see the list of RFID reader is as low as 3 cm and hence impractical for
passengers onboard, add new students, update bus schedule commercial purposes.The RFID can be replaced with a better
and route, contact drivers etc. The drivers can contact admin reader or more reliable identification methods like biometric
and other emergency services easily if required.The locations identification. The HTTP connection is not encrypted and
were continuously and accurately uploaded to the database. hence easily susceptible to hacking, which can be made secure
The GPS[5] showed an initial delay ranging from 30s-60s to in​ ​future​ ​revisions.
start finding the location. The cards were read accurately and
the notification was sent in less than 20s. As can be seen in IX. REFERENCES
Figure 6, the data from the hardware ensemble is uploaded
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school​ ​buses,The​ ​Times​ ​of​ ​India,February​ ​24,2017
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