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Bus tracking and monitoring using RFID

Conference Paper · December 2017

DOI: 10.1109/ICIIP.2017.8313748

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 2017 Fourth International Conference on Image Information Processing (ICIIP)

Bus Tracking and Monitoring Using RFID

Pravin A. Kamble Rambabu A. Vatti
E&TC Department Electronics Department
Vishwakarma Institute of Technology Vishwakarma Institute of Technology
Pune, India Pune, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— The rapid growth in population in India causes control. But it has some disadvantages like costly equipments,
more crowding at public bus stops. People long wait for arriving difficult to use in mixed traffic and not suitable condition in
of buses and suddenly gather near bus when it arrives and travel India to design it.
in overcrowded buses on footboards which leads to accidents.
Theft is another risk of overcrowding. All this happens due to Many authors have proposed various systems for bus
lack of proper information of arriving of buses at many of the tracking using technologies like GPS, RFID, GPRS, Wi-Fi,
bus stops. To solve this problem in a cost effective way, we have GSM, Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.4) and android smart phones.
developed an IoT based bus tracking system to show the current Each technology has its pros and cones. The bus tracking
location of the bus and seat availability in the arriving buses. We using GPS, it is possible to find exact location of the bus along
have used RFID technology for tracking the bus and Thingspeak with coordinates, but it requires more power to operate. IEEE
web server for displaying location of the bus and seat availability 802.15.4 is rapidly growing technology in vehicular networks.
in android application in a smart phone. This system enables the The throughput and congestion are the major problems in this
commuters to know the exact location of the bus, and occupancy technology [5]-[7]. RFID has low cost and play key role in
level in the bus, which enable the commuters to take decision, transportation and object tracking [8]. It includes reader to
whether to board this bus or next. This reduces the waiting time read the data from tags. The RFID tags are divided into active
and overcrowding at bus stops. It also reduces the risk of and passive, the passive RFID tags widely used in vehicle and
accidents and thefts.
object tracking system. The RFID system can work either in
Keywords—RFID, IoT, Thingspeak web server, IR sensors.
low covering frequency 30 KHz to 300 KHz, high covering
frequency 3 to 30 MHz and the ultra-high frequency 30 MHz
to 3 GHz [9].
I. INTRODUCTION
The Internet of Things is an interconnection of physical
Public transportation is a facility for general public which objects to the internet has made it possible to access and
is based on sharing basis and includes city buses, passenger control remote sensor data [10]. In the developed system,
trains, metro and subways [1]. The advantages of public primary work has helped us to gain the knowledge about
transportation are minimizing the traffic congestion, saves the Internet of Things (IoT), sensing and communication
fuel, reducing the pollution and easy to travel in any part of the technologies and Thingspeak cloud. The next work is to
city [2]. The people use this service because reasonable integrate technologies RFID, IR sensor, Wi-Fi module, data
charges, easy to travel and eco-friendly attributes of it. It processing unit, Thingspeak cloud and design of Thingspeak
provides job opportunities for millions of people. based android application which provides current location of
City Bus transportation is the core element of public the bus and its seat occupancy level to the commuters.
transportation in urban areas. Many advanced bus transport The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The literature
systems have been designed around the world namely Bus survey on GPS and RFID technology based bus tracking
Rapid Transport System (BRTS) which has been implemented systems are explained in the section II. The section III
in various countries such as Brazil, Australia, South America provides proposed system architecture. The system design and
and few other parts of Asia. As of November 2016, about 34.3 development is elaborated in section IV. Experimental results
million passengers use BRT worldwide every day out of and conclusion are put in the section V and VI respectively.
which about 21.1 million passengers ride daily in Latin
America and 3.3 lakhs in India [3]. In India City Bus requires
proper transportation system. At the bus stops schedule of II. LITERATURE SURVEY
buses is not available so people wait for long hours for bus, so The number of developed and developing countries have
there is overcrowding at the public bus stops. Sometimes started their research in transportation system with advanced
people can’t get the bus on time and, in an overcrowded bus technology in wireless communication. The use of smart
after a long wait, which causes wastage of time. The solution phones, tablets and laptops human beings are able to stay
for all problems can get through Intelligent Transportation connected to the Internet more often than ever before. So there
Systems (ITSs) which are recently under research and is easy to access information regarding bus. In this survey we
development for making transportation more efficient and will shortly introduce the related work has being carried out in
safer [4]. ITS consist of a number of technologies, including bus tracking using technologies like GPS, RFID and Internet
information processing, electronics, communications and of Things.

978-1-5090-6734-3/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 400

 2017 Fourth International Conference on Image Information Processing (ICIIP)

A. Tracking using GPS based technology

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) is widely used in
tracking vehicles will help to locate the bus by providing the
latitude and longitude coordinates of the location [11]. Sutar
et. al. gives IoT based bus tracking system using GPS inbuilt
Android smart phone which is equipped on the bus for track
the position of the bus and collected information then sent to
the sever using 3G network of the phone, the client can access
the information from the server using android application.
[12]. Pham Oat et. al. developed vehicle tracking system using
(u-blox NEO-6Q ) GPS receiver module to obtain a vehicle’s
coordinate and transmit it using (u-blox LEON-G100) GSM
module and Arduino Uno microcontroller to the user’s phone
through the mobile network.[13]. Singla and Bhatia gives the
system where current position of the bus is tracked by GPS
and coordinates of the bus location are sent through GPRS Fig. 1. Proposed model.
service provided by GSM network [14]. Lee et. al.
implemented vehicle tracking system using smartphone An RFID reader is used in the Bus to get the address of the
application and GPS. In this work the vehicle is equipped with location if any tag is present in the vicinity of it. The decoder
GPS of smartphone for track location of bus and this then responds to the microcontroller about the address.
information is send to sever via GSM/GPRS network [11]. Atmega 328 processor has internal SPI module which directly
support the ESP8266 Wi-Fi module serial communication.
B. Tracking using RFID based technology This system utilizes a stand-alone Wi-Fi controller IC which
RFID based tracking is one of the best application of handles most of the network protocol requirements. The IC
vehicle tracking. Maria Anu et. al. discusses the bus location communicates directly to the Arduino using a standard serial
tracking system using RFID technology and display this interface using the Arduino IDE software-platform.
information in on the heading board at particular bus stops as
well as local sever of main bus transport system receives the IV. SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
location of buses [9]. Hatem and Habib developed bus We have developed a very basic implementation of the
management system using RFID and Wireless Sensor proposed concept using ThingSpeak web service. We have
Network (WSN); the detecting range between RFID reader used Virtuino android app version 2.8.2 tested on an Android
and tag is increased by using WSN network [15]. Oberli et. al. Phone supporting minimum API 14 (IceCream Sandwich).
discusses performance evaluation for real-time passenger With the help of API 14 and above ensures that the application
recognition in intelligent public transportation systems using will run on approximately above 90% of the devices that are
UHF RFID technologies [16]. San Jose et. al. gives the design active on the Google Play Store. The Arduino IDE is a
and implementation for urban transport routes as a particular software for Arduino microcontroller and which provides
case and tracking objects using RFID system. [17]. environment to code the Arduino devices to interface the
On review above literature we conclude that all tracking different kinds of sensors and other type of devices and
methods mentioned above are costly and power consuming. perform the operation on both global and local domain by
We have developed cost efficient technique for tracking the using library functions.
bus using RFID integrated with IoT.
A. Sensing Devices
III. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE 1) RFID Reader and Tag cards: RFID Technology consist
The related work of bus tracking system using GPS and of RFID reader and RFID tags uses electromagnetic field,
RFID are dependent on specifications of sensing devices, data RFID reader module is used to read the information from
processing unit, sever and complexity of system. But our RFID tags [18].
proposed system has flexibility in hardware, power efficient
technology and it shows the exact location and total number of
person in the bus.
The city bus tracking system is illustrated in Figure 1. Here
system consists of three different sections. First is the RFID
reader module and IR sensors are connected to the Arduino
micro-controller, second is wireless connection between Wi-
Fi module and Thingspeak web server and third one is client
to access information through Thingspeak android app. We are
also calculating the person count in the bus by using IR Fig. 2. EM-18 RFID Reader module.
sensors.

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 2017 Fourth International Conference on Image Information Processing (ICIIP)

Here we have used EM-18 RFID reader, It has low cost

and low power consumption to read the 125 KHz tags in the
distance of reaction 2-10 cm. EM4100 is the low cost passive
RFID tag card having 12 byte unique id stored in the
microchip inside it.

2) IR Sensors: The very famous embedded application like

visitor counters which is widely used in places like theaters,
malls and transport stations. It consist of infrared transmitter
and receiver, and detects an obstacle range within 1-10 cm.
The device will send a low output to the microcontroller when
Fig. 5. ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module.
reflected signal is detected [19].

D. Thingspeak IoT Web Server

Thingspeak is the IoT platform for open source application
and API which can store, transmit and receive data from
sensing devices using HTTP over Internet via a Local Area
Network. It is used to collect real-time data, to visualize data
in charts and to create Private and Public channels.
Thingspeak enables home automations, social network of
things with status updates, the creation of sensor logging and
location tracking applications. Thingspeak users can access
Matlab services from Mathworks without purchase of a
Matlab license from Mathworks [21]. The channel creation
Fig. 3. Two IR Sensors . steps are as follows:
Step 1: First sign up and logging into the Thingspeak
B. Data Processing Board website.
Arduino is an open hardware platform which is able to work
Step 2: Then select the option ‘new channel’ and enter a
with various sensing and communication technologies. An
unique name for it.
Arduino (Freeduino) board as shown in Figure 4 consists of an
ATmega328 microcontroller allows to upload new code Step 3: Choose field for your sensed parameters from 8
without external hardware programmer and with fields and enter the name for required field.
complementary components to provide facilities like
programming, incorporation into other circuits. It includes a 5 Step 4: After saving the channel, Thingspeak API and
volt linear regulator, 14 digital input/output pins, 6 analog channel ID will generate.
inputs and clock speed of 16 MHz [20].

Fig. 4. Arduino (Freeduino) Board.

C. ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module

The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi module with TCP/IP
protocol stack integrated on chip. It is a preprogrammed
System on Chip (SOC), works with a supply voltage of 3.3v
and configured with AT commands [16].
Fig. 6. Thingspeak channel.

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 2017 Fourth International Conference on Image Information Processing (ICIIP)

E. Experimental Setup The flowchart shown in Figure 8 which shows Bus

In this project we have designed hardware setup as shown tracking and monitoring with the help of RFID and IoT, we
in Figure 7. for IoT based Bus transport system which includes use here API key and a channel ID to help for collecting and
different types of technologies which are explained previous reading the data from the cloud. Explanation of flowchart is
section. given in below.
Step 1: Initialize the sensor libraries with numbers of the
interface pins of Arduino microcontroller connected with
sensors.
Step 2: Enter the API key of Thingspeak channel in the
program in following syntax:
String apikey = “8V78EG2HJKLDBTDK”
Step 3: Measure the person count from IR sensor 1 & IR
sensor 2. Track the location using RFID reader showing RFID
tag near to it, where the tags are defined as follows:
String Shivaji _Nagar = “120088F46608”

Fig. 7. Experimental Setup.

String Corporation = “11006F0689F1”
Step 4: Read the measured data using LCD 16x2 display. It
F. Flowchart shows the location of bus and total person count in the bus.
Step 5: Enter the ‘SSID’ and ‘password’ of Wi-Fi of smart
Start
phone for connection between ESP8266 Wi-Fi module and
Wi-Fi by using AT commands through the serial monitor of
Arduino. AT command for this connection is given below:
Initialize the sensor Libraries with numbers of the
interface pins and Define API key into string AT + CWJAP = “Pravin99”, “Bus@9999”
Step 6: Define IP address of Thingspeak 184.106.153.149
Measure Person count from IR sensor 1 & 2, and port number 80 for the TCP connection between Wi-Fi
Track the Location from RFID module and Thingspeak server. Prepare a GET string for
update API key for respective field of channel.
Read measured data using LCD display Step 7: If entered SSID and password is correct then
connect Arduino UNO and ESP8266 to entered network and
#Define SSID “Enter the network name” establishes internet connection else check with Wi-Fi
#Define PASSKEY “Enter the password” connectivity and retry with valid SSID and PASSKEY.
#Define Thingspeak sever IP: 184.106.153.149
Step 8: After TCP connection between Thingspeak and
Wi-Fi module, transfer sensed data to Thingspeak cloud.
Check with Wi-Fi If entered SSID Step 9: By using channel ID, observe the sensed data on
connectivity and retry No & PASSKEY is Virtuino application and graphical output results on
with valid SSID correct? Thingspeak website.
Yes
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Connect to “Entered Arduino UNO+ESP8266 connect to After completion of code designing it is successfully
Network” “Entered Network” & Establishes
Internet connection compiled without error. In this IoT based bus transport system
one can able to monitor IR sensor and RFID output on
Thingspeak cloud through internet and user to access service
Transfer this data to Thingspeak on Virtuino android application.
cloud

A. Output Results on Android Application

To see the sensed data on thingpeak.com
and virtuino application The figure 9. shows the output results on Virtuino android
application. This application provides graphical user interface
for images, texts and value display. By using this components,
Stop
sensing parameters are created in the form of text and values.
For connection between server and application “IoT server
setting” is needed. In this setting, required parameters are
Fig. 8. Flowchart of Bus monitoring system server name, URL, channel ID, field ID and refresh time.

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 2017 Fourth International Conference on Image Information Processing (ICIIP)

Fig. 11. Thingspeak IoT sever output of total no. of person in the bus

VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE

In this paper, we have designed and implemented low cost
Bus tracking system which helps the commuters to know the
exact location of the bus and expected time of arrival at a
particular bus stop along with the seat occupancy level on the
smart phone. This reduces the waiting time, overcrowding at
the bus stops and solves many problems like thefts and
accidents etc.
This prototype system at present developed for tracking
Fig. 9. Total no. of person in the bus and location of bus showing on buses travelling in one route, it can be implemented for all the
Virtuino android application routes. This system contains low covering frequency RFID
reader; it can be implemented by using high covering
B. Simulation Output Results on Thingspeak website frequency RFID reader.
After logging in ThingSpeak website one can able to
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