Development of a Network-Tolerant Vehicle and Personnel Tracking System

Abstract

Security issues in developing countries have been on the rise ranging from kidnapping to secessionist killings and banditry which have had a terrible ripple effect on the overall affairs of these states. The proliferation of security issues and social problems have continued to permeate developing countries due to drivers being kidnapped, vehicles get missing and poor network coverage in the remote locations where the crimes are perpetrated. The existing tracking solutions have the following shortcomings: tracks only the vehicle or the personnel and none tracks both, they are network intolerant, relied on car battery which may drain over time especially when the vehicle is not started for a long time. This paper proposed the development of a network tolerant solution that tracks both vehicle and personnel. The developed system queries an online database via a developed android application and returns the last known location of both vehicle and personnel on a Google map. It is equipped with renewable energy capabilities. The location data is fetched with GPS Module for vehicle tracking and transmitted to the database through a Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication, while personnel location data is fetched using the Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities of android devices. Performance evaluation of the developed system showed a good accuracy in location reporting for both personnel and vehicle. Successful queries to the database were recorded in few seconds; hence, the developed system is adequate for a typical tracking application. An adoption of this device will aid the security in the rescue and recovery of personnel and vehicles respectively.