Low-Cost Bus Tracking System Using Area-Trace Algorithm

Abstract

This paper proposes a low-cost Bus Tracking System that uses GPS and allows the user to know the bus location on their mobile phone. It has an advantage that it does not use any internet data for the users to be notified. Instead, it uses only a simple sms in a specified format to be sent to the server. It also sends the user, the bus's expected arrival time. The system maintains a track of people travelling in the bus as well as the ticket fare from each required source to required destination. All this information is sent to the user on the receipt of a single sms to the server. This technology aims at providing a low cost solution to the problems faced by common man using the public transport thereby addressing the issues and solving them successfully. The aim is to present the work to the Indian Government which can help the struggling life become more smooth and functional. Technology always aims at reducing the human efforts at a cost which turns out to be expensive. The time resource of a common man is a vital parameter for him to be successful in his work. This paper aims in developing a technology which will be available and beneficial to common man at a very low cost. It deals with developing a Bus tracking System which can locate the desired bus number, its source and destination, the maximum count of seating and standee capacity of a bus and the current count of passengers in the bus. This technology will help the common to predict the location of the bus, its expected arrival time, its travel fare and the vacancy of seats in the bus. All the above services will be made available at a single outgoing message from the mobile phone. As per the Telecommunications statistics in India, the total number of mobile phone subscribers have reached 875.48 million as on October 2013 which is 73.32% of the entire population. When we think of a city like Mumbai, mobile phone is the basic necessity of a person. However, Mumbai being a metropolitan city, has a blend of rich class, middle class and poor class population. According to the data released by the 'Indian And Mobile Association Of India (IAMAI)' 2013 report, Mumbai ranks no 2 with 12 million internet users. However, still, not every mobile user in Mumbai has an internet connection which indirectly means that they are not having an access to the GPS. Reports speak that almost 88% of the commuters in Mumbai use public transport of which almost 50.23% travel by Brihanmumbai Electric Supply And Transport (BEST) buses. This makes the transport of crucial importance. It is very important for the transport to function smoothly throughtout. However, there are many factors like traffic jams, heavy population, etc which make the functioning a bit lethargic. This has led as a source of motivation for us to think of some system that can be of fruitful use for the common man. The paper aims at making a Bus Tracking System which is capable of producing a bus's location with the help of GPS and provide the same to the mobile phone users without using the mobile internet data. This aims at sending the bus location to the requesting user in a particular text format. It also sends the user the expected arrival time for the bus to arrive at the specified bus stop. Also, it maintains a count of the maximum seating and standee capacity of the bus and with the help of sensor, it also sends the number of vacant seats in the bus. This helps the user in taking decisions like whether the bus is late or on time, should the wait time for the bus be considered or some other means of transport can be considered, is there a seat vacancy in the expected arriving bus, etc. Thus the services are offered to the all the users which facilitates to save their time and effort. Also, user can get the information about the ticket fare from the source to destination.