International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD)

Volume: 3 | Issue: 4 | May-Jun 2019 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 - 6470

GPS and GSM Based Vehicle Tracking System

Ni Ni San Hlaing1, Ma Naing2, San San Naing1
1Lecturer, Department of Electronic Engineering, Technological University, Kyaukse, Myanmar
2Lecturer, Department of Electronic Engineering, Technological University, Magway, Myanmar

How to cite this paper: Ni Ni San Hlaing ABSTRACT

| Ma Naing | San San Naing "GPS and A vehicle tracking system is very useful for tracking the movement of a vehicle
GSM Based Vehicle Tracking System" from any location at any time. An efficient vehicle tracking system is designed
Published in International Journal of and implemented for tracking the movement of any equipped vehicle from any
Trend in Scientific Research and location at any time. The proposed system made good use of popular technology
Development that combines a smartphone with an Arduino UNO. This easy to make and
(ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456- inexpensive compared to others. The designed in vehicle device works using
6470, Volume-3 | Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global System for Mobile Communication
Issue-4, June 2019, (GSM) technology that is one of the most common ways for vehicle tracking. The
pp.271-275, URL: device is embedded inside a vehicle those positions is to be determined and
https://www.ijtsrd.c tracked in real time. An Arduino UNO is used to control the GPS receiver and
om/papers/ijtsrd23 IJTSRD23718 GSM module. The vehicle tracking system uses the GPS module to get geographic
718.pdf coordinates at regular time interval. The GSM module is used to transmit and
update the vehicle location to a database. This paper gives minute by minute
Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and update about vehicle location by sending SMS through GSM modem. This SMS
International Journal of Trend in contain latitude and longitude of the location of vehicle. Arduino UNO gets the
Scientific Research and Development coordinates from GPS modem and then it sends this information to user in text
Journal. This is an Open Access article SMS. GSM modem is used to send this information via SMS sent to the owner of
distributed under the vehicle. Location is displayed on LCD. And then Google map displays location
the terms of the and name of the place on cell phone. Thus, user able to continuously monitor a
Creative Commons moving vehicle on demand using smartphone and determine the estimated
Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) distance and time for the vehicle to arrive at a given destination.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/4.0) Keywords: Arduino UNO, GSM module, GPS module, mobile, LCD

I. INTRODUCTION
Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) and Global on Google map. The system allows to track the target
Positioning System (GPS) based vehicle location and tracking anytime and anywhere in any weather conditions. This
system provided effective, real time vehicle location, system is user friendly, easily installable, easily accessible
mapping and reporting this information value and add by and can be used for various other purpose.
improving this level of service provided. The GPS based
vehicle tracking system is designed to find out the exact II. System Block Diagram
location of any vehicle and intimate the position to the The current design is an embedded application. It is
concerned authority about through an SMS. The system continuously monitor a moving vehicle and report the status
includes a GPS modem that it retrieves the location of a of vehicle on demand. For doing an Arduino is interfaced
vehicle in terms of its longitude and latitude. The system serially to a GSM modem and GPS receiver. A GSM modem is
uses geographic position and time information from the GPS. used to send latitude and longitude of the vehicle from a
The system has an onboard module that it resides in the remote place. The GPS modem gives the data i.e., the latitude
vehicle to be tracked and a based station that monitors data and longitude indicating the position of the vehicle. The GPS
from the various vehicles. The onboard module consists of modem gives many parameters as the output, but only the
GPS receiver, a GSM modem.This hardware is fitted on to the National Marine Electronics Association NMEA data coming
vehicle in such a manner that it was not visible to anyone. out is read and displayed on to the LCD. The same data is
That system sends the location data to the monitoring unit sent to the mobile at the other end from the place of the
continuously therefore it is used as a covert unit. The vehicle’s position is demanded. An EEPROM is used to store
location data from tracking system uses to find the location the data received by GPS receiver. That is used for detecting
and to give the information to police when the vehicle is coordinates of the vehicle, GSM module is used for sending
stolen. This gives an edge over other pieces of technology for the coordinates to user by SMS. And an optional 16x2 LCD is
the same purpose. The system automatically sends a return also used for displaying status messages or coordinates. It
reply to that particular mobile indicating the position of the has used GPS module GY-NEO6MV2 and GSM module SIM
vehicle in terms of latitude and longitude when a request by 900A.The hardware interfaces to microcontroller are LCD
user is sent to the number at the modem. A program has display, GSM modem and GPS receiver. In order to interface
been developed that it is usedto locate the exact position of GSM modem and GPS receiver to the controller, a MUX is
the vehicle and also to navigated track of the moving vehicle used. The system automatically sends a return reply to that

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID - IJTSRD23718 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 4 | May-Jun 2019 Page: 271
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
particular mobile indicating the position of the vehicle in name myserial and pass the digital pin numbers as
terms of latitude and longitude when a request by user is parameters. The actual format is like softwareserial myserial
sent to the number at the modem. A program has been (Rx, Tx). It gets to the configuration part of program inside
developed that it is used to locate the exact position of the setup. The first task is to set baud rates of softwareserial
vehicle and also true navigated track of the moving vehicle library to communicate with GSM module. This by invoking
on Google map. myserial.begin function. The second task is to set the baud
LCD
rate of Arduino IDE’s serial monitor. It makes this by
invoking Serial.begin function. Both have to set at the same
baud rate and the user use 9600 bits/second in this
operation. Configuration part is over with setting baud rates
and it good to give a small delay of 100 milli seconds. It get to
the actual program inside loop(). To make things simpler, It
have developed a user input based program. The program
GPS Arduino UNO
seeks user input via serial monitor of Arduino. If the input is
GSM Module Mobile
Module “s” the program invoked function to send an SMS from GSM
module. If the user input is “r”, the program invoked the
function to receive a live SMS from GSM module and display
it on serial monitor of Arduino. The whole program is as
Fig1: Block Diagram of GPS and GSM Based Vehicle
simple.
Tracking System

The flowchart shown in Fig.2 is for the operation of the

system. In this system, Arduino UNO is used as the main of
control system. LCD is displaying “HI” when the system is
started. After initialize message track was sent from user to
GSM module in this system, Arduino find track and LCD was
displayed tracking. And then, software serial was printed
vehicle location of user latitude and longitude. At the time,
LCD was displayed vehicle location latitude and longitude
and message send. If GPS module was not received the
signal, GSM module send the message to the owner as the
owner’s car location is latitude 00.00 and longitude 00.00.
Therefore, the users have to wait received signal from GPS Fig 3: GSM Module Send SMS
satellite.
Start

Initialize GPS
and GSM on

Show LCD HI

Check for GPS No

Yes Invalid

Get coordinates from

satellite
Fig 4: Serial Monitor for GSM Module Send SMS

Sent latitude and

longitude via GSM

Sent SMS No

Yes

Sent vehicle location to

user via SMS

Show LCD Message

Sent

Exit

Fig 2: Flowchart of Vehicle Tracking System

III. Implementation
A. Software Implementation for GSM Module
In programming for GSM module include libraries and define
software serial communication. Software serial library is
used to allow serial communication on pin 10 and 9. In the
Fig 5: Send and Receive SMS of GSM Module
next line, they create a constructor of softwareserial with

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID - IJTSRD23718 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 4 | May-Jun 2019 Page: 272
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
GPS module in setup function and showed a welcome
message on LCD. In loop function the system receives
message and GPS string.Initialization function is used for
initializing and configuring the GSM Module, GSM module is
checked whether it is connected or not by sending AT
command to GSM module. If response OK is received, means
it is ready. System keeps checking for the module until it
becomes ready or until OK is received. Then echo is turned
OFF by sending the “ATE0” command, otherwise GSM
module will echo all the commands. Then finally Network
availability is checked through the AT+CPIN? command, if
inserted card is SIM card and PIN is present, it gives the
Fig 6: Serial Monitor for GSM Module Receive SMS response +CPIN: READY. This is also check repeatedly until
the network is found
B. Software Implementation for GPS Module
The programming language is written as the simplest form
so that it is nothing to have any problem to understand. In
programming for GPS module include libraries and define
software serial communication. Software Serial Library (SSL)
is used to allow serial communication on pin 3 and 4. The
setup function for the GPS module is declared the Tx and Rx
pin of the GPS module is input by using serial.begin and also
declared ss.begin to show the result on the serial monitor.
Serial.begin(9600); ss.begin(9600); The loop function for the
GPS module includes reading the input pin and triggering the
output by using ss.available. While compare by using
ss.available() greater than 0, gps.encode read software serial
by using ss.read(). If GPS module reached a new place, the
new location is updated by using “gps.location.isUpdated()”.
Fig 9: Software Implement for GPS and GSM Based Vehicle
Tracking System

D. Implementation by Hardware

Fig 7: Software Implement for GPS Module

Fig 8: Serial Monitor for GPS Module

C. Software Implementation for Vehicle Tracking System

In programming include libraries and define pins for LCD Fig 9: Overall Circuit Diagram of the system
and software serial communication. Also define some
variable with arrays for storing data. Software serial library This paper consists of GPS receiver and GSM modem with an
is used to allow serial communication on pin 4 and 3. Arduino UNO. Tx pin of GPS receiver is directly connected to
TinyGPS” gps is used for storing received message from GSM digital pin 5 of Arduino and Rx pin of GPS receiver is also
module and float latt, lonn is used for storing GPS string. directly connected to digital pin 4 of Arduino. By using
After it have initialized serial communication, LCD, GSM and software serial library, that has allowed serial

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID - IJTSRD23718 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 4 | May-Jun 2019 Page: 273
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
communication on pin 5 and pin 4, and made them Rx and Tx
respectively. By default pin 0 and pin 1 of Arduino are used
for serial communication but by using software serial
library, it allows serial communication on other digital pins
of the Arduino. GPS module is powered by 5V. GSM module
of Tx pin is directly connected to Rx pin of Arduino and Rx
pin of is also directly connected to Tx pin of Arduino. GSM
module is also powered by 5V. An optional data pin of LCD
D4, D5, D6 and D7 are connected to pin number 8, 9, 10, and
11 of Arduino. Command pin RS and EN of LCD are
connected with pin number 6 and 7 of Arduino and RW pin is
directly connected with ground. A potentiometer is also used
for setting contrast or brightness of LCD. Arduino is used for Fig 10: Result for the Active System
controlling whole the process with a GPS receiver and GSM
module. GPS receiver is used for detecting coordinates of the
vehicle, GSM module is used for sending the coordinates to
user by SMS. And optional 16x2 LCD is also used for
displaying status messages or coordinates. When the
hardware design ready with programming, it installs in
vehicle and power it up. Then user just needs to send a SMS,
track, to the system that is placed in user’s vehicle. Send
message is received by GSM module which is connected to
the system and sends message data to Arduino. Arduino
reads it and extract main message from the whole message.
And then compare it with predefined message in Arduino. If
any match occurs then Arduino reads coordinates by
extracting $GPGGA string from GPS module data and send it
Fig 11: Result for Find Location
to user by using GSM module. This message contains the
coordinates of vehicle location latitude and longitude. LCD is
displaying “HI” when the system is started. After initialize
message track was sent from user to GSM module in this
system, Arduino find track and LCD was displayed tracking.
And then, software serial was printed vehicle location of user
latitude and longitude. At the time, LCD was displayed
vehicle location latitude and longitude and message send. If
GPS module was not received the signal, GSM module send
the message to the owner as the owner’s car location is
latitude 00.00 and longitude 00.00. Therefore, the users have
to wait received signal from GPS satellite.

IV. Results
In this paper, GSM module used to send and receive message Fig 12: Result for GPS and GSM Based Vehicle Tracking
from another GSM number. If the owner of the vehicle wants System
to know their vehicle location, they have to send find
message firstly. At that time, GSM module was working to
send back to the owner mobile phone number. In this thesis,
GPS module also contains so that message contains the
location of their vehicle latitude and longitude. If the owner
wants to see on Google map, it shows the location of their
vehicle. Therefore, the user easily knows their vehicle
location when the vehicle was stolen. If the nothing message
is sending the owner, the operation is performed according
to the code so LCD was displaying “HI”. Firstly, this system
had to wait a little second to active GSM module and GPS
module. After active system, it had to show the result on
serial monitor. Fig 13: Result for Showing Location of Vehicle on LCD

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID - IJTSRD23718 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 4 | May-Jun 2019 Page: 274
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470

V. Conclusion
Tracking system is nowadays the most important system for
the person, they want their car security in efficient hands
this is the main reason. So the vehicle tracking system are
getting popular day by day not only in metropolitan areas
but also in small cities. This system is completely integrated
and it becomes possible to the user to track their car very
easily at any time and from anywhere. As the vehicle theft is
increasing day by day but due to this people wasn’t avoid
uying vehicles but they found an efficient way to keep an eye
on their vehicle without being very close to them. These
systems keep a good control on the thefts and help avoiding
them to some extent. Basically in all these systems the GPS
and GSM are used to track the vehicle. Using this system the
user determine the position of the vehicle, and the distance
completed by it. The user is able to access the position of
their vehicle at any instant of time. This system is reliable
any very secure. Upgrading this setup is very easy which
makes it open to future requirements without the need of
rebuilding everything from scratch, which also makes it
more efficient.GSM module used in this paper to send and
Fig 14: Result for the GSM Module Send SMS to the Owner
receive SMS. GSM module can supported 2G, 3G and 4G but
only 2G can supported in this country. Because each country
used different frequencies bands for GSM sim 900A. So, MPT
and telenor were used and ooredoo and mytel were not used
in this thesis. And then GSM module can also interfaced with
Arduino when using AT command. Adding that, GPS module
was not get the signal from GPS Satellite easily.

VI. REFERENCES
[1] Roland Pelayo, GSM SIM 900A with Arduino, March 16,
2018
[2] Akriti Gupta, Jessica Saini, Mayank Agarwal, Android
App Based Vehicle Tracking Using Gps And Gsm,
Fig 15: Result for the Vehicle Tracking System Septmber, 2017
[3] Ruchir Sharma, what is GPS, August, 2017
[4] Saddam, Arduino Based Vehicle Tracker Using GPS and
GSM, March 03, 2016
[5] Ajish Alfred, Interface GSM Module with Arduino,
February 20, 2015
[6] B.Aswinth Raj, 16x2 LCD Display, October 24, 2015
[7] Allison M.Okamura, Arduino Programming Language,
201

Fig 16: Result for the Vehicle Location on Google Map

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID - IJTSRD23718 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 4 | May-Jun 2019 Page: 275