REAL TIME METROPLITAN BUS POSITIONIN

SYSTEM DESING USING GPS AND GSM

B.JANARTHANAN

T.SANTHANAKRISHNAN

M.E-Embedded Systems
Rajalakshmi Engineering College
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
janaemperor@gmail.com

Sr. Assistant Professor

Department of Electrical and Electronics,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
santhanakrishnan.t@rajalakshmi.edu.in

Abstract

The Real Time Bus Monitoring and

Passenger Information bus tracking device is a standalone system
designed to display the real-time locations of the buses in
metropolitan city. This system will enable the tracking device to
obtain GPS data of the bus locations, which will then be
transferred to a centralized control unit by using GSM and then
transmitted to a bus stop and displayed on the GLCD as per the
passengers request. The existing systems find it inconvenient to
reschedule their times in events of a vehicle break down and
congestion of roads. This causes uncertainty to passengers about
the arrival time of buses. But the proposed real time bus
monitoring system can overcome these disadvantages of the
already existing systems.
KeywordsBus positioning System, GPS,GSM.

1. INTRODUCTION
The Real Time Bus Monitoring and Passenger Information
system is a standalone system that displays the real-time
locations of the buses in the city. This system, designed to be
deployed at various bus stops around city, is comprised of a
power source, a battery, a microprocessor, GLCD and GSM.
The GSM will be used to poll a signal from the systems
installed on the buses that contains GPS data of each buss
location. The data will then be processed by a microprocessor
connected to the GSM and used to display on the GLCD. That
will represent the require bus location information on the
GLCD screens on the bus stops. This system will give the
arrival time of the buses which assist pedestrians in making
the decision of whether to wait for the bus.
Many new technologies can be applied to public transport
systems, especially buses, which dont run according to the
predefined time table as described by the authorities due to
reasons like traffic jams, breakdowns etc. This increases the
due time and makes people uncertain of bus arrival time which
ultimately makes public transport system unattractive for
passengers. The bus corporations usually provide free bus
timetables on the websites. Such bus timetables are usually
static and offer very limited information like operating hours,
time intervals, etc., moreover these time tables are not timely
updated according to real-time traffic conditions. Although
many commercial bus information providers offer the real
time bus arrival information, the service usually comes with
significant cost. The total capital cost for deployment of link

infrastructure to deliver transit services is very high, which

would eventually increase expenditure of passengers. When
travelling with buses, the passengers usually want to know the
prcised arrival time of the bus. Unreasonably long waiting
time at bus stops may disappoint the concerned passengers and
make them disinclined to take buses. Other than official
timetables, many public services (e.g., Google Maps) are
provided for travelers. Although such services offer useful
information, they are far from satisfactory to the bus travelers.
For example, the schedule of a bus may be delayed due to
many unpredictable factors (e.g., traffic conditions, harsh
weather situation, etc.). The accurate arrival time of next bus
will allow travelers to take alternative transport choices
instead, and thus mitigate their anxiety and improve their
experience.
2.

OVERVIEW OF THE BUS POSITIONING SYSTEM

2.1 Objective
The Real Time bus monitoring and passenger information
system will be equipped with three basic modules.
1. Basic transmitter modules mounted on the buses which will
continuously transmit the data obtained from the GPS module
like its position (latitude and longitude) along with the basic
information like route name and number. These transmitter
modules will act as active circuits they will transmit the data
continuously as soon as GPS module refreshes it at the end of
the second.
2. The receiver module which will be fitted on the bus stops
will receive the data from the central unit. These will be
passive circuits, meaning that since these circuits are
stationary on the bus stops these will receive data only when
the passenger needs it.
3. The third module will be a centralized control system. Here
the GPS readings from all the buses in the city will be
collected, so that the system will have the idea of where each
bus is in the city.
2.2 Background
Most real time arrival systems, currently in use, are
completely web based applications. For example, Next Bus a
popular bus tracking service in United States provides the

passenger with a website where he/ she can login to find out
the location of the buses and textual time estimates projecting
the next bus arrival at a particular stop. These displays are
often misleading since there is no clear indication of where the
bus is actually located and whether there are potential delays.
Moreover, the technologies used require GPRS or web
connected device with the passenger, which only few of the
passengers have. The project will help the passenger to find
out all the information without any expense required.

Figure 3.1 Functional block diagram

3.3 Microcontroller
The ARM7TDMI-S is a 32-bit microcontroller based on
RISC architecture. It offers high performance for low power
consumption. It uses three stage pipelines to increase the
speed of the flow of instruction. The three stages are fetching,
decode and execute. This controller is used in inside bus unit.
AVR is another microcontroller which is placed in a bus stop
unit which is used to
Figure 2.1 Bus Positioning System

3.

HARDWARE DESIGN

The bus positioning system is consists of three major parts

those are Inside bus unit, Bus stop unit and Central control
unit. Inside bus unit composed of ARM7 micro-processor
GPS, GSM module at each bus service. Bus stop unit consists
of microcontroller, GSM, GLCD and keypad. The detailed
hardware composition is shown in figure.
3.1 Technical specifications
The system will consist of a
1. Backup battery, GSM module, microcontroller, GPS
module installed on the buses.
2. Backup battery, GSM module, microcontroller, LCD
screens at receiver boards installed on the bus stops.

3.4 Inside Bus Unit

The initial phase of the tracking process involves
requesting and receiving the GPS data through the module
from the satellites. The GPS embedded module will serve as
the communication link between the Real Time Bus
Positioning System and the satellites. Consequently, the data
received from the GPS module will be passed on to the ARM7
microcontroller using a UART serial link where it will then be
processed, the latitude and the longitude coordinates of the
location will then be separated from the bulk of data obtained
by the GPS module using software. These readings obtained
will then be transmitted to the control unit through the GSM.
From the controller unit passenger receive the bus information
through the GSM module. The block diagram of Inside Bus
unit is shown in following figure

It will also have passenger information system software

installed at the central unit which will give to the user about
the relevant information regarding all the bus numbers going
for source to destination along with the route details and
arrival time.
3.2 Block Diagram
The block diagram of the Real Time Bus Positioning
System is shown in the following figure. It consists of bus stop
unit, inside bus unit, central control unit. These units are
connected through GSM communication. Inside bus unit is
placed in each bus service and bus stop unit is placed in all bus
stop.GPS is used to collect the coordinates from satellite.

Figure 3.2 Inside Bus Unit

3.5 Bus Stop unit

The receiver unit of the Real Time Bus Monitoring and
Passenger Information system will consist of a AVR
microcontroller to receive the data through the GSM. The
transfer of the data from the control unit to the controller is
done through the SPI protocols. The controller will then
implement custom programmable logic to interpret the data.
After data processing, the processing platform will send the
data to the GLCD displays. The block diagram of Bus Stop
unit is shown in following figure.

3.8 Determining Position through GPS

A GPS receiver "knows" the location of the satellites,
because that information is included in satellite transmissions.
By estimating how far away a satellite is, the receiver also
"knows" it is located somewhere on the surface of an
imaginary sphere centered at the satellite. There are at least 24
operational GPS satellites at all times plus a number of spares.
The satellites, operated by the US DoD, orbit with a period of
12 hours (two orbits per day) at a height of about 11,500 miles
travelling at near 2,000mph. Ground stations are used to
precisely track each satellite's orbit.

4. OVERVIEW OF THE SOFTWARE

Figure 3.2 Bus Stop Unit

3.6 GSM Communication

The vehicle checking terminal communicates with the
server centre by the SMS message on the GSM. GSM is a
cellular network, which means that mobile phones connect to
it by searching for cells in the immediate vicinity. There are
five different cell sizes in a GSM networkmacro, micro,
pico, femto and umbrella cells. The coverage area of each cell
varies according to the implementation environment. GSM
networks operate in a number of different carrier frequency
ranges with most 2G GSM networks operating in the 900MHz
or 1800MHz bands where these bands were already allocated,
the 850MHz and 1900MHz bands. Most 3G networks operate
in the 2100MHz frequency band.
3.7 Global Positioning System
The system can correctly send the position and time of the
checking vehicle to the centre server by GPS positioning,
therefore, the terminals can be coordinated properly. The
Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation
satellite system that provides location and time information in
all weather condition, anywhere on or near the Earth. A GPS
device receives signals from the GPS satellites, high in the
sky. If it receives strong enough signals from three or more
different satellites, it can calculate its position. The GPGGA
protocol indicates the respective time, latitude and longitude
value.

Code Vision AVR is a complete set of tools designed

for rapid and efficient software development for the Atmel
AVR microcontrollers.
Keil Micro-Vision is Windows based front end
software for the C compiler and macro assembler
linker/locater and hex file generator developed for the ARM
controller.
Proteus is a software combination of ISIS schematic
capture program and ARES PCB layout program. This is an
integrated development environment. Tools in this suit are
very easy to use for designing the circuit. it provides features
such as fully featured schematic capture, highly configurable
design rules, interactive circuit simulator, extensive support
for power planes, and integrated 3D viewer.
4.

RESULTS OF SIMULATION USING PROTEUS

SOFTWARE

The schematic representation of the Real Time bus Positioning

System is designed by using the Proteus software and the code
is done through compiler software. It has two separate sections
those are inside bus Unit and Bus stop unit. The representation
is shown in following figures

Figure 4.1 Bus Stop Unit

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Figure 4.2 Inside Bus Unit

5.

CONCLUSION

Real Time Bus Positioning System is an advanced method

used to locate and monitor the bus with transfer signals
through GPS satellite. The results presented in this paper
contain execution of Start-up routine, Logs of Tracking Server
and Pointing out current location of bus. For bus positioning in
real time, in-vehicle unit and a tracking server GSM is used.
For this, tracking server also has GSM modem that receives
vehicle location information stores this information in
database.

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