IOSR Journal of Engineering (IOSRJEN) www.iosrjen.

org
ISSN (e): 2250-3021, ISSN (p): 2278-8719
Volume 14, PP 24-28

Real Time Bus Tracking System

Manish Chandwani1, Bhoomika Batheja2, Lokesh Jeswani3,
Praveen Devnani4, Prof. Richard Joseph5
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
(Computer Engineering, VESIT, India)

Abstract: In the busy metropolitan cities, people don't have time to invest in waiting for transport. Waiting
time for transport in such crowded cities leads to less productivity on a whole. People face this problem in their
daily life where they have no idea about the current status of their transport. So the proposed solution is an
android based application that will help the user to check out the current location of the bus and also will help
the user to know how much time the bus will take to reach the current location of the user. The system will use
IoT as the basis for the application and basic android application will be interfacing with the updated database
to provide the real-time data to the user, hence enhancing the user-experience.
Keywords: Android Application, Enhancing, Interfacing, IoT, Proposed.

I. Introduction
There are buses available for passengers travelling to different locations, but not many passengers have
complete information about these buses. Complete information namely the number of buses that go to the
required destination, bus numbers, bus timings, the routes through which the bus would pass, time taken for the
vehicle to reach its destination location would assist the passengers with various routes, track the current
location of the bus and give the correct time for the bus to reach its bus stop. The proposed system deals with
overcoming the problems stated above. The system is an Android application that gives necessary information
about all the buses travelling in Mumbai. The platform chosen for this kind of system is android, reason being
Android Operating System has come up on a very large scale and is owned by almost every second person. As
more and more applications of android operating system is developed day by day on large scale ever since it is
advent. Android is an open source mobile software environment. There are various problems that require
solution such as „the zone in which the bus is‟ and „the recorded time that each bus passed through each zone‟.
The limitation of this algorithm is that it is not suitable for large cities where both travel time and dwell time
could be subject to large variations. Generally speaking, these models are reliable only when the traffic pattern
in the area of interest is relatively stable.

II. Literature Survey

These are some of the technical literature in engineering and technology where people have tried to
implement similar kind of Systems which are mentioned below with their shortcomings with respect to our
Application.
Authors “Mr. Pradip Suresh Mane & Prof. Vaishali Khairnar” have implemented the proposed system
Analysis of Bus Tracking System Using GPS on Smartphone‟s” which focuses more on just Tracking the
vehicle module. Wherein a mobile application is used to track the nearby Vehicles & also notifies about the
nearby bus stops, so that the people can plan their route & Travel options accordingly & has been implemented
in-order to improve the decisions made by general people while commuting considering the “Best Transport
Division” The inference drawn by this system is that the main focus is on the android application which
provides all the information of the vehicle.
Authors “Mrs.Swati Chandorkar, SnehaMugade, Sanjana Sinha, MegharaniMisal, Puja Boreka”
implemented the proposed system “Implementation of Real Time Bus Monitoring and Passenger Information
System” track the current location of the bus/vehicle & indicate the normal user about the current location &
notifies general user about the natural delay caused during transportation considering any kind of natural
calamity. These messages regarding the arrival of the bus is updated on a back-end server, this information is
notified to the commuters via a Smartphone app so that commuter can opt for a different route. The inference
drawn by this system is that the main focus is on the location of the buses and the delay because of any calamity.
Authors “ManiniKumbhar, MeghanaSurvase, Pratibha MAvdhutSalunk” have implemented “Real Time Web
Based Bus Tracking System” The proposed system reduces the waiting time of remote users for bus. A system
is used to track the bus at any location at any time. All the current information is stored to the server and it is
retrieved to remote users via web based application. This system is more user friendly for users to get
information visually shown on Google Map. User can freely get this web based application for real time
tracking of bus which provide interactive interface environment.This application helps remote user to just wait

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 Real Time Bus Tracking System

or reschedule their journey according to the availability of bus. The inference drawn by this system is that the
main focus is on the interactive interface environment.
Authors “M. A. Hannan, A. M.Mustapha,A.Hussain and H. Basri” have implemented the system “Intelligent
Bus Monitoring and Management System” The proposed system uses Artificial intelligence with the help of
RFID module which is used in-order to reduce the manual work carried out in the Bus-Management &
Monitoring System where in the bus driver is allocated with an id who assigned a transport vehicle by the
system as per the schedule This helps in reducing Human-errors that are present in the current system. The
inference drawn by this system is that the main focus is on the RFID module used as a reference to artificial
intelligence. This can be an ideal system as manual work is decreased by using artificial intelligence.
Authors “Süleyman Eken, Ahmet Sayar” have implemented“A smart Bus Tracking System based on location-
aware service and QR code.”In this paper, Bus tracking system, any passenger with Smartphone can scan QR
code placed at bus stop to view estimated bus arrival times, current location of bus, and have option like sign-up
to receive free alerts about expected arrival of bus for interested buses and related routes via SMS and email
using C4.5 algorithm for estimation of bus arrival times that minimize the passenger waiting time. GPS &
Google maps are used for bus tracking and display location of bus respectively.
Authors Madhu Manikya Kumar, K. Rajesekhar, K. Pavani, have implemented “Design of punctually enhanced
bus transportation system using GSM and Zigbee,” The daily operation of public transport system, mainly that
of buses, the movement of vehicles is influenced by different undetermined conditions as the day progresses,
such as traffic congestion, unexpected delays, irregular vehicle send off to destination times and incidents.
Passengers and students are often late to the destination due to poor transportation and they do not use alternate
route to their destination. The bus arrival time showed by variable message sign reduces the anxiety of
passengers. Displaying the bus arrival time to various devices on various platforms will help reach large no. Of
consumers who can utilize the functionality of the system. GPS and the ubiquitous cellular network helps in real
time vehicle tracking for better transport management have become possible. These techniques can be applied
to public transport systems, especially buses, which are not able to adhere to predefined timetables due to
reasons like traffic jams, breakdowns etc.

III. Need Of New Generation Bus Tracking System

Main objective of New generation bus tracking systems is to get real time location coordinates of the
bus and count the number of passenger in bus so that passengers can make better travel decisions and also
to make user friendly system to track location and get the density of passengers in bus. Main effects of such a
bus tracking system are reduced wait time, reduced uncertainty time, increased willingness to pay and customer
satisfaction.

IV. Existing System

Real time bus tracking systems are a group of modules that display the bus timings on the LCD screen
of the bus Stop. The system comprises of the power source, battery, LEDs, RF transceiver microprocessor. RF
transceiver is installed over every bus that polls a signal that contains its GPS coordinates. The data will then be
processed by the microprocessor. RF transceivers are installed at every bus stop to receive information
regarding bus coordinates. These will be passive circuits and will get active only when transmitter enters the
range of reception. Bus location is displayed on the LCD screen along with the bus number .Also the Existing
System is not giving the density in bus so that people cannot wait for Bus instead of that people take alternative
transport system.

V. Proposed System
Generally our system uses GPS module which is attached to the arduino system in the bus. Firstly, the
satellite signals are received by it and then the position coordinates like latitude and longitude are determined by
it. Proposed system uses GSM module to communicate & update data on the server. By using GPS, the
geographic location of a vehicle can be determined and the related information can be transmitted to a remotely
located Server.

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 Real Time Bus Tracking System

Fig 5.1:-architecture of proposed system

The Location here is determined with the help of GPS and transmission mechanism. This location
data after being received from nearby satellite and cellular towers, the tracked data can be fetched by the
android application on the consumer‟s device. Here the commuters can not only fetch the bus location but also
know estimate time taken by bus to reach its destination. Here our Android application also provides the
estimated count of people in the bus. So, with the help of available information the commuters can decide
whether to wait for the bus or proceed with an alternate route.

VI. System Architecture

Application starts with instantiating Location Manager. This is needed to track user location. Detailed
description regarding Location Manager is provided in this section. Next, UI and user interaction handling sets
up all necessary selections. In order to provide a detailed view concerning system mechanism, project can be
grouped in three segments. These are Location Manager, Fragments and sync Task & Services. The Broadcast
receiver in the GPS module work in tandem to establish connection & report location, the fragments in the
activity class manage all the methods in listing peers. To search for a bus, client has to enter the bus number in
the search bar of the application. Then the map is displays the current location of the bus. An alert is sent as
soon as bus reaches nearest stop. When the application is launched, the home Activity fetches the routes
(Location) and bus No. from the server and binds it for the client to select it. When the client selects a bus,
corresponding stops are fetched from the server and binded in the application for the client to select it. If the
client selects “Track Bus” then the location details of the bus from that route is fetched. If the client clicks on
“Show Map” then the location of the bus on the map will be displayed.

Fig 6.1:-bus tracking system architecture

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 Real Time Bus Tracking System

VII. Methodology
7.1 Location Information
The Location information is fetched from the online database which recieves the data regarding the
location from the arduino module in the bus. This helps in maintaining the uniqueness of the bus while
displaying its location in the map.

7.2 Maps
The application is developed using android API which has a very simple User Interface to use it.
Google maps API is the core component used in it, which is very easy to use and explore maps with simple
gestures such as pinch to zoom tap to point etc.

7.3 Bus/Route Information

The Routes of all Buses are recorded by Bus In-charge. For this reason we have used php-server side
scripting. So the management can login the website and update/modify the bus details and details regarding its
routes. Now, the request made by the client for the bus information will be fetched from the database and
delivered to client through server.

VIII. Future Scope

For future enhancement, we can develop a vehicle monitoring system using GPS & GSM module
with high speed processor. The system will have latest technology and optimized algorithm with moderate
cost. The system may focus on accurate arrival time prediction and real time position of vehicle. The system
can be installed in buses, cars and trucks this project is having a wide scope. A web based application which
can be further modified using cloud. Use of video camera to this system would take this system to the next
level in the field of security. It will help to monitor the crimes that happen nowadays which is witnessed by
common people every day. This would prove a major breakthrough in reducing the crime rates. Also, with use
of motion sensors the speed of the bus can be calculated presently only SMS feature is available, we can
include the Call feature for ease of operation. Microphone can be induced in the GSM module so that during
theft activity, voice can be recorded in the bus for evidence purpose.

IX. Result & Discussions

The main goal of the proposed work is to improve the Bus Tracking system by adding the necessary
features to our project, like projecting accurate bus timings, presenting correct bus numbers and by adding a
GPS tracker into it for accurate locations. This concept accepts input in the form of text/Bus No, destination and
selection of the bus travelling to the Location to display the entire details about the routes/Stops and also track
the location of the bus and display it on the map for the same. The last two decades have seen growing interest
in the development of Android based platform. Our analysis on this Project shows that there have been very few
vendors that provide automated tools for the functioning of the Application. Also we can estimate count of
people with the help of proximity sensor at the entrance point and exit point. Normally, proximity sensors are
used in devices like in phone,etc. Here, it is used to Increment count of the people entering the bus and
decrement the count of people exiting the bus. We are setting the timer on the proximity sensor using arduino
software. So that we can get the approximate count of people. Let other passengers know the count of people in
the bus and can decide whether to wait for bus or take alternate transport route.

X. Conclusion
The conclusion of this study suggests that knowledge of specific domain improves the results. Also,
different attributes have been added to the project which will prove to be advantageous to the system. The
requirements and specifications have been listed above. This project is implemented using Android and the
SQL domain. Using the GPS system, the application will automatically display the buses on map and its
routes to the different locations and also track the bus location using client-server technology and forward it
to the client device. It uses latitude & longitude as measurement to calculate distance between two locations
and provides necessary details of each and every route for people to easily catch-up with the buses or any
other conveyance possible on the specified route. Specific location details are provided to the user along with
the bus location so that the person can identify the bus correctly. It uses remote server as its database. Due to
this, the records can be easily presented on the client‟s device itself so that the server burden get reduced.

References
[1] B.Caulfield and M.O‟Mahony,“An examination of the public transport information requirements of users”, IEEE
Trans.Intell.Transp. Syst., vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 21–30, Mar. 2007.
[2] K.Rehrl,S.Bruntsch,andH.-J.Mentz,“Assisting multimodal travelers: Design and prototypical implementation of a personal
travel companion,” IEEE Trans. on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 31–42, Mar2007.

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[3] Dr. Saylee Gharge, Manal Chhaya, Gaurav Chheda, Jitesh Deshpande, “Real time bus monitoring system using GPS,” An
International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology, Vol. 2, Issue 3, June 2012.
[4] Swati Chandorkar, Sneha Nude, Sanjana Sinha, PoojaBorkar, “Implementation of real time bus monitoring and passenger
information system,” International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Vol. 3, Issue 5, May 2013.
[5] Madhu Manikya Kumar, K. Rajesekhar, K. Pavani, “Design of punctually enhanced bus transportation system using GSM
and Zigbee,” International Journal of Research in Computer and Communication Technology, Vol.2, Issue 12, December
2013.
[6] Ms.Madhuri.Patil -M.Tech(CSE),Department CSE,MLRIT,Hyderabad & Mr. N. Aravind Kumar- Assistant
Professor,Department of CSE, MLRIT,Hyderabad“Design of punctually enhanced bus transportation system using GSM and
Zigbee,” International Research Journal of Computer Science (IRJCS) ISSN: 2393-9842 Issue 6, Volume 2 (June 2015).

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