Vehicle Tracking System becomes very important now days, especially in case of stolen vehicles. If you have GPS system installed in your vehicle, you can track you Vehicle Location, and its helps police to track the Stolen Vehicles. Previously we have built similar project in which Location coordinates of Vehicle are sent on Cell Phone, check here ‘Arduino based Vehicle Tracker using GPS and GSM.
Here we are building more advanced version of Vehicle Tracking System in which you can Track your Vehicle on Google Maps. In this project, we will send the location coordinates to the Local Server and you just need to open a ‘webpage’ on your computer or mobile, where you will find a Link to Google Maps with your Vehicles Location Coordinates. When you click on that link, it takes you on Google Maps, showing your vehicles location. In this Vehicle Tracking System using Google Maps, GPS Module is used for getting the Location Coordinates, Wi-Fi module to keep send data to computer or mobile over Wi-Fi and Arduino is used to make GPS and Wi-Fi talk to each other.
How it Works:
To track the vehicle, we need to find the Coordinates of Vehicle by using GPS module. GPS module communicates continuously with the satellite for getting coordinates. Then we need to send these coordinates from GPS to our Arduino by using UART. And then Arduino extract the required data from received data by GPS.
Before this, Arduino sends command to Wi-Fi Module ESP8266 for configuring & connecting to the router and getting the IP address. After it Arduino initialize GPS for getting coordinates and the LCD shows a ‘Page Refresh message’. That means, user needs to refresh webpage. When user refreshes the webpage Arduino gets the GPS coordinates and sends the same to webpage (local server) over Wi-Fi, with some additional information and a Google maps link in it. Now by clicking this link user redirects to Google Maps with the coordinate and then he/she will get the Vehicle Current Location at the Red spot on the Google Maps. The whole process is properly shown in the Video at the end.
Components Required:
- Arduino UNO
- Wi-Fi Module ESP8266
- GPS module
- USB Cable
- Connecting wires
- Laptop
- Power supply
- 16×2 LCD
- Bread Board
- Wi-Fi router
Circuit Explanation:
Circuit for this ‘Vehicle Tracking using Google Maps project’ is very simple and we mainly need an Arduino UNO, GPS Module and ESP8266 Wi-Fi module. There is a 16×2 LCD optionally connected for displaying the status. This LCD is connected at 14-19 (A0-A5) Pins of Arduino.
Read More: Track A Vehicle on Google Maps using Arduino, ESP8266 & GPS