sensors for distance measure

Other Hardware Sensors
1

Hi,
I am looking for various alternatives in sensors to note distance between many trucks and stations.
In this scenario i need distance between all the trucks and all station . i am not interested in distance between two trucks or two stations.

Can you please help me to figure a way to know complete end to end use case

like how beacons , GPS can be used (with architecture)

Thanks in advance.
Jyothi

2

Hi Jyothi,
welcome to the forum.

Is this a school assignment or a commercial project?

Assumption: the stations have a fixed position.
These have GPS coordinates that can be looked up in Google Maps.

Per truck you need 2 modules

  1. GPS module
  2. A GSM module
  3. A microprocessor do control the system.

Every truck makes a GPS measurement e.g. every 60 minutes and forwards that by an SMS to the base station (the sender phone == the truck ID) .
At the same time the module in the truck can check if the truck has stopped e.g. longer than 2 minutes and send the GPS coordinates.
Also the truck driver has an alarm button that when pressed will send the GPS coordinates + "SOS" to the base station.
A sensor on the door of the truck can monitor the cargo, a temperature sensor can detect overheating of cooled goods etc.
etc.

The base station collects all the coordinates and do the needed math (google haversine function) to determine the distance. Every SMS that comes in is logged in a database and for every truck the route can be plotted on google maps. You need to convert the coordinates to a KML file, this is an XML file with predefined structure.

your turn to complete this and write a good requirements document.

many cool gadgets can be added.

3

Thanks Rob :slight_smile: (I really mean it )

Can you please tell me where to look about sensors and other hardware related stuff . I am very confused looking at many words foating on web. I would be great if you help on where to look about the specifications of hardware.

4

Thanks,

Sparkfun.com is a good site as they sell quite a lot of hardware and provide datasheets and code examples.

http://www.adafruit.com/ is also very inspiring !

check them out.

and there are a zillion other websites providing good info.
I do not know which country you are from and which stores are there.

5

Thank you so much :slight_smile: