GPS Technology

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites.[1] The system provides critical capabilities to military, civil and commercial users around the world. It is maintained by the United States government and is freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver.

How IT works

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a network of about 30 satellites orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 20,000 km. The system was originally developed by the US government for military navigation but now anyone with a GPS device, be it a SatNav, mobile phone or handheld GPS unit, can receive the radio signals that the satellites broadcast. Wherever you are on the planet, at least four GPS satellites are ‘visible’ at any time. Each one transmits information about its position and the current time at regular intervals. These signals, travelling at the speed of light, are intercepted by your GPS receiver, which calculates how far away each satellite is based on how long it took for the messages to arrive. Once it has information on how far away at least three satellites are, your GPS receiver can pinpoint your location using a process called trilateration.

Application

VTS (Vehicle tracking system) is an electronic embedded unit consists of microcontroller, flash memory, global positioning system (GPS) receiver module and GSM mobile module fitted on every vehicle to be tracked. The GPS module provides the current location (absolute Latitude and Longitude) along with parameters such as vehicle speed using GPS Satellite data. The acquired data is periodically sent as a Short message service (SMS) over the GSM network or GPRS data network to the central computer for processing. The central computer archives and displays received data in a variety of ways, which include plotting points on a map and statistical analysis to determine optimization potential. The real time information about vehicle position queried through mobile phone and website.