Smart Road Condition Checker

A.V.N.Perera
REG.NO:509062566

EEY 7883 Individual Project

(Final Report)

Supervisor
Mrs. Hemali Pasqual

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Faculty of Engineering Technology
29/04/2024

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 Declaration
I declare that the report for the project “Smart Road condition checker” is executed
as per the requirements for the Final Project for Bachelor’s electronic and
communication engineering in Open University Sri Lanka. I developed a unique
project and we certify that this project or part of this project has not submitted
before to any university or institution.

Name : A.V.N. Perera

Reg. No. 509062566

Signature :

Date : 29.04.24

This is to certify that this project is based on the work of above mentioned students
under my supervision. This report has been prepared according to the format
stipulated and is on acceptable standards.

Certify by:

Supervisor:……………………………………….

Signature …………………………………………

Date ………

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my Project supervisors Mrs. Hemali

Pasqual (Senior Lecturer), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Open
University, for her inspirational ideas and guidance for completion of the Final Project. I
am extremely thankful to the Engineering department of Open University for helping us
enormously to complete my thesis.

I highly appreciate the support given by our employers and project heads by providing the
industry exposure and study leaves. Finally, I would like to thank all other parties for
their support at least by an encouraging word.

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 ABBREVIATIONS:

GPS- Global Positioning System

GSM- Global System for Mobile Communication

AVL- Automatic Vehicle Location API- Application Programming Interface

APN- Access Point Name RAM- Random Access Memory

DC- Direct Current PHP- Hypertext Pre-processor

HTTP- Hypertext Transfer Protocol

HTML- Hypertext Mark-up Language

IDE- Integrated Development Environment

CSS- Cascade Style Sheet

DBMS- Database Management System

SQL - Structured Query Language

NOSQL- Not Only SQL RDBMS- Relational Database Management System

DML- Data Manipulation Language

GET- Graduate Engineer Trainee

POST- Power-On Self-Test

XML- Extensible Mark-up Language

NMEA- National Marine Electronics Association

IOT - Internet of Things

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 TABLE OF CONTENT
01 INTRODUCION.....................................................................................................8
1.1 Title of the project.......................................................................................8
1.2 Aim of the project...................................................................................... 8
1.3 Objective of the project..............................................................................8
1.4 Back ground of the project.........................................................................8

02 LITERATURE SURVEY.....................................................................................10
2.1 Existing road detection methods………………………………………..10

2.2 Similar systems …………………………………………………………12

2.3 Theoretically background……………………………………………….13

03 SYSTEM MODEL ………………………………………………………………15

3.1 Proposed methodology …………………………………………………..15

3.2 Cost analysis ……………………………………………………………..17

3.3 Main Components and Flow ………………………………….………….16

3.4 Sensor unit………………………………………………………………..17

04 DESIGN OF HARDWARE ………………..……………………………………20

4.1 System the Flowchart……………………………………………………..20

4.2 Design the mechanical parts………………………………………………21

4.3 Schematic diagram for Hardware device ………………………………

05. DESIGN OF SOFTWARE……………………………………………..

5.1 Overview of the Smart Road Condition Checker General Architecture

5.2 Software Component……………………………………

5.3 How Architecture works ……………………………….

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06. TIME PLAN …………………………………………………………………..28

07 DISCUSSIONS…………………………………………………………………...29

08 REFFERENCE……………………………………………………………………31

LIST OF FIGURES:

Figure ID Figure Description Pg

No.
Figure 2.1 ARAN - Automated Road Analyzer 10
Figure 2.2 Sub unit mounted on the vehicle. 11
Figure 2.3 Rear of the vehicle used to acquire and store the road 12
images.
Figure 3.1 Setting up of the smart road condition checker. 23
Figure 3.2 Smart road condition checker 24
Figure 3.3 Standard road width needed to pass the two vehicles 25
Figure 3.4 Maximum road width needed to pass the two vehicles 26
Figure 3.5 Components of smart road condition checker. 28

Figure 4.1 Flow chart for acceleration sensor node. 34

Figure 4.2 NODEMCU Board

Figure 4.3 Connections between the accelerometer and the ESP32.
Figure 4.4 Schematic Diagram of the accelerometer and the ESP
32.
Figure 4.5 ESP 32 CAM
Figure 4.6 ESP 32 CAM and Microprocessor
Figure 4.7 NEO-7M
Figure 4.8 PCB layout for hardware components
Figure 5.1 General Architecture

Figure 5.2 Arduino code communicate with NMEA

Figure 5.3 HTML code mark the GPS location on Google API
Figure 5.4 ESP32 cloud system
Figure 5.5 Network diagram

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LIST OF TABLES:

Table ID Table Description Page No.

Table 2.1 Comparison among Node MCU and Raspberry Pi 13

Table 2.2 cost analysis 9
Table 4.1 connection between accelerometer and 14
ESP32

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 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Title
The smart road condition checker.

1.2 Aim
The aim of this project is to develop a system to alert the condition of roads to drivers.

1.3 Objectives

Develop a hardware unit that can be fixed in the vehicle to identify the
road condition.
 Design the hardware unit which has following features:
 Identify the width of the road before the journey. It can be verified
two vehicles can passed through at same movement.
 Identifies potholes that situated on the road before the journey.
 Automatically updates the above information of the road to the Google
using a kind of mobile application.

1.4 Background of the project

Google map helps to us to find an unknown destination during traveling. But we do

not know whether these roads are in good condition or not. Sometimes the shown
routes have potholes and insufficient road width. There is no source of information
provided to know about the road conditions and pothole status of the roads in Sri
Lanka. So if we can provide a solution to know about it earlier, people can have a
happy and relaxed journey.
This project develops an electronic device to identify the road condition, before
starting the journey. Using this system, drivers and the other people who visit our
country as a tourist can get more benefits. Also, we can save the additional money
which is to be paid for inspectors who check the road condition can be reduced.
People can save additional time that they spend for roads which are not in a good
condition.
This system helps drivers to alert the road condition. This information is made
available in the Google map and when we search Google map we will be able to know

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about the road condition too. Using this system we can identify road condition
whether it is a perfect road along which we can go without any accident and without
any time waste. Here the current situation on the road is automatically identified by
the pictures and sensors and that data will be updated to the Google map from the
previous vehicles passed through the road. Here there is a device with a camera and
sensors that detect width of road and crack points of the road. This device will be
mounted on the vehicle.
A mobile application is used to automatically update these data to the Google map.
When a vehicle goes through a broken road system will automatically recognize them
and update it to Google instantly. Then next vehicle can avoid using that road and can
prevent the harm.
Using these system drivers and the other people who visit our country as a tourist can
get more benefits using this system. Also we can save the additional money which is
to be paid for inspectors who check the road condition. People can save additional
time that they spend for traffic. And now the days we can save our fuel too.
Another special purpose is that State and Local maintenance departments are tasked
with keeping roads in good repair, which includes monitoring the roads to detect the
presence of cracks, potholes, and other distress. Currently, this is done by inspectors,
who drive out to each location and record the conditions on paper. This is a tedious and
often inconsistent process. Using specialized vehicles outfitted with sensors can automate
the data collection process significantly. However, these vehicles are expensive, costing
as much as $600,000. Another way of collecting data is through citizen reports, but these
are often only about severe and acute problems. In this project, we present a system to
monitor the condition of roads on a continuous basis, at low cost, with consistent quality,
and with minimal human intervention.

My approach involves using images collected by commodity devices such as sensors to

obtain information about the road condition. These devices can mounted in service-
vehicles like cabs, garbage trucks, police cars, public vehicle etc. But under the current
economic crisis in Sri Lanka I hope to minimize the further cost to develop the system by
using a specific vehicle. Which already make regular rounds on city roads for other
purposes . With this system the whole street network of a city can be continuously
monitored at a much lower initial and operating cost than traditional methods.

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 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE SURVEY
2.1 EXISTING ROAD DETECTION METHODS.

2.1.1 ARAN - Automated Road Analyzer

Figure 2.1 ARAN - Automated Road Analyzer

The ARAN 9000 can be outfitted with as few or as many of the standard ARAN
subsystems as required. It can be used as a profiler, video logger, mobile mapper, or
full-scale data collection system. Production-ready ARAN 9000’s is ready to be
configured and delivered, and, as with the previous ARAN platform, the ARAN 9000
is fully modular to allow for customer-specific configuration and the ability to
upgrade with additional subsystems as required.

The City of Tucson's Pavement Management Staff is currently working on making

much of this data available as colored roadway segments on a map of Tucson that will
be accessible via the internet.

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 Figure 2.2 sub unit mounted on the vehicle.

2.1.2 Adaptive Road Crack Detection System by Pavement Classification

A road distress detection system involving the phases needed to properly deal with
fully automatic road distress assessment. A vehicle equipped with line scan cameras,
laser illumination and acquisition HW-SW is used to storage the digital images that
will be further processed to identify road cracks. Pre-processing is firstly carried out
to both smooth the texture and enhance the linear features. Non-crack features
detection is then applied to mask areas of the images with joints, sealed cracks and
white painting that usually generate false positive cracking. A seed-based approach is
proposed to deal with road crack detection, combining Multiple Directional Non-
Minimum Suppression (MDNMS) with a symmetry check. Seeds are linked by
computing the paths with the lowest cost that meet the symmetry restrictions. The
whole detection process involves the use of several parameters. A correct setting
becomes essential to get optimal results without manual intervention. A fully
automatic approach by means of a linear SVM-based classifier ensemble able to
distinguish between up to 10 different types of pavement that appear in the Spanish
roads is proposed. The optimal feature vector includes different texture-based
features. The parameters are then tuned depending on the output provided by the
classifier. Regarding non-crack features detection, results show that the introduction
of such module reduces the impact of false positives due to non-crack features up to a
factor of 2. In addition, the observed performance of the crack detection system is
significantly boosted by adapting the parameters to the type of pavement.

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Figure 2.3 Rear of the vehicle used to acquire and store the road images.

A global overview of the automatic distress detection system is shown in Figure 2.3
where the main components are described using a block diagram. The input of the
system is 4,000 × 1,000 pixels images with 1 mm of resolution in both axis. These
images are obtained by integrating 1,000 images of both line scan cameras.

Global overview of the proposed adaptive road distress detection system that is
divided into four main stages: road surface classification, pre-processing, non-crack
features detection, and crack detection. The output of the classifier is used to adapt the
system parameters.

2.2 Similar Systems

I studied about the AUTOMATIC DETECTION OF ROAD POTHOLE USING
RASPBERRY PI AND MOBILE APPLICATION of R.Kabilesh Department of
Computer Science and Engineering in Kamaraj College of Engineering and
Technology India. Camera catches the picture of the street, Smart Phone and
Raspberry pi with accelerometer sensor and gps sensor are utilized to distinguish the
potholes out and about the land area directions of the potholes are recognized utilizing
a worldwide situating framework recipient individually.

But compare the Smart Road Condition Checker with the project done by Kamaraj
College of Engineering and Technology India. Smart Road Condition Checker project
used NODEMCU device, which is useful and law cost than Raspberry Pi.

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According to IOT project knowledge the Node MCU has a more powerful processor
Like Raspberry Pi and a 4Mb flash memory and much more RAM. It shows the
efficiency of the NODEMCU devices which is used in Smart Road Condition
Checker project.

Node MCU Raspberry Pi

TTGO T-CallESP32 Rs.1925/= Raspberry Pi 4 0r 3 Rs.45 000/=

NEO 7M GPS module Rs.2550/= NEO 7M GPS module Rs.2550/=

ESP 32 CAM Rs.2275/= Raspberry pi cam Rs.2400/=

Power supply or power bank Power supply Rs.6000/=

Rs.6000/=

ESP32 with MPU-6050 ADXL acceleration sensor Rs.2900/=

Accelerometer Rs.525/=

3D sensor kit holder Rs.3500/= 3D sensor kit holder Rs.3500/=

Total cost Rs.16 775/= Total cost Rs.63 000/=

Table 2.1 Comparison among Node MCU and Raspberry Pi

So, from the above comparison any one can see that the NODEMCU is better solution
for development of law cost IOT projects when compared to raspberry pi.

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2.3 Theoretical Background

During the literature survey of the theoretical background this project was look into
mainly two GPS technologies and they are,

• Active tracking
• Passive tracking

“Passive" devices store GPS location, speed, heading and sometimes a trigger event such
as key on or off, door open or closed.

Passive systems include auto download type that transfer data via wireless download.
Passive trackers do not monitor movement in real-time. When using a passive GPS
tracker, you will not be able to follow every last move that a tracked person or object
makes.
Active GPS trackers will allow one to view tracking data in real- time. As soon as this
project was place an active tracker on a vehicle, It will be able to view location, stop
duration, speed, and other tracking details.

So, when developing the Smart Road Condition Checker system it has been studied both
active and passive implementations. Finally it has been identified that the active tracker is
best suited for this project because there are many advantages associated with a real time
tracker. The most important advantage is that the GPS locater is convenience. Rather than
waiting to download data to a computer (as is the case with most passive trackers). A
tracker that works in real-time does not require any waiting.

The Tracking unit is configured around a primary modem that functions with the
tracking software by receiving signals from GPS satellites. The GSM modem then
converts the data and sends the vehicle location data to the server. So, like all other
projects over time this project also uses GPRS technology as internet provider form
GSM module.

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 CHAPTER 3

SYSTEM MODEL
3.1 PROPOSED METHODOLOGY

Fig. 3.1 – Setting up of the smart road condition checker.

SMART ROAD CONDITION CHECKER is a fully integrated system for the

automatic detection and characterization of cracks in road flexible pavement surfaces,
which does not require manually labelled samples. This is proposed to minimize the
human subjectivity resulting from traditional visual surveys. The first task is to
identify cracks on the road by the acceleration sensor and images. Those sensors are
mounted on the vehicle. Accelerometer sensor gives us the acceleration measurements
in m/s2 along each of x, y, z axes. It can be used to recognize the motion activities.

Experimental crack detection and characterization results can be stored in backup

memory and that memory can transfer to Google. Using the GPS system finds out the
current position of the vehicle (latitude and the longitude) which is the location. The
system will provide customizable web-based maps. Smart Road Condition Checker
will provide the basic tracking operations like Find specific vehicle location using
latitude and longitude, Zoom in and Zoom Out map, Scroll the map, View tracker
details Real-time using Google map, Show Roads and Railways, Geocoding
functionalities etc.

Detect location of potholes can be done by using accelerometer. My approach

includes many simple algorithms to detect events in the acceleration and vibration
data. Data obtained by image processing and accelerometers are analyzed in

15
frequency domain to extract features that are corresponding to road cracks and
standard road width that can be pass two vehicles same moment. For developing
countries, where budget and infrastructure are still limited, high-tech approaches may
still be a little out of reaches and as a result a low speed with intensive human
intervention approach may be an unavoidable option.

Pothole detection algorithm runs on a mobile platform (moving vehicles), which is

installed with accelerometer, GPS, local computer and a hotspot.

The sensed data is communicated to the central database using primary access points
and secondary access points which can be used for future processing. However,
installing wireless router and local computer on all mobile platforms and setting up
access points turns out to be quite expensive. The images are then processed using
MATLAB to detect the occurrence of potholes. It is a 2D vision based solution and
works only under uniform lighting conditions and also the system does not involve
any kind of warning system. The above solutions are limited only to the identification
of a pothole.

These solutions do not provide any aid to the driver to avoid accidents due to
potholes. This system maintains a centralized database of the location of potholes.
Proposed a system where sensors are mounted on public vehicles. These sensors
record vertical and horizontal accelerations experienced by vehicles on their route.
The installed GPS device logs its corresponding coordinates to locate potholes and the
collected data is processed to locate potholes along the path traversed earlier by the
vehicle.

However, with the need to update the information regularly, this may put further
pressure on already heavy-loaded road authorities in terms of budget for maintenance,
particularly. Therefore, exploring the use of sensors to estimate road surface condition
may be a great help. The approach may also be useful for continuous monitoring the
soundness of road infrastructure as a whole.

 SOFTWARE REQUIRMENT:
Adriano IDE, Python

 HARDWARE REQUIRMENT:

ESP32 , NEO 7M GPS module, ESP32 with MPU-6050 Accelerometer, ESP 32

CAM , Power supply or power bank

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 3.2 Cost Analysis

Cost estimation on Hardware and Network

Category Price Funding Source Features
ESP32 Development Board Rs.1925 WWW.Daraz.lk Electronic board

UBLOX NEO-7M GPS Rs.2550 WWW.Daraz.lk Gather GPS Signals

esp32 with mpu-6050 Rs.525 WWW.Daraz.lk Gather acceleration of engine

accelerometer

ESP 32 CAM Rs.2275 WWW.Senith.lk Camera module

Power supply or power bank Rs.6000 WWW.Senith.lk Providing power

Total cost on Hardware LKR 16775/=

Mobitel postpaid Data plan Rs. 440/= Mobite.lk Day Time Bundle (09:00-00:00)
- 1.65 GB • Late night bundle
(GB) -1.1

Google Firebase Database Free 1 GB Firebase.com Nosql database

(Real time Database) about 20 M
chat
messages. 1
GB Document
reads
1,500,000
reads

17
 www.000webhost.com Free - Single Shared Hosting 1
(Hosting Service) Currently Website , 1 Email
used for Account ,Limited Bandwidth
development (100 GB)

Pros – • Guarantees a 99% Unlimited Number of

uptime. Reference to uptime Websites ,Unlimited Email
- $4 = LKR Accounts ,Unlimited
https://status.000webhost.co 1520 /per Bandwidth,2X A
m/ • Response Time -914
ms (mili seconds)
Google Maps API Free Google maps.com Maps Embed API , Maps Java
Routes API $7 = LKR Script API (Developer mark)
Geolocation API 2660 /= Maps JavaScript API Directions
Direction API PER 1000 API ,
REQUESTS
Maps JavaScript API Return the
precise location of a device
based in Wi-Fi or cell tower.
Total on network cost LKR 4620//=

Table 3.2 cost analysis

3.3 Main Components and Flow

• The workflow of the Smart road condition checker is illustrated in the following Figure
3.2. According to that there are main 4 components of the system.

1. GPS Tracking Device with camera and accelerometer for pothole detection
2. Wireless data transmission medium (Hotspot)
3. Web Server
4. Web application

• NEO-7M GPS receiver that is embedded in the tracking unit, information about the
vehicle's locality is transmitted from the satellites to the tracking unit. The vehicle must
be outdoors for GPS to function and signals from a minimum of three satellites are
needed to calculate the vehicle’s location. The Web application display the maps and
Location info of vehicles, so this application got a good UI that can transform GPS data
into a graphical display for the User.
• WIF Hotspot technology used as the medium of data transmission. This information will
be stored in Firebase database and SQL database. The Advantage of using NODEMCU as

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the GPS Tracking Device microcontroller. It enables the hotspot to connect without any
wiring. Because the NODEMCU contains a WIFI chip in its circuit. Currently the Server
is used for project implementation is WAMP server. In the near future project to be
implemented in the Web Server called webhost server. However, coupled with the
limitations of GPS, updated tracking information will not be available when the vehicle
moves in tunnels, and low GPS signal places.

Figure 3.2 – Smart road condition checker

3.4 Sensor unit

3.4.1 Acceleration sensor unit

Here an acceleration sensor is placed in the vehicle. Accelerometer sensor gives the
acceleration measurements in ms-2 along each of x, y, z axes. It can be used to
recognize the motion activities. In this project, GPS is used to monitor the vehicle’s
location anywhere on earth. The GPS consists of GPS Transmitter and GPS Receiver.
In other words, the GPS unit simply measures the travel time of the signals
transmitted from the satellites, then multiplies them by the speed of light to determine
exactly how far the unit is from every satellite it's a sampling. By locking onto the
signals from a minimum of three different satellites, a GPS receiver can calculate a
2D (two-dimensional) positional fix, consisting of a vehicle’s latitude and longitude.
So, GPS is a simple unit that triangulates the position of a vehicle. GPS Receiver
receives the vehicle longitude and latitude from satellite through GPS Antenna.
In this project, a web server is used between the GPS tracking unit and the Main
Server to transmit data. The GPS tracking unit and Main Server are assigned to

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different IP addresses. When the system is turned ON/OFF every time, the IP address
is changed. The GPS tracking unit and the Main Server should know the IP address of
each of them to transmit data. Web server is used for this purpose.

3.4.2 Camera unit

Street users and vehicles occupy different amounts of space depending on their size
and speed. Lane design should accommodate transit vehicles at a speed that is safe
within the overall street context, supporting consistent and reliable operations. The
width of vehicle lanes affects street safety and travel speeds. Narrower lanes generally
result in slower travel speeds while increasing street safety for all users. For private
motor vehicles in particular, narrower lane width, down to 10 feet or narrower in
special cases, is correlated with all-user safety benefits. Buses are among the largest
vehicles operating on city streets, with mirror widths often exceeding available lane
space. Where buses operate in a narrow mixed-traffic lane, intrusion into adjacent
lanes may sometimes occur, such as when two buses pass each other. Ensure that
adjacent lanes in a street section can occasionally accommodate such movements
when needed. Bus lanes may be 10–11 feet wide when offset, and 11–12 feet when
configured curb side or in transit way adjacent to an opposing lane of bus traffic.

Combine these pairs of adjacent uses to configure a street, accounting on a case-by-

case basis for existing space constraints and operational characteristics.

Fig. 3.3 – Standard road width needed to pass the two vehicles

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 Fig. 3.4 – Maximum road width needed to pass the two vehicles

The line in the figure shows the maximum road width needed to pass the two vehicles
on road. Hope to design a few boundary lines with different line colours. The
boundary lines are classified according to figure 3.3 as the types of vehicles that can
pass through the same moment with specific colours. This kind of standard line
drawing with a camera angle.
Then if the camera angle is inside the Boundary line we can decide road width is not
sufficient to pass the relevant types of two vehicles at the same moment. According to
colours we can analyse which type of vehicles can pass at that moment.
A special algorithm was developed for data processing. The algorithm is written in
computer language C or python. Then we can mark the input data on Google Maps.
Initial stage I hope to draw 17ft green line to identify road width was sufficient to pass
the two cars at the same moment.
There are simple assumptions when driving our design.
1. Vehicle speed should be 20kmph.
2. Data collecting vehicle travel near the boundary edge of the road.

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3.4.3 Equipment setting

Fig. 3.5 – Components of smart road condition checker.

All the components are connected to each other via cables. For software, the system
consists of two main programs,
(1) An application for calibration and data collection.
(2) an application to carry out the analysis.

The system calculates data for every 10 meter road section. The result can be put in
Excel spreadsheet as well as visual presentation on Google Earth. Smart road
condition checker can only calculates data when driving speed of experimental
vehicle is 20kmph faster or slower. A special algorithm developed for data
processing. And that data will be transferred to Google through use ESP 32 .

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 CHAPTER 4

DESIGN OF HARDWARE
4.1 SYSTEM THE FLOW CHART

4.1.1 Flow chart of accelaration sensor

Start

Initialize microcontroller with

9600bps baud rate

Acceleration sensor reading

Check frequency variation of X, Y

and Z axis

Compare frequency variation of X, Y

and Z axis with normal condition

No

Frequency
variation
exceed

Yes

a pothole or bumper identified

Figure 4.1–flow chart for acceleration sensor node.

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4.2 DESIGN OF THE MECHANICAL PARTS

4.2.1 Node MCU

Microcontroller used for our project is Node MCU. Node MCU is an open-source Lua
based firmware and development board specially targeted for IOT based Applications.
It includes firmware that runs on the ESP8266 Wi-Fi SOC from Espressif Systems,
and hardware which is based on the ESP-32 module. It is simply connected to a
computer with a USB cable.
Node MCU has 128 KB RAM and 4MB of Flash memory to store data and
programs. Its high processing power with in-built Wi-Fi / Bluetooth and Deep Sleep
Operating features make it ideal for IOT projects. The 22 ESP8266 Integrates
802.11b/g/n HT40 Wi-Fi transceiver, so it can not only connect to a Wi Fi network
and interact with the Internet, but it can also set up a network of its own, allowing
other devices to connect directly to it.
This makes the ESP8266 Node MCU even more versatile. As the operating voltage
range of ESP8266 is 3V to 3.6V, the board comes with a LDO voltage regulator to
keep the voltage steady at 3.3V. It can reliably supply up to 600mA, which should be
more than enough when ESP8266 pulls as much as 80mA during RF transmissions.
The ESP8266 Node MCU has total 17 GPIO pins broken out to the pin headers on
both sides of the development board. The ESP8266 Node MCU features two buttons.
One marked as RST located on the top left corner is the Reset button, used of course
to reset the ESP8266 chip. The other FLASH button on the bottom left corner is the
download button used while upgrading firmware.
The board includes CP2102 USB-to-UART Bridge Controller from Silicon Labs,
which converts USB signal to serial and allows your computer to program and
communicate with the ESP8266 chip.
The Node MCU Development Board can be easily programmed with Arduino IDE
since it is easy to use. Programming Node MCU with the Arduino IDE will hardly
take 5-10 minutes. All you need is the Arduino IDE, a USB cable and the Node MCU
board itself. You can check this by doing a research for Node MCU to prepare your
Arduino IDE for Node MCU.

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 Figure 4.2– NODEMCU Board

4.2.2 ESP32 with MPU-6050 Accelerometer

The MPU-6050 IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) is a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis
gyroscope sensor. The accelerometer measures the gravitational acceleration and the
gyroscope measures the rotational velocity. Additionally, this module also measures
temperature. This sensor is ideal to determine the orientation of a moving object.
The gyroscope measures rotational velocity (rad/s), this is the change of the angular
position over time along the X, Y and Z axis (roll, pitch and yaw). This allows us to
determine the orientation of an object.

Figure 4.3 Connections between the accelerometer and the ESP32.

VCC Power the sensor (3.3V or 5V)

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GND Common GND

SCL SCL pin for I2C communication (GPIO 22)

SDA SDA pin for I2C communication (GPIO 21)

XDA Used to interface other I2C sensors with the MPU-6050

XCL Used to interface other I2C sensors with the MPU-6050

AD0 Use this pin to change the I2C address

Interrupt pin – can be used to indicate that new measurement

INT
data is available
Table 4.1 connection between accelerometer and ESP32

4.2.3 Schematic Diagram – ESP32 with MPU-6050

Wire the ESP32 to the MPU-6050 sensor as shown in the following schematic
diagram: connect the SCL pin to GPIO 22 and the SDA pin to GPIO 21.

Figure 4.5 Schematic Diagram of the accelerometer and the ESP 32.

4.2.4 ESP 32 Camera

ESP32-CAM is a low-cost ESP32-based development board with onboard camera,

small in size. It is an ideal solution for IOT application, prototypes constructions and
DIY projects.

The board integrates Wi-Fi, traditional Bluetooth and low power BLE, with 2 high
performance 32-bit LX6 CPUs. It adopts 7-stage pipeline architecture, on-chip sensor,

26
Hall sensor, temperature sensor and so on, and its main frequency adjustment ranges
from 80MHz to 240MHz.

Fully compliant with Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/e/i and Bluetooth 4.2 standards, it can be used
as a master mode to build an independent network controller, or as a slave to other host
MCUs to add networking capabilities to existing devices.

It is suitable for home smart devices, industrial wireless control, wireless monitoring,
QR wireless identification, wireless positioning system signals and other IOT
applications. It is an ideal solution for IOT applications.

Figure 4.5 ESP 32 CAM

We can connect ESP 32 camera with ESP32 development board. Below schematic
diagram mention for developing the ESP32-CAM programmer shield.

Figure 4.6 ESP 32 CAM and Microprocessor

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4.2.5 NEO-7M GPS

In This project, It will be using the NEO 7M GPS receiver module, which consists of
50 channels. These channels are like rooms and each channel can accommodate one
frequency per satellite. These channels are usually operated in parallel, which allows
the receiver to maintain accuracy while the receiver is moving. When it comes to the
operating conditions, the maximum operating voltage is 3.6V and the minimum
operating voltage is 2.7V. The average supply current for the NEO 7M module is
39mA. In some modules, there is an inbuilt 3.3V voltage regulator. So, to connect the
module to 5V for max performance. Note that when the GPS module works, the green
indicator on the GPS module will blink (the red one is for power-on indication), and
the figures regarding the time, latitude, longitude, etc. GPS module NEO-7M works
on 3V power supply. NEO-7M GPS module contains ceramic active antenna. Has a
strong signal with a data back-up battery and LED indicator. From the Figure 4.8 you
can see the NEO-7M GPS in graphical mode.

Figure 4.7 NEO-7M

4.2.6 XyFi WIFI Hotspot

XYFI is a small hotspot with integrated 3G, WiFi and hotspot connectivity. It enables
up to eight simultaneous connections, so Tracking devices can connect the modules to
the broadband connection easily and securely. In addition to connecting to cellular
networks to share WiFi, XYFI also connects to WiFi presenting the user as a hub to

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connectivity and providing carriers with significant WiFi offload benefits. It does not
even need a laptop. Including features such as :

• Comes with car adapter

• Easy & instant 72 Mbps internet access.

• Connects to 3G/WiFi/Hotspots.
• Powerful WiFi router (up to 8 connections).
• Easily powered by USB.
• Smart interface (including mobile version).
• Ultra reliable and secure.

XYFI comes with pre-defined settings that makes it very easy for you to connect to
the Internet.) When the XYFI is switched on, it will find the Network Name (SSID)
and will Connect to internet.

The WiFi Network status bar gives you an easy access and a quick overview of your
current WiFi connection.

4.2.7 Power Bank

We have used a Power Bank as the power supply to the circuit. It is rechargeable and has
maintenance -free operation and low discharge functionality. kingleen power bank has a
Output of 5V/2A

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4.3 Schematic diagram for Hardware device

Figure 4.8 PCB layouts for hardware components

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 CHAPTER 5

DESIGN OF SOFWARE

Figure 5.1– General Architecture

5.1 Overview of the Smart Road Condition Checker General

Architecture
PHP is the base programming language for building business logic on. When
designing the smart road condition checker, PHP was decided to run the system. Also
Google map API was used because of its easy and high end tool and spatial map data
and satellite imagery that is provided by Google map API used. They provide
mapping data free for web based noncommercial use, but charged for commercial use.

31
The architecture of the system is based on two- tier architectures for the client
application. The user interface is stored at client machine and the database is stored on
the server.

The client application will be hosted in the WAMP server 3.2.3.3 and the application
will be run (for the development phase). The data tier is responsible for storing the
location information.

The presentation tier for the smart road condition checker contains PHP and JS Web
scripts. Sublime IDE will be used to create PHP and JSP scripts. All the necessary
files will be contained in the WAMP server.

As shown in the figure 4.1, there are 2 main components. The client side which
contains a PHP application (loaded in the Web Application) and the browsers. The
application server is the business logic stands. The second tier is the database
managing the tables where the application stores their values.

The program had uploaded into the NODEMCU microcontroller which program is
written in C programming language. Uploading program into NODEMCU is done by
using Arduino IDE software. In the coding there are two libraries software Serial.h
and Tiny GPS.h.

5.2 Software Component

A web application had been built using Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), JavaScript or
jQuery which is a library of JavaScript, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) with
embedded Google Map. The JavaScript runs in the browser and integrates this
information into Google Maps through Google Maps Application Programming
Interface (API) which displays the position on a map. Since the geo positional data is
retrieved every second and the maps updated at the same interval, thus a real time
vehicle tracking is achieved.

5.2.1 Arduino IDE

For designing the pothole tracking system we need to have knowledge about various
programming languages to ensure the communication between microcontroller and
Hotspot module and to store and retrieve data of vehicles location into the web
application through Google Map. For receiving data from the satellite and sending
data into the database, Node MCU microcontroller and Hotspot module had been
programmed by using Arduino IDE software.

Arduino IDE software is open source software which is used for compiling the
program into the microcontroller. In this software C- programming language has been
used for code. The coding has mainly two parts – void setup () which is known as

32
 preparation for the program, runs only once and another part is void loop () which is
known as execution of the program.

Communicating between a Neo 7M GPS module and an ESP32-CAM module can be

achieved using the UART (serial communication) interface of both modules. Here's a
general guide on how to do it:

1. Hardware Connections:

 Connect the TX (transmit) pin of the Neo 7M module to the RX (receive) pin of the
ESP32-CAM module.
 Connect the RX (receive) pin of the Neo 7M module to the TX (transmit) pin of the
ESP32-CAM module.
 Ensure that both modules share a common ground.

2. Configure Neo 7M:

 Neo 7M typically communicates over UART. You may need to configure its baud
rate, update rate, and other settings according to your requirements. Refer to the Neo
7M datasheet or documentation for instructions on configuring it.

3. ESP32-CAM Setup:

 Set up the ESP32-CAM to read data from the Neo 7M module via UART. Now need
to initialize the serial communication and set the appropriate baud rate to match that
of the Neo 7M module.

4. Reading Data:

 In ESP32-CAM code, can read data from the Neo 7M module by continuously
reading the UART buffer.

5. Parsing Data:

 The data received from the Neo 7M module usually consists of NMEA (National
Marine Electronics Association) sentences. This project will need to parse these
sentences to extract useful information such as latitude, longitude, altitude, etc.

6. Interpretation and Application:

 Once the system has parsed the GPS data, can use it for various applications like
tracking, navigation, etc. For instance, it can display the location on a map, log the
data to an SD card, or transmit it over Wi-Fi.

33
 Figure 5.2 Arduino code communicate with NMEA

5.2.2 WAMP

WAMP stands for Cross Platform, Apache, MySQL PHP and Perl. It is a simple
Apache distribution and it is easy for developers to create a local web server for
testing purposes. All needed is to set up a web server – server application (Apache),
database (MySQL) and scripting language (PHP).

PHP is open source and widely used scripting language. PHP scripts are executed on
the server. PHP files contain text, HTML, Cascade Style Sheet (CSS), JavaScript and

34
PHP code. While the PHP code is running on the server, the result is returned as a
plain HTML to the browser. PHP can read, write, delete, open, modify, and create
files on the server.

JavaScript is a programming language of the web page. This project, was used jQuery
which is JavaScript library. jQuery makes much easier to use JavaScript on a website.
jQuery takes a lot of common tasks that require a lots of lines of JavaScript to execute
and combine them into method so that we can easily call with a single line of code.

5.2.3 Database

Data is known fact that can be recorded and have implicit meaning. A database is a
collection of related data which is organized so that it can be manipulated, updated and
stored very easily. A database is designed, built and populated with data for specific
purpose. A database management system (DBMS) is a software system to create and
manage the dat
abase. Existing DBMSs provide various functions that allow management of a database
and its data which can be classified into four main functional groups:

Data definition – Creation, modification and removal of definitions that define the
organization of the data.

Update – Insertion, modification, and deletion of the actual data.

Retrieval – Providing information in a form directly usable or for further processing by

other applications. The retrieved data may be made available in a form basically the same
as it is stored in the database or in a new form obtained by altering or combining existing
data from the database.

Administration – Registering and monitoring users, enforcing data security,

monitoring performance, maintaining data integrity, dealing with concurrency control,
and recovering information that has been corrupted by some event such as an
unexpected system failure.

DBMSs include in this project is MySQL and firebase. Namely SQL (Structured
Query Language) and NoSQL Firebase (Not Only SQL). The main objectives of
database designing are to produce logical and physical designs models of the
proposed database system.

The Firebase real-time Database is used as the database which a cloud-hosted No

SQL database. Real-time syncing makes it easy for the users to access their data from
GPS devices. With our tracking app using firebase real-time firebase will only contain
the user’s last known location of the driver.
Real-time database Build server less gps tracking app in other hand we can build apps
without the need of servers.
The reasons to use the Firebase database:

35
• Access from multiple devices: The Firebase Real-time Database allows accessing
application data from multiple devices and interfaces. Which helps in the use of
multiple GPS tracking devices.

• Splitting and scaling data: Firebase Real-time Database can split data across
multiple databases within the same project and set rules for each database instances.

• Real-time data: Real-time Database of firebase syncs data with every change thus
helping to reflect the change in real time across any device in use.

• Storage: Firebase storage feature is powered by Google Cloud Storage.

The Firebase database is used to get the real time location data of the drivers. So, the
data is updated constantly. Use of firebase helps GPS modules to connect to the
database in real time.
To get a data backup we inserted the data to the MySQL database which is hosted in
the 00webhost online server. SQL comprises both data definition and data
manipulation languages. Using the data definition properties of SQL, one can design
and modify database schema, whereas data manipulation properties allows SQL to
store and retrieve data from database.

SQL uses the following set of commands to define database schema:

CREATE
Creates new databases, tables and views from RDBMS.

DROP
Drops commands, views, tables, and databases from RDBMS.

ALTER
Modifies database schema.

SQL is equipped with data manipulation language (DML). DML modifies the
database instance by inserting, updating and deleting its data. DML is responsible for
all forms data modification in a database. SQL contains the following set of
commands in its DML section

SELET/FROM/WHERE
INSERT INTO/VALUES
UPDATE/SET/WHERE
DELETE FROM/WHERE

These basic constructs allow database GPS devices to send data and information into
the database and retrieve efficiently using a number of filter options.

36
 In this project the Database (Data) Tier –The database resides along with its query
processing languages. Here the information is stored and retrieved. This keeps data
neutral and independent from application servers or business logic. Giving data its
own tier also improves scalability and performance.

Also this project used a SQL and firebase to store the positional data of the vehicle.
By using Node MCU module which is connected through HTTP to the server and
GET method is used to store the data SQL in PHP code. This data can be retrieved or
fetched into the Google maps by using Google maps API to show the visual location
of the pothole.

5.2.4 Google Map

For developers, Google launched the Google Maps API (Application Programming
Interface) in June 2005This allows developers to integrate Google Maps into their
websites and mobile apps. Start by creating an API Key.

To mark this project's GPS details on Google Maps using the Google Maps API, need
to follow these general steps:

Get API Key:

 Visit the Google Cloud Platform Console and create the project.
 Enable the Google Maps JavaScript API according to project.
 Generate an API key.

Include Google Maps API in project HTML:

 Include the Google Maps JavaScript API in project HTML file. Can do this by
adding a <script> tag with the API URL and project API key.

Create Map:

 Use JavaScript to create a map instance on webpage. Project will need to specify the
HTML element where the map will be displayed and configure options like initial
zoom level and center coordinates.

Add Marker:

 Once the map set up, can add a marker to it using the latitude and longitude according
to project's GPS details. Need to create a google.maps.Marker object and set its
position to project GPS coordinates.

37
 Optional: Info Window:

 And can also add an info window to the marker to display additional information
when the marker is clicked. This can be useful for displaying details about pothole
details and width of the lane project.
Here's a basic example HTML
file that demonstrates how to do this:

Figure 5.3 HTML code mark the GPS location on Google API

38
5.3 How Architecture works

Stage 1 Transmission of location information from satellites to tracking unit

In this initial stage, GPS technology is used to determine the location of the vehicle.
Using the GPS antenna and GPS receiver that is embedded in the tracking unit,
information about the vehicle's locality is transmitted from the satellites to the
tracking unit. The vehicle must be outdoors for GPS to function and signals from a
minimum of three satellites are needed to calculate the vehicle’s location. NEO-7M
module got a good signal strength which got 56-channel in u-blox7 engine.

Stage 2 Transmission of collected sensor data from tracking unit to database

GPRS technology and WIF technology both used as the medium of data transmission.
This information will be stored in a Firebase database in the firebase server. And also
a Backup data is sent to the SQL Database from the Node MCU module. SQL
database is stored in the main server. Since GPRS is a cellular technology, the signal
strength of the modem is as good as common cellular phones and In case the GPRS is
off. The specialty of the programme is it can connect through WIFI Hotspots. Data
transmission will work indoors. However, coupled with the limitations of GPS,
updated tracking information will not be available when the vehicle moves in tunnels,
and low GPS signal places.

Stage 3 Display location information in a graphical map display and in an

attractive UI.

Real Time GPS Tracking

The tracking unit will allow the transport manager to monitor the movement of the
vehicles over the Internet from any web-enabled device anytime of the day.
Information about the vehicles location is retrieved from the database of the central
server. When transport manager logs on to the website it will display the UI
dashboard which display maps and Location info of vehicles, so this application got a

39
good web service that can transform latitude and longitude information into a
graphical display is used to generate a map of the vehicles location. Google maps API
is used to generate this graphical display.

Figure 5.4 ESP32 cloud system

Figure 5.5 Network diagram

40
6 TIME PLAN
Jun July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May

2012 2012 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013
Proposal and
feasibility
project
Review of other
&preparing
systems and
project proposal
literature survey
15/07/2011
Progress report1

Progress
presentation#1

System
Designing &
simulations

Progress report2

Progress
presentation#2

Implementation
testing and
verification of
results

Final report `
submission and
Final
presentation

41
 CHAPTER 7

DISCUSSION
Following are the problems encountered during the progress period.

 When we are planning our project budget will be around Rs.20 000/=
 So I am struggling with how I am motivating people to mount this device on
their private vehicles. Because now it is very costly. So I decided to design a
low-cost specific vehicle model only for data collection. Then device not
providing to each and all vehicles. My design randomly travels through the
road and uploads real-time data to Google at least once a month.
 And I selected another microcontroller Node MCU as an alternate option for
the raspberry pi project board.
 When we mark road condition additional details cannot be included e.g. the
width and depth of pits on the road.
 User should have internet connection to get web search results.
 Categorizing data according to feature of the situation.
 Time taken for data processing.
 Providing this equipment for every vehicle. Here specific vehicles like
garbage truck, police mobiles and government vehicle basically can be used.
 Getting most accurate data from the vehicle under specific speed.
 Less network coverage in some rural area.

42
 CHAPTER 8
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