G3 TECHNOLOGY GPS, GSM AND GIS FOR AUTOMATIC VEHICLE LOCATION AVL USING OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

The challenge of Automatic Vehicle Location AVL over wide areas and large distances is evident. Recent studies have revealed that one of the most critical components of a successful autonomous vehicle was the reliability of accurate positioning. Automatic vehicle location systems calculate real-time location of any vehicle equipped with a Global Positioning Satellite GPS receiver. Data are then transmitted to the transit center with use of radio or cellular communications and can be used immediately for daily operations as well as archived for further analysis. There exist a number of commercially available vehicle tracking application software packages which are usually delivered on the basis of a single license for each vehicle and in many cases do not meet the specific requirements of different users. The cost of the software component can be extremely high with increasing vehicle numbers. In this paper a stand-alone application is developed using GIS Map Window, an open source software OSS technology available free of charge from the internet and is customized using GIS Application Programming Interface API, enabling building a product tailored to suit users exact needs. The developed AVL system can operate on ready made maps, Google maps, or user own developed maps. The paper discuses the concepts and components of AVL, G3 technology GPS, GSM and GIS , and presents the developed AVL application with snap shots demonstrating various system capabilities such as tracking module, street locator module,Jand mark module, as well as navigation module.