Vehicle door latch with tracking and alert system using global positioning system technology and IoT based hardware control for visibility and security of assets

The Internet of Things (IoT) opens up tremendous opportunities to location-based projects that maximize the ability of technologies with its processing power and sensors to provide location information. Location tracking is one of the most important applications for Internet of Things (IoT). Meanwhile, location sensing applications have become increasingly popular on smart-phones, since many, if not, all smart phones are equipped with a powerful sensor set, which includes GPS, Wi-Fi, accelerometer, orientation, etc. With these powers of IoT, we came up with an idea to incorporate it in a lock. In this paper, we propose a vehicle door latch with tracking and alert system. Our lock with tracking device integrates GPS module, microcontroller, pneumatic lock and a battery for power supply. A microcontroller is used to control the GPS and the pneumatic lock. The tracking system uses the GPS module to get geographic coordinates. The alert system will activate when the lock is closed but the door is not in its position, which only means the door is not intact with the latch. A unique website is built for accessing location data and control to lock and unlock. In order to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the system, this paper presents experimental results of the vehicle tracking system and some experiences on practical implementations. Our device is high in mobility, accurate in positioning, and is with fast enough response time which is dependent on the speed of the internet.