Design and Development of Cost-Effective Global Positioning System General Packet Radio Service: Based Soldier Tracking System

This article proposes a low-cost object tracking system using global positioning system (GPS) and general packet radio service (GPRS). The current object tracking systems utilize short messaging service (SMS) technology which when compared with GPRS is costlier. Hence, using GPRS in this system makes it economical and reduces the working cost. GPRS also enjoys the advantages of faster and continuous data transmission. This system uses a Telit-GM-862GPS module, which tracks the location details such as latitude, longitude, speed, altitude, and accuracy, in a specific data format known as National Marine Engineering Association (NMEA) protocol. This location data format is processed further with a PIC16F877 microcontroller. The processed information is sent to GPRS module then to a Web server, where a database is already created, using Microsoft Access, ASP.NET, MYSQL for storing the location details so as to allow the user to view the present and past positions of a target object on Google map through internet to track wounded soldiers and also military vehicles.