(IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, Vol. 13, No. 3, 2022 174 | Page www.ijacsa.thesai.org Design and Development for a Vehicle Tracking System Tim Abe P. Andutan, Rosanna C. Ucat College of Engineering, University of Southeastern Philippines, Davao City, Philippines Abstract—In recent years, the drastic increase in the number of vehicle thefts brings about at an alarming rate around the world. However, existing vehicle tracking devices have certain limitations including the lack of ability to determine if the vehicle is on the right route. To address this problem, this study focused on the design and development of a vehicle tracking prototype with route detection, emergency button, and STATUS command to monitor the current location of the vehicle. Arduino Mega 2560, SIM900 Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) module, and NEO-6M Global Positioning System (GPS) module were used to develop the prototype. The GPS module, push buttons, and SMS command served as an input. The Arduino Mega 2560 was programmed using an algorithm to determine if the device deviated from its route, detect if the emergency button was pressed, and if STATUS command was received. The system sends a SMS if the vehicle deviated from its path, emergency button is pressed, and a STATUS command from the operator is received. Results showed that after several trials the prototype was successful in performing its functional objectives. The prototype was only limited to the use of a prototyping grade GPS module. The GPS used a built-in antenna and took time to connect to satellites. It is recommended to use an industrial grade GPS module and connect an external antenna to improve signal strength. Keywords—Arduino; global positioning system; GPS; global system for mobile communications; GSM; vehicle tracking; route deviation detection I. INTRODUCTION As the number of automobiles in the road increases, the crime involving larceny or vehicle stealing also increases [1]. In recent years, the drastic increase in the number of vehicle thefts brings about at an alarming rate around the world [2]. The Interpol Statistics revealed that 4.2 million vehicles were reported to be stolen in 2008 from 149 countries [3]. In 2020, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) further revealed that the vehicle theft increased considerably which totaled up to 873,080 compared in 2019 [4]. Evidently, the scenario is also common in the Philippines with a highest record of 13.2 cases of vehicle theft per 100,000 population in 2014 [5]. The volume of vehicle theft has brought to a national concern which ranks third next to theft and robbery among all property crimes in the country [6]. Recently, the vehicle theft in the country was at 4.6 cases per 100,000 population in 2018 [5]. The application of this study could be significant to corporations such as the banking sector, logistics company, and food industry in improving vehicle security during transportation of confidential materials, and accomplishing projects to avoid unwanted intrusions, delay, and theft. This study can also benefit the vehicle operators in terms of theft recovery and improvement of performance in vehicle security, tracking, and monitoring. This study can serve as a basis or foundation to future researchers in relation to vehicle monitoring and tracking system. To address the growing concern in vehicle tracking, the proponent intended to design and develop an easy-to-use vehicle tracking and monitoring system with route deviation detection and SOS capability. The study also aimed to use the nature of Global System Monitoring – Short Message Service (GSM-SMS) Technology to effectively send notifications and location details of the vehicle when the vehicle deviated from its path, if the button was pressed during an emergency situation, and ―<STATUS>‖ command was requested to determine the current status of the vehicle. II. LITERATURE REVIEW Khin and Oo [7] created a vehicle tracking system that utilizes GPS technology to determine a vehicle’s location. The study used GPS and GSM technology, in which the embedded GPS module retrieves the vehicle's location. After which, the GPS continuously monitor the movement of the vehicle and plot the location using Google Map and displayed on a webpage. The vehicle’s position was also saved through MySQL databased using XAMPP platform. Besides, Sharp, Cable, and Burns [8] used GPS technology for tracking the movements of the visitors in heritage sites. The research utilized GPS to understand the temporal and spatial distribution of the visitors’ movements. The findings were used to develop strategic opportunities to attract the visitors to the less visited areas of the heritage site and properly engage with the site. The study of Shukla [9] incorporated GPS technology for landmine detection wherein GPS was attached to a rover and the rover was controlled using Dual Tone Multiple Frequency (DTMF). A landmine detection circuit was installed to the rover. When a landmine is detected, the rover returned the location from the GPS and directly sent to the operator and locate the landmine. The recent studies mentioned above used GPS technology for tracking the movements of a robot, tourist, and vehicles. However, none of the studies utilized GPS to track the movement of a vehicle that identifies whether object of interest to be tracked deviated from its route or not. The studies also were not able to determine if the object being