Development of a Personnel Management and Position and Energy Tracking System for Electric Vehicles

The challenges faced by managers of transportation systems in developing nations such as Nigeria are numerous. These include driver scheduling, which, in many cases, is still being done manually; diversion of vehicles to unauthorized routes by drivers for selfish reasons results in illegal use of fuel meant for official duties, causing the organization lose considerable revenue. In its drive to reduce its carbon footprint, Elizade University, Nigeria, is embarking on the development and use of electric vehicles (EV) as a means of transportation within the university campus. This research is geared towards supporting this initiative by developing an EV tracking system that combines tracking of EV drivers with vehicle position and battery power (energy) tracking in order to mitigate the challenges outlined above. Personnel tracking was achieved using an RFID-enabled staff identity card that authenticates authorized drivers before activating the vehicle ignition system, position tracking was achieved using a geographical positioning system (GPS), and current and voltage sensors were used for tracking of electric vehicle power. Tests revealed that the EV system administrator operated through a personal computer was able to track the EV driver, position and power through a web interface/Google Maps and e-mail in real time. Whereas previous studies either considered tracking of vehicle position or power without personnel, others tracked personnel with less emphasis on the vehicle position or energy. In this study, we combined different technologies such as RFID, GPS and power sensors to consider EV administration in a holistic manner, thereby providing intervention in an infrastructurally deficient setting.