Research Paper on Intelligent Bike Alarm System

Introduction

Since early times, humans have been concerned regarding their positions and where they are headed. To solve these challenges, some used simple rock cairns marking the trail to locate their movements. However, these methods of navigation were faced with a lot of challenges such as weather as they could often lose the markings. Additional challenges would include crude positioning of ships and planes. Some people tried to come up with schemes that would cater for the same, especially during the World War II, which saw advances in the built systems concerning accuracy and their usability. Later, mapping was used to replace this method of navigation when man realized the concept of geographic positioning. The method of maps was and is still being used and has been constantly improved for better solving of the challenges faced by humankind.

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Today, with advances in technology, people are more precise and use their intellectual ability to find the most accurate measurements even concerning a distance between two points on the earth's surface. Various radio-navigation systems are being built regularly including the Loran, Transit, Omega, as well as the GPS. The global positioning system (GPS) has been recently developed through high human skills such as surveying. GPS is commonly used to locate the position of a person at a very high level of precision hence, a renaissance of navigation, surveying, and mapping professions that existed before (Grewal, Andrews & Bartone, 2013). The GPS is now used in various applications including transportation and land surveying, and more applications are being developed with time (Leick, Rapoport & Tatarnikov, 2015). It is considered as amongst the most sophisticated software that enhances quick decision making, analysis of information and helps people learn about their environment.

GPS involves the use of Geographic Information System (GIS), which is applied to geographic data, useful to identify the locations of items on the earth's surface. GIS, regardless of its places of application, shares most of its characteristics with various applications and software such as spreadsheets and computer-aided design respectively. However, GIS would deal mainly in spatial information, which if used properly, would be useful for a GPS. Presently, research is being done on how GPS can be integrated into various areas of study including natural resource management, mining, cultivation, shipping activities, and even enhancing public safety (Zogg, 2009). This geographic revolution has seen a change in how man used to solve their challenge of navigating to and fro about their desired locations.

GPS can be well-presented as a satellite-based navigation system, specially developed by the US defense departments in the 70s (El-Rabbany, 2006). With the US having advancements in their military during that period, they developed the system to meet their requirements. One of their needs was an autonomous finding of the location of one or more soldiers within at least 10 meters. The military needed a system that could allow their soldiers to find each other without using any form of communication. This led to the idea of developing a one-way receiver that could not be traced by their opponents but still serve them efficiently. Additionally, they found the need to come up with that system that could be up 24 hours while providing them with the necessary security of the system to avoid any interruption by their opponents. The development was made, and each of the military vehicles was equipped with the system, phasing out the traditional methods of finding one another. From the US, it was embraced by civilians as soon as it was found useful to humankind.

The GPS is even more operational and provides precise positions and navigation services to anyone, at any time (French, 1996). Civilians are now pacing the military use of the GPS. A lot of useful applications and systems have been developed with an integration of the system in that many people are now depending on the system for their daily requirements. The main advantage with the GPS is that it provides the users with a continuous positioning and timing of information, at any place in the world regardless of the environmental factors (Grubbs, 2014). Additionally, GPS is being used as it can serve a lot of people at once and considering that it is a passive system, it is being employed in security advances. Many of the users of a GPS can only receive the satellite signals. Even with these advantages of the system, the military is still faced with a challenge of providing and maintaining security over the GPS systems with most civilians applying it to their daily lives.

The GPS is cheap for its low-end receivers; hence, anyone can use the system, and at any time. For instance, Bikes and cars are now setting up receivers that are connected to mapping displays to trace their locations and avoid loses. Additionally, the services are being implemented by delivery companies, which are optimizing their routes every single time to cater for their needs. The past mapping, which was being developed without the knowledge that GPS would be integrated within it, is now being implemented by a lot of people who need to find a quick location of their Bikes.

The Bike's GPS would mainly involve the user segment of the system, which would include the end users, i.e., the bike owners who have purchased the receivers for their private use. The user segment of the GPS could cater to the needs of anyone, ranging from the military to the civilians. However, the control and space segments are as well important for proper functionality of the GPS. For the space segment, the GPS would take advantage of the 24 satellites that are located in various orbital planes, which are as high as 21000 kilometers above the earth's surface. Every period of rotation of the satellites takes at least '11 hours and 56 minutes' (Leica Geosystems, 2002). There is the transmittance of the signal from individual satellites, which includes two carrier frequencies, two digital codes, and a navigation message. Each of these is linked in that the navigation message would be available for one or more of the carrier frequencies. For instance, the C/A code would be available on the LI frequency whereas the P-code would be available for the LI and L2 carrier frequencies or sine waves. The C/A code would be more preferred as its range is less as compared to that of the P-code (Young et al., 2003). Additionally, getting the C/A sine wave is easier compared to other carrier frequencies, which are commonly implemented by the military. The information at the navigation message, which is transmitted to the carriers in the form of binary bi-phase modulations, would contain information regarding the coordinates of the GPS satellites, the correction factors of the satellite clocks, and climatic information. The GPS satellites contain atomic clocks that transmit precise signals to the end user. The main purpose of this segment to the Bike would be to determine the distance from the Bike to the Satellites.

The control segment for the Bike's GPS would consist of various control and monitoring stations. Firstly, there would be the master control station, at a selected location, which tracks the satellites to determine the atomic clocks' condition hence, their effectiveness in transmitting signals. From the master control station, the information would then be passed on to the ground control stations, which would upload the information to the satellites through the S-band link for processing. The bike's GPS would be linked to the monitoring stations, which would have highly-efficient GPS receivers that could track all satellites at once.

Finally, the user segment, which is the main segment of the Bike's GPS, would include an antenna connected to the GPS, to enable the Biker to receive the GPS signals upon processing by the master control system. With the aid of the signals, the user can be able to determine the position of the bike at any time, and at any location on the earth's surface. As the signals travel from the GPS satellites to a receiver on the earth, the constant speed lets their travel time determine the exact distance between the satellite and the user (Zogg, 2009). This is important in calculating the distance between the Bike and the Satellite. In the case of the Intelligent Bike Alarm System, four receivers would be used and when synchronizing the signals, the signal time shifts of the four signals would be important in the determination of the exact travel time of the signals, hence, a more accurate distance. A multiplication of the time shifts and the speed of travel would provide pseudo ranges measurements that can be converted into real and more accurate distance. Even though the satellites would use similar frequency in transmission, each of them would use different C/A codes to make the operation more successful.

The antenna would contain two units, which should be used on the handheld GPS receiver, including the quadrifilar and the patch. For the quadrifilar, the user will better receive accurate signals from the satellites that are close to the horizon. The other antenna would help filter satellite signals received directly overhead. Using both antennas on a GPS such as the Bike Alarm system would ensure not only accurate information but also precision in locating the bike. There would be no need to use an amplified antenna since the GPS would be fixed closer to the receiver hence, strengthen the signals before they are sent to the cables and the processor. Additional capabilities of the GPS would include having a display of the moving map, which would move as the user moves around the location of the bike hence, graphically present the position and direction that is being traveled by Bike with its environment. In detail, some other features may include the nearest buildings, highways, or even rivers. The receiver may also require the user to load maps, especially those that have been created when biking, or those that the bike will most probably be located. Having a moving map would be useful especially in tracing the navigation of the map and knowing when it is moving out of range. A short message service could be synchronized with the entire system to ensure that the bike does not move past the predestined locations. Otherwise, it could be traced easily.

Finally, the short message alert bit of the system is the most crucial part as it is meant to notify the user of the location and navigation of the Bike. The system would use a continuous stream of information, transmitted every second, delivering information containing the system time and clock correction, the orbital information and an approximate of other satellites, the health of the system, and additional information that would make the end user's needs be met. The importance with this information is that it would be easier even to calculate the current position of satellites and also determine the travel times of signals. Through this information, an accurate distance can be measured to give a precise location of the Bike.

The positioning system applied to the Bike's GPS would be the relative positioning preferred over single point positioning. The main advantage with taking the form of positioning is that the coordinates of the receiver at the bike, at an unknown location, can be found as soon as the earth's reference frame is identified with the help of already identified positions of known points. Using relative positioning would help the system avoid most errors experienced when receiving measurements as a result of the known and unknown site discrepancies. As a result of the application of relative positioning, the Bike's GPS would include post-mission...