Real-Time Garbage Vehicle Tracking and Monitoring System
Client
- Confidential
Category
- Web Development
The Problem
Residents rarely know when the garbage truck is coming, so they either miss it or leave waste out for hours, and a collection route keeps little record of whether it was actually served. A two-student engineering thesis group set out to track collection vehicles live and give residents a heads-up before the truck reaches their street.
What We Built
We built a system that follows each collection vehicle in real time and shows its position on a live map anyone can open from a phone or computer. A tracking unit on the truck reports its location over the cellular network, an RFID tag identifies the driver and marks the moment collection begins, and each resident registers their own address and alert radius. When the truck crosses into that radius, the unit sends them an SMS carrying its position, the driver's name, and the plate number. An admin console manages the collector and resident registers behind the same sign-in. Bringing satellite positioning, cellular telemetry, and a public-facing dashboard together into one working prototype is exactly the kind of connected-hardware problem we take on end to end.
Results
- SMS on approach
each resident sets their own alert radius and gets a text when the truck crosses into it
- RFID starts the shift
the driver's tag gates position publishing and marks the moment collection begins
- Live public map
anyone can watch collection vehicles move from a phone or a browser, no app to install
- Position, driver, plate
every alert carries the truck's location, the driver's name and the plate number
Techstack
