Pilgrims Model in WSN for Traveller Tracking

Abstract

Every year millions of pilgrims gather in the small city like Nashik for Kumbhmela, or in Amarnath or in the Holy area of Kashmir, India, to perform the rituals of GODs. Finding the position and movements of such a large number of people is important to the pilgrims themselves and the authorities managing the whole event. This paper deals a real-time pilgrim tracking or finding system that has been designed and implemented. The system relies on a dedicated delay-tolerant wireless sensor network (WSN). This WSN is interfaced to the Internet through lots of gateway(s) available from an internet service provider (ISP). Energy efficiency is most important factors in designing such system but there are few more like robustness, and reliability. Each pilgrim is given a mobile sensor unit which includes a GPS chip, a microcontroller, and antennas. A network of fixed units is installed in the Holy area for receiving and forwarding data. After a fixed period of time, each mobile unit sends its user identification (UID), latitude, longitude, and a time stamp. A central server maps the latitude and longitude information on a geographical information system (GIS). The developed system can be used to track or find a specific or a group of pilgrims.