ISLAND-HOPPING BOATS TRACKING AND DISTRESS CALL

ALERTING SYSTEM USING LORA TECHNOLOGY

A Design Project
Presented to the Faculty of College of Engineering
University of Cebu – Lapulapu and Mandaue
Mandaue City

In Partial Fulfilment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering

By

ANTASUDA, VAN
BARRIENTOS, MICHAEL JOHN
CABALHUG, VERLIN GRACE
DOROY, FLORIE MAE

Engr. Joseph Manbert Mendez

Adviser

October 2019
 Title Page

ISLAND-HOPPING BOATS TRACKING AND DISTRESS CALL

ALERTING SYSTEM USING LORA TECHNOLOGY

A Design Project
Presented to the Faculty of College of Engineering
University of Cebu – Lapulapu and Mandaue
Mandaue City

In Partial Fulfilment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering

By

ANTASUDA, VAN
BARRIENTOS, MICHAEL JOHN
CABALHUG, VERLIN GRACE
DOROY, FLORIE MAE

Engr. Joseph Manbert Mendez

Adviser

October 2019

i
Approval Sheet

ii
Abstract

iii
Table of Contents

TITLE PAGE I

APPROVAL SHEET II

ABSTRACT III

TABLE OF CONTENTS IV

LIST OF FIGURES VI

LIST OF TABLE/CHARTS VII

CHAPTER 1 1

1.1 RATIONALE 1

1.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 5

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 6

1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 8

1.6 RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT 8

1.7 RESEARCH SUBJECTS 8

1.8 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS 8

1.9 RESEARCH PROCEDURE 9

1.10 DEFINITION OF TERMS 10

CHAPTER 2 11

iv
2.1 PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 11

v
 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure # Title of the Figure Page

1 Block Diagram of Island-Hoping boats Tracking … 13

vi
 LIST OF TABLE/CHARTS
Table # Title of the Table Page

vii
 CHAPTER 1

The Problem and Its Scope

1.1 Rationale
Philippines is an archipelagic country composed of 7,107 islands that have become

internationally known tourist destination. Cebu as one of the islands of the Philippines has

captured the attention of tourists from all over the world because of its unique combination
[1.]
of natural and man-made attractions. The island’s prime attraction are white-sand
[2.]
beaches and spectacular diving spots. Due to the breathtaking sceneries from the sea,

there are a lot of activities involving exploring the sea such as diving and island-hopping.

Right now, the current trend here in Cebu especially for foreign tourist is island-hopping.

Island-Hopping is the activity of traveling one island to another. There are a lot of islands

here in Cebu to visit. Though island-hopping is fun, upon travelling mishaps can really

happen. Local travel agencies have major concerns on the safety measures of island-

hopping provided by island-hopping operators.

For the island-hopping boats to be monitored, boats are required to be equipped

with VHF radios. There are government agencies that are assigned in different ports in

Cebu to monitor island-hopping activities and these government agencies are the Philippine

Coast Guards, in monitoring, the coast guards use VHF radios to answer distress calls from

the island-hopping boats and a set of binoculars for monitoring the island-hopping

activities. Through this system, the passengers riding the island-hopping boat have no

assurance of direct communication with the coast guard or even the boat operators and

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whenever there is a problem regarding the boat, it will cause delayed-response of the coast

guards because of the uncertainty of location of the boat.

To answer to this issue, the researchers have designed a system that can help the

Philippine Coast Guard and Maritime Industries Authorities to track and monitor the

island-hopping boats that will be departing from the port. The researchers also want to

identify the names of the island-hopping boats that are registered in Lapulapu city and it

will be automatically saved in the system’s database. This system is differing to the system

that the coast guards use. Instead of using VHF radios upon knowing the coordinates of the

island-hopping boats, this system will provide the exact coordinates of the distressed

island-hopping boats.

Through this system, the researchers would like to prevail over the problem in

tracking and monitoring island-hopping boats. The researchers also want to have a daily

data and information of coordinates of the island-hopping boats.

1.2 Theoretical Background and Related Literature

This study is all about a tracking and monitoring system designed for island-hopping

boats that utilizes the concept of wireless sensor networks (WSN) to provide convenience

to the people who owns an island-hopping business and people who are to do island-

hopping. There are a lot of similar studies that uses this kind of technology.

This chapter explores related studies in tracking and monitoring systems using IoT.

This section associates the study conducted by other researcher works that have

encountered the same problem and analyze their end results.

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1.2.1 Historical Overview of the Theories

History of Island-hopping

Island-hopping was a war strategy of the United States during World War II in its

Pacific Campaign against the Japanese Empire. [3.]

History of Banca Boats

Banca boats, were initially developed by the Austronesian-speaking people in

Southeast Asia. It was made mainly for sea travel during their migration period. The

Austronesian people can travel as far as Polynesia, New Zealand, and across the Indian

Ocean to Madagascar with the banca boats.

In the Philippines, banca boats have always been a staple for residents living in the

coastal area. Early development of boat-building are dated back to the Pre-Hispanic Era.

The archipelagic nature of the Philippines urged the locals to depend on banca boats for

navigating at sea, trading with other islands, and traveling from one community to the

other.

Today, banca boats are still widely used in the country, usually for fishing and

island-hopping tours. Filipinos, Malays, Malagasies, Micronesians, Melanesians, and

Polynesians remain to be primary users of banca boats for fishing and traveling to nearby

islands. [4.]

History of GPS

GPS started way back in the Sputnik Era when scientists were able to track the satellite

with the shifts in its radio signal known as “Doppler Effect”. The United States Navy

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conducted satellite navigation experiments in the mid 1960’s to track US submarines

carrying nuclear missiles. [8.]

1.2.2 The Theory and Related Literature specific to the Study

Local

Rules and Regulations to govern the accreditation of motorized boat engaged in tourism
activities and services

The Department of Tourism (DoT) have promulgated several rules and regulations

to govern the accreditation of motorize boat/banca specifically for 20 gross tonnage (GRT)

and below and are engaged in tourism activities and services. Standard requirements for

motorized boats in tourism activities and services must correspond according to the type

and physical appearance of the vessel to be registered, it helps to provide the right

equipment and accessories for the boat. Every boat must be able to provide a life-saving

and fire-fighting equipment and facilities, it must be able to procure an adequate number

of life vest as specified in the MARINA Certificate of Inspection to be given and worn by

passengers upon boarding, lighting signals and radio equipment, VHF with capability on

156.8/156.3/156.6 MHz Motorized boats must also provide a waste disposal bin to help

lessen water pollution and protect local reserve. The boat shall be manned by at least two

boatmen who are well-trained, efficient and courteous and with proper work permit or

license from MARINA. [9.]

Foreign

AMBLoRa: A Wireless Tracking and Sensor System using Long Range

Communication to Monitor Animal Behavior

4
 The continuous tracking devices can be fine in several applications in the literature. In

several experiments, the researchers tried to optimize their device to allow a complete

monitoring and long life time of the system.

Monitoring animal behavior is an important research topic to understand the relations

between the animals and their environment.

The Integration of GPS Navigator Device with Vehicles Tracking System for Rental
Cars Firm

The aim of this research is to integrate the GPS tracking system with GPS navigator

for rental cars, allowing the users to use various applications to monitor and manage cars.

The system allows users to locate any car at any time of the day. Also, it can replay a past

trace of the car’s history. It can also remotely control the car such as run alarms and locking

devices.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

Tracking and monitoring island-hopping boats is still a problem for the marine

authorities to manage because the marine authorities have confirmed of the nonexistence

of having that kind of system so hence the necessity to have a tracking and monitoring

system for island-hopping boats and also the increasing number of maritime accidents

occurring mostly in tourism activities such as island-hopping. Although island-hopping

boats operators geared up their boats with VHF radios and life-saving equipment, the exact

location of the boat will still be unknown and the passengers on the boat will still be in

danger in a meanwhile before they are to be rescued. This means that delay and hassle are

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still experienced by the operators, sailors, crews, passengers and marine authorities.

Furthermore, this is a clear evidence that the existence of a tracking and monitoring system

for island-hopping boats can be a big help.

Further objectives of this study are as follows

Specifically, the study sought to answer for the following sub problems:

1. To design a system that can be used for island-hopping boats in terms of

1.1 Tracking the exact coordinates of the boats.

1.2 Monitor distress call from the boats.

2. To design a system that can track and monitor island-hopping boats that can

also consider the following variables.

2.1 Energy Efficiency of the device.

2.2 Transmission capabilities of the system.

2.3 Number of simultaneously connected end-devices.

2.4 Cost of the device.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The study will benefit the following people as it will give them a clearer view of the

Island-hopping boats Tracking and Distress Call Alerting System. The Maritime Industry

Authority (MARINA) in order to legislate laws that may answer problems affecting

Philippine registered island-hopping boats. The system will be a great help for them

because this system can be directly registered to their records. And also, the Philippine

Coast Guard (PCG) for enforcing the legislated laws promulgated by the Maritime Industry

6
Authority. The system will help them monitor island-hopping boats upon departure and

arrival of the boats. With the system itself, easy distress call signals sending can be

implemented. The Island-Hopping Boat Sailors will also benefit in order to have an

insurance to their passenger for cooperating with MARINA and PCG in assuring safety in

every travel. With the system aide, they could give insurance to their passenger that they

could travel with ease. And also, the Passengers for them to have an assurance of safety

conducted from the MARINA and PCG. With system, they can assure that their safety is

the main priority of the island-hopping operators. And lastly the Operators in order to

monitor the safety the island-hopping boat passenger, sailor and crew on board the boat.

With the system’s tracking and distress call alerting system, safety procedures are

observed, the business can be noticed.

1.5 Scope of the Study

The conduct of the research study is focused only in the number of aspects:

 The areas to be covered in this study is the waterways from Hilton Port to Santa

Rosa Port. And that point of area where the study will be implemented will be

geofenced.

 Boats that aren’t identified as island-hopping boats will be not included.

 The number of registered boats that will be installed with the devices will vary

according to the researchers’ budget.

 The number of satellite buoys that will be anchored will not be anchored to the sea

without any authorization from the government.

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1.6 Research Methodology
The study utilized a non-experimental design. Specifically, the study used to

determine the existing problems in terms of Island-hopping boats Tracking and Distress

call Alerting System.

Research Flow

Input Process Output

Gathering, Remote
GPS Coordinates / Processing Users
Distress call Alert and Storing receive
from the device of Data information

Figure 1 Block Diagram of Island-Hoping boats Tracking and Distress Call Alerting
System

The diagram shown is the flow of the Island-hopping boats tracking and Distress

Call Alerting system. The information and coordinates of the island-hopping boat will

serve as the input of the system. During gathering of data, it will automatically be stored

in the system’s database. The system will also receive distress calls from the system. The

output will be sent the coordinates and alert messages to the remote user.

1.7 Research Environment

1.8 Research Subjects
1.9 Research Instruments
The following questionnaires were used by the researchers in gathering the data:

8
 1.1.1 Maritime Related Information Questionnaire. This questionnaire is a 10

itemed questions instrument, it was developed to gather information

regarding the availability of any kind of system that can track and receive

distress signals for island-hopping boats.

1.1.2 Island-Hopping Operators Questionnaire. This questionnaire is a 10

itemed questions instrument, it was developed to gather information

regarding the approval of full cooperation upon deployment of the system

with the island-hopping boat operators.

1.1.3 Personnel Interview. This is a researcher-made interview that was used in

gathering information regarding Island-hopping boats Tracking and Distress

call Alerting System based on LoRa Technology. This instrument helped the

researchers made some possible questions related to the needed data before

interviewing the respondents. The researchers have recorded the information

needed.

1.10 Research Procedure

1.9.1 Gathering of Data

In data gathering, the researchers asked the respondents whether they will

allow the researchers to conduct an interview with regards to the study and give

them questionnaires for them to answer. When they were granted to conduct the

interview, the researchers have given and let the respondents answered the

questionnaires. Only to the Representatives of the PCG, MARINA and island-

9
 hoping operators are to answer the questionnaires. After the respondents have

answered the questions, the researchers collected the questionnaires and kept the

questionnaire for data interpretation.

1.9.2 Treatment of Data

1.11 Definition of Terms

Island-hopping boats Tracking and Distress Call Alerting System – a system that can

track island-hopping boats and monitor distress call alert signals.

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 CHAPTER 2

Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

2.1 Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

2.2 Conceptual Framework
The study aims to track and accepts distress calls alerts to and from the island-hopping

boats which can help collects data and monitor the island-hopping boats’ whereabouts. The

figure below shows the concept of the study.

For tracking the boat’s position, the device will be able to send the GPS coordinates

over the system’s cloud database then the system will be able to receive the data sent by

the device. For sending a distress signal to the system, if the S.O.S button is pressed, the

device will send the GPS coordinates and alert message to the system’s cloud database then

status of the distressed boat will be informed through the system.

System Features

Moreover, this system gives benefits to the island-hopping operators and to their

customers such as:

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  Real-time location of the island-hopping boats

 Historical island-hopping boat reports

 Real-time tracking alerts and reports after minute boat monitoring

 Create custom geo-fences

 Historical movement of the boat

 Mileage reporting

 Fast S.O.S alert

 Capsize sensor

2.3 System Flowchart

Workflow of the Island-hopping boats Tracking and Distress Call Alerting System is

shown using the activity flow diagram.

System Activity

S.O.S Button Alert Activation

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Submerge or Capsize S.O.S Sensor Alert Activation

2.4 Block Diagrams

System Block Diagram

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Island-hopping boat Device Block Diagram

Base Station Device Block Diagram

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Satellite buoy Device Block Diagram

2.5 Design Prototype

2.6 Hardware Design
For tracking and monitoring the boats, the transmission of data will depend on the

distance of the boat from the shore, two well-differenced scenarios have been identified

within the ecosystem. Considering a 4.7km distance from Mactan Hilton Port to Santa Rosa

Port and a 4.1km distance from Angasil Port to Santa Rosa Port. Based on the kind of

technology we are using, distance matters in this system. Because the type of LoRa we are

using will only cover up to 2.5km and because of the sort range that the LoRa can cover,

as planned to be implemented, another base station will be placed at the Santa Rosa port,

with this, it can cover another set of distance of 2.5km. this technique can also be applied

at the Angasil Port. To be able to monitor island-hopping boats’ activities satellite buoys

will be planted at least 2km from the base station or 2km from another satellite buoy.

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 Scenario 1: Mactan Hilton Port to Santa Rosa Port

Scenario 2: Angasil Port to Santa Rosa Port

2.7 Hardware Specifications

The hardware that the researchers used in the study are the following:

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 Arduino Nano – The Arduino Nano is a small, complete, and bread-board-friendly

board based on the ATmega328P (Arduino Nano 3.x). it has more or less the same

functionality of the Arduino Duemilanove, but in a different package. It lacks only a DC

power jack, and works with a Mini-B USB cable instead of a standard one.

LoRa Module – The LoRa module is designed to be a cost-effective, small form

factor module that is capable of supporting a wide range of sensors and a long-range

wireless protocol. It has pre-certified radio regulatory approvals for operating in the 868

and 915 MHz industrial. This module is used to send and receive data to the cloud and then

be stored to the database for the system to receive and send data.

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 UBLOX NEO-M8M GPS – UBLOX NEO-M8M is one of the NEO-M8 series, it has

a concurrent reception of GPS/QZSS, GLONASS, and BeiDou. It has a navigational

sensitivity up to 167 dBm. All of the NEO-M8 series provides the combination of low

power consumption and high sensitivity and also has backward compatibility with NEO-

7, NEO-6, NEO-5 series.

UBLOX NEO-M8M can supply 1.65 to 3.6 volts or even lowest power (DC/DC).

Compatible Interfaces are UART, USB, SPI and DDC (display data channel). Other

features are that this module is RTC (real-time clock) Crystal and can has an active antenna

or LNA supply. It is used for determining the location of the boat.

Photovoltaic Solar panel – Photovoltaic Solar panels absorb sunlight as source of

energy to generate direct current electricity that can also be used as backup supply to the

device.

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 Light Emitting Diode (LED) – LEDs are used to indicate to confirm that S.O.S alert

is activated. The LEDs are also used to indicate that whether the boat is out of the territorial

boundaries that the boat should sail.

Push Button – Button is used for activating the S.O.S alert. The state of the button will

determine if the boat is in distress.

2.8 Software Specifications

The software that the researchers use in the study are the following:

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 Arduino IDE – The Arduino Integrated Development Environment or Arduino

Software is a cross-platform application that is written in the programming language Java.

It contains a text editor for writing programs, a serial monitor where it displays serial sent

from the Arduino board over serial connector, a text console to display the see if the

encoded program is verified, a toolbar with buttons for common function and a series of

menu. It connects to the Arduino and Genuino hardware to upload programs and

communicate with them.

Programs written using Arduino Software (IDE) are called sketches. These sketches

are written in the text editor and are saved with the file extension ino. The editor has

features for cutting or pasting and for searching or replacing text. The message area gives

feedback while saving and exporting and also displays errors. The console displays text

output by the Arduino Software (IDE), including complete error messages and other

information. The bottom righthand corner of the windows displays the configured board

and serial port. The toolbar buttons allow you to verify and upload programs, create, open

and save sketches, and open the serial monitor.

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 Delphi IDE – Delphi is an integrated development environment (IDE) for rapid

application of desktop, mobile, web and console software. It is also an event-driven

language. Delphi’s compilers use their own Object Pascal dialect of Pascal and generate

native codes for Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Linux.

Delphi includes a code editor, a visual designer, an integrated debugger, a source code

control component, and support for third-party plugins. The code editor features Code

Insight (code completion), Error Insight (real-time error-checking), and refactoring. It

supports rapid Application Development (RAD). Among the features supporting RAD are

the application framework and visual designer.

XAMPP – XAMPP is a free and open-source cross-platform web server solution stack

package developed by Apache HTTP Server, MariaDB database, and interpreters for

scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages. XAMPP is the most popular

PHP development environment. XAMPP also provides support for creating and

21
manipulating databases in MariaDB and SQLite among others. Once XAMPP is installed,

it is possible to treat a localhost like a remote host by connecting using an FTP client.

XAMPP has the ability to serve web pages on the World Wide Web.

SQLyog – SQLyog is a GUI tool for RDBMS MySQL developed by Webyog.

SQLyog’s prominent features is that data manipulations may be done from a spreadsheet-

like interface. Both raw table data and a result set from a query can be manipulated. This

GUI tool has a back-up tool for performing unattended backups. Backups may be

compressed and optionally stored as a file-per-table as well as identified with a timestamp.

This also has a query profiler and redundant index finder that can help trace redundancy

files that can cause errors in the sql data.

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2.9 Back-up Strategies

Data received and sent from the system and device will be automatically saved to cloud

database, this way it is much easier to retrieve important data to gather.

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REFERENCES: [Need to Format]
[1.] https://travelista.club/guides/top-5-reasons-why-you-should-visit-cebu-philippines/
[2.] https://www.lonelyplanet.com/philippines/the-visayas/cebu
[3.] https://www.historycrunch.com/island-hopping.html#/
[4.] https://www.divescotty.com/underwater-blog/philippines-banca-boats.php
[5.] https://www.fleetistics.com/resources/gps-history-benefits/
[6.] https://www.rfpage.com/applications-future-lora-wan-technology/
[7.] https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/lorawan/
[8.] https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/communications/policy/GPS_History.html
[9.] Rules and regulations to govern the accreditation of motorized/banca engaged in tourism
activities and services by dot manila attested by atty. Oscar palabyab

*Note: still unfinished

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