Lora Mesh GPS Trackers

Project description

OpenRemote asked us to connect a "wacky" IoT device to their IoT platform. After some brainstorming we came up with our concept: a GPS tracker which works via long-range radio (a.k.a. LoRa) technology. The GPS trackers communicate over LoRa in a mesh network and send their locations via an edge device to the cloud-hosted OpenRemote platform.

Context

In large-scale sports events, such as a bike tour across the country, there often is a need to track the participants via GPS. This can be for safety reasons, for gathering statistics on the participants' performance but also as a way for fans to monitor where the participants are.

Current tracker solutions use GSM/SMS to upload their location and we think this can be improved upon.

Results

While a "wacky" use-case for LoRa technology, we were able to make the system function as designed. Using LoRa technology for the GPS tracker mesh network helps devices stay connected even at long ranges, while being battery efficient.

Just like OpenRemote itself, we are releasing our code & documentation as Open Source to allow others to use our system for their own use-cases.

Repository

https://github.com/openremote/or-loratrackers