GPS Applications

One of the fast-growing GPS applications is vehicle tracking systems. GPS-equipped fleet vehicles, public transportation systems, delivery trucks, and courier services use receivers to monitor their locations at all times. Public safety services, police, fire, and emergency medical services, are using GPS receivers to determine the nearest service vehicle to an emergency, enabling the quickest response in critical situations. Recently automobile manufacturers have started installing moving-map displays guided by GPS receivers. For example, several Florida rental car companies are demonstrating GPS-equipped vehicles that give directions to drivers on display screens and through synthesised voice instructions.

*Triangulation: Collecting of signals from three or more satellites in carefully monitored orbit from which the receiver computes its own spatial relationship to each satellite to determine its position.

Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) is a technologically advanced method of remote vehicle tracking and monitoring using GPS. Each vehicle is equipped with a module that receives signals from a series of satellites, and calculates its current geographical location, speed, and heading. This information can be stored for later retrieval or, frequently, transmitted to a central dispatch/control location where it is displayed on a high-resolution geographical map.