Volume 7, Issue 7, July – 2022 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

Fishermen Rescue System with LoRa Module

Adithya Vinod1, M Harigovind2, Dr. Jisha P Abraham3, Midhunkrishna K. S.4
Assistant Professor 3, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Mar Athanasius College of Engineering Ernakulam, India

Abstract:- Many lives are in danger at sea in the events II. RELATED WORKS
of an unforeseen storm, cyclones, and other natural
disasters. One of the major difficulties faced by the A. Existing Systems
rescue team in such an event is the difficulty to locate the Existing systems for locating stranded fishermen in sea
personnel in danger. Our project aims at solving this and include distress signals sent from boats when they sink.
issue by incorporating a chip that helps fishermen in However, these systems are inefficient because they are
sending distress signals to the shore while in danger. The costly, and can only be installed on bigger boats due to its
signal will contain the location of the person. Repeaters high power consumption. Also these systems only allow
are meant to be placed at buoys that helps in identification of location of the sunken boat, and not the
transmitting the signal from the source to the fishermen. So there are virtually no efficient systems to
destination. Our project includes the study and locate fishermen who get stranded while going out on sea
selection of hardware devices and network specifications. on smaller boats and canoes.
The specifications of potential hardware, network
topology and routing protocols are collected and studied. B. Vessel Tracking Systems
This is compared with each other and the most optimum Automatic Identification System is a vessel tracking
hardware components and network specifications are system that uses Global Positioning System and serves as
selected. The selection of these components were made transmission and receiving points using VHF radio
based on their power consumption, range, data rates etc. channels. It acts as a transmitting and receiving interface
Selection of network properties were made based on between ships and coast guards.
their efficiency, reliability and economic factors.
Ship Loc is another vessel tracking system that can be
Keywords:- LoRaWAN, Lora Module, Marine Disaster Man- set up in vessels which gives readings regarding location and
agement. position of the ship. It can also monitor air and wave
pressure of the oceanic area through which the ship is
I. INTRODUCTION coursing through.

Fishing and other related activities are one of the major Emergency position-indicating radio beacon
source of income and livelihood for a large section of (EPIRB) is a satellite based system that uses 406 MHz
society in a coastal state like Kerala. Currently, there are no position indicating radio beacons as part of Global Maritime
affordable mechanisms that can help track the location of Distress and Safety System.
these people when at risk. We propose a system that can help
address this situation. A module is included in the life NAVTEX is an automated satellite based system for in-
jackets of these fishermen that can transmit their real-time stantly distributing maritime safety information which
location coordinates. includes weather forecasts, navigational warnings and
weather warn- ings, search and rescue notices and similar
The system that we are proposing is a low cost, high information to ships. The frequency of transmission of these
energy efficient system that can be used and accessed by all. system is 518 KHz. This can be used to inform the location
A button is provided, which when pressed, sends the distress of a sinking boat to other nearby boats for search and
signal. The location is tracked using a GPS Module present rescue.
in the life jackets, which is transmitted to the shore by a
Radio Transmitting module. The data packets are routed Long-range identification and tracking is an
to the destination using a routing mechanism, and once international system in which ships report their position to
received, these data packets can be used to retrieve the administration at least four times a day. These reports can
location of the people at danger. be automated. Long-range identification and tracking uses
communication service providers, application service
These components were chosen based on their power providers, Long-range identification and tracking data
consumption, range, and data rates, among other factors. distribution plan and Long- range identification and
The properties of networks were chosen based on their tracking data exchange.
efficiency, dependability, and cost.
C. Disadvantages of existing systems
There are many disadvantages for vessel tracking
systems. These systems can only identify the location of
ships in which the apparatus is installed in, and not the
stranded fishermen. So this is not convenient for smaller
boats due to size and cost constraints. Smaller boats like
canoes do not have the necessary space and prerequisites for

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Volume 7, Issue 7, July – 2022 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
these systems. So a much simpler alternative is required. C. NEO 6M GPS Module
Also, there are several con- straints that reduces the The u-blox NEO-6M GPS engine is used in the GPS
efficiency of these systems like their limit of distance and mod- ules. The NEO-6M has a type number of NEO-6M-0-
constraints of satellite transmission. Most of these systems 001 and a ROM/FLASH version of ROM 7.0.3. (PCN
are inefficient with long range transmissions and satellite reference UBX- TN-11047-1). For serial connection, the
communication and GPS communication may not be NEO-6M module has one adjustable UART port, however
effective in adverse weather conditions. the default UART (TTL) baud rate is 9,600. The GPS
antenna will be different from the usual whip antennas used
III. BACKGROUND for linear polarised communications since the GPS signal is
right-hand circular-polarized (RHCP). The patch antenna is
The proposed system consists of three main components the most common antenna type. Patch antennas are flat
 Gateway: LoRa module with ESP32 Microcontroller on antennas with a ceramic and metal body set on a metal base
land to connect to network. plate. They’re frequently cast in a house. When using the
 Repeaters: LoRa module with ESP32 implemented on patch antenna, it should be oriented parallel to the
buoys, connected in a mesh topology. geographic horizon. The antenna must have full view of the
 Endpoints: LoRa module and NEO-6M GPS module with sky, ensuring a direct line of sight with as many visible
ESP32 implemented on lifejacket worn by fisher- men. satellites as possible.
A. LoRa Technology D. Mesh Networks
LoRa technology is a wireless protocol that is A mesh network (or simply meshnet) is a local net-
specifically developed for long-range connection and low- work topology in which infrastructure nodes connect to as
power com- munication. Long Range Radio (LoRa) is a many other nodes as feasible directly, dynamically, and non-
technology that is mostly used in the Internet of Things hierarchically as possible, and collaborate to efficiently route
(IoT) and M2M networks. Multi-tenant or public networks data from/to clients. Because there is no reliance on a
will be able to connect a number of apps running on the single node, every node can participate in the information
same network using this technology. The open Lora WAN relay. Mesh networks may self-organize and arrange
protocol and LoRa Technology allow smart IoT applications themselves in real time, reducing installation time. The
that address some of the world ’s most challenging issues, ability to self-configure allows for dynamic burden
including natural resource conservation, pollution control, distribution, especially in the case that a few nodes fail. This
disaster avoidance, energy management, infrastructure leads to increased fault tolerance and lower maintenance
efficiency, and more. expenses. Mesh networks can use either a flooding or a
routing strategy to relay messages. The message is routed
along a path by hopping from node to node until it reaches
its destination with routing. The network must allow for
ongoing connections and rearrange itself around damaged
links using self-healing algorithms like Shortest Path
Bridging to ensure that all of its paths are available. When a
node fails or a connection becomes unreliable, self-healing
allows a routing- based network to continue to function. As
a result, the network is usually quite dependable, as there are
generally several paths between a source and a destination.

Fig. 1: LoRa Module

B. ESP32 Microcontroller
The ESP32 is a highly adaptable System On a Chip
(SoC) that may be used as a general-purpose microcontroller
with a wide range of peripherals, including WiFi and
Bluetooth wireless capabilities. Espressif has already pre-
loaded the low- level device drivers, wireless protocol stacks
for WiFi b, g, n, Bluetooth, and BLE, as well as FreeRTOS Fig. 2: ESP32 Microcontroller
as the basic OS, so adopting this module rather than creating
from scratch has a number of advantages.

A bootloader has also been loaded to make

downloading user programs reasonably simple.

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Volume 7, Issue 7, July – 2022 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
often a sensor or an input device monitors the state of the
physical system and updates the database with new
information to reflect the physical system more accurately.

H. Comparative Study
A comparative study of different components required
was done due to the availability of components of different
makes and properties. The study was based on different
parameters like efficiency, range and cost.

a) Selection of LoRa Module

Many radio frequency transceivers are available in
the market like LoRa module,NB-IoT module,
Zigbee module and Sigfox module. Through the
study, it was found that
Fig. 3: NEO 6M GPS Module  LoRa module has a lower power consumption
compared to the NB-IoT module.
E. Flutter  LoRa module has a longer range than Zigbee
Flutter is an open source software development kit. It module.
can be used to create android application required for the  LoRa module has a better downlink rate than
interface of the project. Flutter applications are written in Sigfox module.
Dart language. The reason for choosing flutter is because it
has reduced code development time. Since Dart compiles b) Selection of ESP32 Microcontroller
into native code, it contributes to faster application start up Through the comparative study, it was found that
times and less performance issues. Also it can be used to  ESP32 Microcontrollers have lower power
develop applications for different operating systems. consumption compared to Arduino
microcontrollers.
F. Arduino IDE  ESP32 offers WiFi support.
The Arduino Integrated Development Environment is an
 ESP32 has higher clock speed.
IDE that can be used to code ESP32 microcontroller. It is a
text editor that can be used to write code and upload the c) Selection of GPS module
code to a board. It is inexpensive, open source and operating NEO-6M GPS module was selected because
system independent. The Arduino IDE supports the  It consists of an external antenna and a built-in
languages C and C++ using special rules of code structuring. EEPROM.
The Arduino IDE supplies a software library from the
 It is compatible with ESP32 Microcontroller.
Wiring project, which provides many common input and
output procedures. User- written code only requires two IV. IMPLEMENTATION
basic functions, for starting the sketch and the main
program loop, that are compiled and linked with a program A. Hardware Design
stub main() into an executable cyclic executive program The LoRa module and NEO 6M GPS will be connected
with the GNU toolchain, also included with the IDE to the ESP32 microcontroller. NEO 6M GPS module takes
distribution. The Arduino IDE employs the program the location of stranded fishermen when a button is pressed,
avrdude to convert the executable code into a text file in and then these coordinates will be transmitted by the LoRa
hexadecimal encoding that is loaded into the Arduino board module. This entire system will be encased in a waterproof
by a loader program in the board’s firmware. case. This case will be attached on to the life jacket worn by
fishermen.
G. Firebase Realtime Database
The Firebase Realtime Database is a cloud-hosted A LoRa module connected to the ESP32
NoSQL database that lets you store and sync data between microcontroller is enclosed in a similar case which will be
your users in realtime. This allows to view the location of implemented on buoys floating on the sea surface. These
the stranded fishermen in real time. A real time database make up the network used for routing the packets.
was selected because they are traditional databases that use
an extension to give the additional power to yield reliable Finally, a LoRa module connected to an ESP32
responses. They use timing constraints that represent a microcon- troller is implemented on land as the gateway,
certain range of values for which the data are valid. This which receives the data packets and send them to the server
range is called temporal validity. A conventional database which can then be used to display real time locations on
cannot work under these circumstances because the an interface.
inconsistencies between the real world objects and the data
that represents them are too severe for simple modifications.
An effective system needs to be able to handle time-
sensitive queries, return only temporally valid data, and
support priority scheduling. To enter the data in the records,

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ISSN No:-2456-2165
C. Implementation
For the sender node, the LoRa module and GPS module
is connected to the ESP32 microcontroller. A trigger switch
is also connected. When the switch is pressed, the GPS
module takes the location and writes it into the LoRa packet.
The packet is then sent by the LoRa module.

For the repeater nodes, the LoRa module is connected

to ESP32 microcontroller. The packet sent by the sender
node is received and then retransmitted. This is
repeated until the packet reaches the node situated on
land.

The gateway node is implemented similar to the

repeater node, the LoRa module is connected to an
ESP32 microcon- troller. The routed packet is received
by the node which is then sent to the server for
displaying in a user interface in real time.
Fig. 5: Circuit diagram of receiver

B. Network Routing
A flooding approach is used to send packets between
nodes. In this approach, whenever a node receives a data
packet, it sends the packet to all other nodes other than
itself.

The flooding mechanism is

 Simple to set up and implement.
 Extremely robust. Even if a malfunction occurs in the
network, the packets find a way to reach the
destination.
 All nodes are visited. There is no chance for any node
to be left out
Fig. 4: Circuit diagram of sender

V. RESULT

A. Packet Transmission Output - 2 Node

 Sender node ID: 0x1, Intermediate node ID: 0x2, Re- ceiver node ID: 0xFF

Fig. 6: Packet Transmission Output - 2 Node

 Path shows the path travelled by the packet

 1-2: routed through intermediate node
 1: intermediate node failed - routed directly to receiver

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ISSN No:-2456-2165
B. Packet Transmission Output - 3 Node

Fig. 7: Packet Transmission Output - 3 Node

 Sender node ID: 0x1, Intermediate node ID: 0x2, Re- REFERENCES
ceiver node ID: 0xFF
 Path shows the path travelled by the packet [1.] Internet of Things (IoT) using LoRa technology —
 1-2: routed through intermediate node 2019 IEEE International Conference on Automatic
Control and Intelligent Systems 29 June 2019.
 1: intermediate node failed - routed directly to receiver
[2.] Control and Intelligent Systems — 29 June 2019 [2] A
C. Output Analysis LoRa-Based Mesh Network for Peer-to-Peer Long-
 The demonstration of the proposed system with a Range Communication — Sensors 2021, 21, 4314 —
sender, receiver and an intermediate node was 24 June 2021.
successful. [3.] Pueyo, R. [et al.]. A minimalistic distance-vector
 Packet was created at the sender enclosing the coordi- routing protocol for LoRa mesh networks. 2021.
nates, routed through the intermediate node, and [4.] Comparative Study of LPWAN Technologies on
received at the receiver Unlicensed Bands for M2M Communication in the
 Packet loss experienced was minimal IoT: beyond LoRa and LoRaWAN—Procedia
Computer Science 00 (2018) 000–000.
 GPS could be accessed when demonstrated outside
[5.] [Link]
build- ings and under direct view of the sky
on-954f5a216804
 Transmission range obtained : 8-10 m approx.
[6.] [Link]
VI. FUTURE RESEARCH [7.] [Link]
neo-6m-gps- chip
A major disadvantage of using flooding approach for
routing is that it can decrease the efficiency of the network
with more number of nodes. Optimization of the network
routing process should be done to avoid compromise on
efficiency and speed of packet transmission. Also, a
graphical user interface that enables users to easily view the
location of the stranded fishermen could be developed for a
better user experience and faster response time.

VII. CONCLUSION

The proposed system that aids in rescuing fishermen

stranded in ocean during adverse climatic conditions is de-
signed using components like LoRa module, ESP32 micro-
controllers, GPS modules which enables access of location
coordinates and transmission of the same. For routing data
packets to the gateway we plan to make use of mesh
network- ing topology and distance vector routing. The aim
is to develop a low cost, efficient system that can be easily
implemented. Since no existing system is available that
satisfies all of these requirements, this proposed system will
prove to be highly useful in tracking and saving stranded
fishermen.

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