A Secure Tracking Automobile System for Oil and Gas Distribution using Telematics and Blockchain Techniques

Abstract

Crude oil is a major source of income to most developed and developing countries. It is of high significance as this natural resource contributed to the developing countries' wealth, and cannot be over-emphasized. The distribution of oil and gas products in the developing ecosystem is mostly conveyed through the road networks, by engaging trucks and similar types of automobiles in the goods delivery. This approach of fuel distribution is susceptible to illegal diversion, tampering, vehicles hijacking, and many other on-transit route. In this paper, we present the development of a secure tracking automobile system for oil and gas distribution using telematics and blockchain technology. This system helps in tracking the geo-location of automobile route and monitoring the volume of products loaded in automobiles using telematics. The hash algorithm-based blockchain technology approach helps to secure the system database and accomplished monitoring of the fuel volume records conveyed from agent tampering, diversion, and hijacking. It prevents an individual concerned from remote database information altering or unscrupulous parties’ intrusion. Also, it manages the archives and linking of the subsequent records through the developed secure distributed database system (blockchain). The secure in-vehicle tracking system uses a GPS (Tx and Rx) for the geo-location tracking, ultrasonic sensor (HCR05), SIM800 and ATmega328 microcontroller unit. This system was tested and evaluated in terms of accuracy and precision of the GPS receiver coordinates with a report of circular error probability radius of 15 meters and precision of 1.24 meters.