A Visitor Assistance System Based on LoRa for Nature Forest Parks

Author(s)

Ferreira, Ana Elisa ^{[1, 2]} ; Ortiz, Fernando Molano ^{[1, 3]} ; de Almeida, Thales Teixeira ^{[1, 3, 4]} ; Costa, Luis Henrique M. K. ^{[1, 3]}

Affiliation

^[1] COPPE PEE GTA Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro, Ave Athos da Silveira Ramos 149, BR-21941972 Rio De Janeiro - Brazil

^[2] Ctr Fed Educ Tecnol Celso Suckow da Fonseca UneD, Rua Imperador 971, BR-25620003 Petropolis, RJ - Brazil

^[3] de Almeida, Thales Teixeira, Fed Technol Educ Ctr Minas Gerais CEFET MG, R Jose Peres 558, BR-36700001 Leopoldina, Brazil.Ferreira, Ana Elisa, COPPE PEE GTA Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro, Ave Athos da Silveira Ramos 149, BR-21941972 Rio De Janeiro - Brazil

^[4] Fed Technol Educ Ctr Minas Gerais CEFET MG, R Jose Peres 558, BR-36700001 Leopoldina - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: ELECTRONICS; v. 9, n. 4 APR 2020.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

Ecotourism activities are attracting more people each day, including national forest parks. Unfortunately, the number of incidents involving visitors to natural parks grows at the same pace. Among the most prevalent risks inside forests are getting lost and the occurrence of natural disasters. In this work, we propose a system for monitoring and assisting visitors of forest parks, based on a low power wide range wireless network, LoRa. The proposed visitor assisting system is composed of mobile terminals that communicate between them and with fixed infrastructure, using a protocol designed for exchanging visitor locations data. The infrastructure consists of wireless gateways distributed on the trails, the totems. User terminals, the mobile nodes, work collaboratively through a Delay and Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN), to cope with the possibility that the gateway infrastructure does not cover the whole trail. In addition to improvements and gains for minimizing risks, the proposal also brings contributions to the preservation of the environment, raising awareness of the influence of human presence in the natural environment and to the development of environmental education actions. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 15/24490-2 - MC2: mobile computing, content distribution, and cloud computing
• Grantee: Luis Henrique Maciel Kosmalski Costa
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 15/24494-8 - Communications and processing of big data in cloud and fog computing
• Grantee: Nelson Luis Saldanha da Fonseca
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants