Design and Implementation of an IoT-Based Luggage Tracking Device for Airport Baggage Monitoring: A Case Study of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport, Bauchi, Nigeria

Author

Fatima Ahmed Abubakar, Fatima Shitu, Ahmad Atika Jibrin, Umar Kabir, Ishaq Muhammad


Abstract

 Baggage mishandling, misplacement, delay and theft remain important challenges in air transportation, particularly where baggage visibility across different stages of airport operations is limited. This study presents the design and implementation of an Internet of Things (IoT)-based luggage tracking device intended to provide location visibility for passenger luggage. The prototype was developed using a NodeMCU microcontroller, GPS module, regulated power supply, wireless connectivity, an IoT cloud platform and an Android mobile application integrated with Google Maps. The system acquires geographical coordinates from the GPS module, processes the location information through the NodeMCU, transmits the data through its Wi-Fi capability to the IoT cloud platform, and makes the location information available to the mobile application for visualization. Experimental testing covered the power supply, GPS acquisition, cloud transmission, mobile application retrieval and map visualization. Recorded power measurements were 10.90 V from an 11.10 V battery source, 4.82 V from the 5 V regulator and 8.71 V from the 9 V regulator, corresponding to percentage differences of 1.8%, 3.4% and 3.2%, respectively. GPS acquisition and end-to-end communication were successfully demonstrated, and the Android application displayed the tracked location through Google Maps. The results establish the technical feasibility of a low-cost IoT luggage-monitoring prototype for airport environments. However, the prototype depends on Internet connectivity and battery power and was not evaluated for airport-wide deployment, quantified GPS accuracy, latency, packet loss or long-term battery endurance. Future work should investigate cellular/LPWAN communication, baggage identification, geofencing, location-history logging, energy optimization and integration with airport baggage-management infrastructure.



Keywords

Internet of Things; luggage tracking; baggage monitoring; GPS; NodeMCU; Wi-Fi; IoT cloud; Android application; Google Maps; airport security.



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References


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