=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1830/Paper62
|storemode=property
|title=Development of an Android App for Monitoring PMS in Gas Stations
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1830/Paper62.pdf
|volume=Vol-1830
|authors=Waheed M. Audu,Michael Okwori,Salihu O. Aliyu,Rukayat O. Badmus,Zainab N. Abubakar,Umar Abdullahi
}}
==Development of an Android App for Monitoring PMS in Gas Stations==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1830/Paper62.pdf
International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications
(ICTA 2016)
Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria
November 28 – 30, 2016
Development of an Android App for Monitoring PMS in Gas Stations
Waheed M. Audu, Michael Okwori, Salihu O. Aliyu, Rukayat O. Badmus, Zainab N. Abubakar, and Umar
Abdullahi
Department of Telecommunication Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria
{audum, michaelokwori, salihu.aliyu}@futminna.edu.ng, {badmusrukky, zaynababubakar98}@gmail.com
Abstract—The use of mobile phones (smart phones) have gone station on their android mobile device and compare with
beyond just making phone calls and sending text messages to other petrol stations. This enables transparency and open
specialized applications such as object recognition, patient access to information about petroleum products as well as
health monitoring, security and navigation, amongst others. In time management to the consumers. The rest of this paper is
this paper, BRAZ named after the authors is an android App organized as follows: Section II presents a brief review of
for monitoring fuel situation in gas stations. This research was some related works, while section III presents the system
particularly motivated by the uncertainty faced by consumers design. Implementation of the proposed system is discussed
of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in locating the closest gas in Section IV, while obtained results are presented in section
station. PMS is an essential commodity in the daily life of
V. Conclusion and suggestions for further research is
almost every individual. Consumers have been complaining
about the high petrol prices and everyone wanting to access the
presented in Section VI.
cheapest and closest station available in order to save expenses.
Therefore, with a single click on BRAZ, the list of gas stations II. RELATED WORKS
with the product is provided to the user in real-time. Also
included are the price/litre, car density, and a GPS location of Android operating system has gained immense popularity
the station which can lead user to the location via Google map. and now runs on many smart phones. The advent of smart
This is particularly of advantage to visitors who are not phones has changed the way lots of things are done. Several
familiar with the road network of the town. A validation test Android Apps have been developed and apply to different
carried out on a random sample of 60 users gave 80% of users’ areas of specializations. In [1], an object recognition system
acceptability. using an Android App have been proposed. The App was
implemented to assist a mobile navigation robot recognize
Keywords-Premium Motor Spirit; Android Mobile App; object. Canny and Hough transforms were used as part of
USSD code; SMS; USSD gateway; GPS. the algorithm to improve the recognition of selected objects.
The authors in [2] presented a GPS supported city bus
I. INTRODUCTION tracking and smart ticketing system using an android App.
Since the discovery of petroleum product in Nigeria, it The system uses a GPS-GSM module to access dynamic
has been an essential commodity in the daily life of most, if vehicle location and send it to a server. Users can then access
not every individual. It comes in a variety of forms including this information from the android App. Reagan and Devi[3],
vehicle usage and domestic usage. Petroleum products for proposed an android App for intelligent dosage planning for
vehicle usage include Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and diabetics. The App runs a linear equation created from
diesel while for domestic usage includes kerosene and gas. ANFISGA (a combination of Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy
These products have been quite unstable in both their supply Inference System (ANFIS) and Genetic Algorithm (GA))
and pricing creating a huge challenge for the consumers of algorithm. It collects data from the patient and gives out the
these products. dosage level required for the patient. In [4], an android App
This research is concerned with providing a smart for participating in argumentative online debates was
solution to some of the challenges faced by petroleum proposed. The App provides a platform for user to present
companies in disseminating information about their price, the argument from a handheld device using Twitter. It also
location of the filling station and the availability of products. allows users to visualize opinions of other micro debaters,
Another challenge is that of consumers accessing that explore ongoing debates and see where the consensus lie.
information, which include services offered by the petrol The authors in [5] proposed an android App designed to
stations and their current prices in order to make plans provide safety for women. It helps women to easily contact
according to the situation at the petrol stations. Consumers necessary authorities whenever they are in danger. A single
would like to know the location of the petrol station and their click on the App identifies users‟ location through GPS and
price. To this end, there has not been a smart platform for sends an SMS comprising this location to some pre-
sharing information between PMS consumers and suppliers. registered contacts.The application helps in live tracking of
The proposed platform herewith will provide consumers a the location of victim through GPS. In [6], the authors used
convenient way toget update of the situation at the petrol android App to diagnose faults in rotating machines. The
34
International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016)
smartphone performs fault detection by analyzing acoustic Application interface
signatures generated by a rotating machine in running Start
condition. Android Apps have also been used in the area of
agriculture [7]. In [8], a low cost Mobile health care
Login
monitoring system using an android applicationwas
proposed. Similar application of android app in health No
carewas also presented in [9].
Password Ok?
III. SYSTEM DESIGN
Yes
To design the proposed system, a preliminary study was
first carried out. This was done by issuing out questionnaire User Load mobile App Admin
to PMS suppliers (i.e. Gas stations) and consumers of PMS.
This provide the researchers with gas station and consumers‟ Get update Give update
preference about the product as well as their acceptability of
the proposed system.The questionnaire required responders
Log out
to provide information such as availability of internet access,
of both the gas station and consumers, willingness of gas
stations to provide information about their products and Stop
services to consumers, amongst others. The results obtained
from the analysis of the responses are provided in the result Figure 2. System flowchart
section of this paper.
Feedback obtained from questionnaire provides the The Android App was developed on Eclipse with Java
background for BRAZ design. Fig. 1 shows the data flow Programming Language for the functionality and Extensible
diagram of BRAZ system, it basically shows how Mark-up Language (XML) for the Graphics User Interface
information flows in the system. The system blocks (GUI) design. The web scripts used was Hypertext Pre-
comprises of the User, Petrol stations and BRAZ Admin and processor (PHP) and the database used was My Structured
several processes such as login, get update, give update and Query Language (MySQL). The entire system consist of the
manage mobile App. previously mentioned units which interact with each other.
The database stores the users‟ login details, all updates on
current situation of the gas stations among others. The
Petrol Station Mobile App mobile App which serves as gateway to the various users get
User (U) its information from the database through a webserver. The
Admin (PSA) Admin (MAA)
webserver serves to save and retrieve the needed information
from the database. The various users (public users, petrol
station admin, and mobile App admin) can interact with the
Login Give Update
mobile App through the application interface which provides
them with the following functions.
A. BRAZ Back-End
Login Mobile App Login
Get Update Here, the Mobile App Administrator (MAA) assigns
Manage mobile App username and password to various Petrol Station
Administrators (PSA), by clicking on adding station users. It
can also edit petrol station, remove petrol station, view
Webserver
stations and monitors the various petrol station
administrators as they carry out their functions. The PSA can
log in to view account with the username and password
Database provided by the Mobile App Admin (MAA). The PSA can
add its other branches of petrol stations, Edit petrol station as
well as remove petrol station. PSA gives information about
Figure 1. System block diagram the fuel stations. Information such as the name of the petrol
station, the location of the station, the price of petrol, their
An operation flowchart of the proposed App is given in status (whether there is fuel or not) and the coordinates
Fig. 2 and followed with the system implementation. (provided from smart phone GPS) of the petrol station is
given. Each petrol station administrator (PSA) is only able to
view and manage information about the petrol stations they
represent.
IV. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
The Mobile Application consists of four (4) parts. B. BRAZ Front-End
Android App The front-end provides the Users the ability to register
Webserver with their e-mail and password, after which they can login to
Database view account on the mobile App or get update about each
35
International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016)
petrol station such as the name of the petrol station, their implies that only 11% of the consumers will need to use a
location, the price of their petrol and their status (i.e. PMS USSD code to get update from the database.
availability). The user can comment on the update using the
mobile app and get direction to the gas station via Goggle B. Results from the Developed App
map. The first step in using the App is to launch it from its
shortcut. Once BRAZ App is opened, Sign in and Sign up
C. BRAZ link to Google Map for Navigation interface will be shown.Existing Users can sign in using their
The App provides route planners via Google Maps. This username and password while new users can create their
can be done by clicking on „Get Directions‟, there are about login details. This process is shown from the snapshots of
four modes of transportation available depending on the area: Fig 3. The MAA Signs in as an admin, while the PSA Signs
driving, public transit, walking, and bicycling. Just as other in as the station Admin and user Signs in as a user. All sign
Google web applications, Google Maps uses Java Script in operation requires a username or e-mail and password, if
extensively, When a user clicks on view Google map on the password is incorrect the user will be denied access to the
BRAZ App, it links to the map app available on the Android App as shown in Fig. 3,and if the admin password is
phone, where the location of the user will be indicated by a incorrect, access will be denied as shown in Fig. 4.
navigation symbol on the map and indicate the direction However, if the password is correct then user/admin will
from the location of the user to the location of the petrol be granted access to the App by loading the Mobile App.
station. This is particularly of advantage to visitors who are Fig. 5 shows user interface where users can view all the
not familiar with the town road network. In the next section, petrol station information in BRAZ App. The user can select
results obtained from our survey and analysis of the App is state, city/province as well asthe area to be viewed and click
presented. „view‟ stations.The App load the stations available in
database for that moment with all the available updates. The
V. APP DISCUSSION, ANALYSIS AND RESULTS user can get information such as the station name, the
address of the station, their status i.e. whether there is fuel or
Results presented in this section are divided into two:
not. It is indicated with Yes or No. The station latitude and
results from questionnaire and results from the developed
longitude will direct the user to the location of the petrol
App.
station on Google map if the user clicks on view Google
A. Results from the Administered Questionnaire Map. Users can add comment under any of the petrol station
by clicking on the station and response will appear as shown
Sixty (60) questionnaires were issued out to both PMS in Fig. 6.
users and gas stations admin out of which all came back The MAA can sign in as an Admin with a password. The
valid for analysis. 15 were issued to the filling station admin MAA is directed to an interface to view stations, Add station
and the remaining 45 were issued to random users. Users, Add petrol Station, Edit and Remove petrol Station as
Analysis from the questionnaire for the petrol station shown in Fig. 7.
admin shows that out of the administered questionnaire, 7% The view stations button allows the user to view all
were from Abu Hafsah oil and gas, 14% from Total service petrol station information, while the Add Station Users
station, 13% from Oando petrol station, 13% from Maryland enables the MAA to register the PSA with the station name
Petroleum Company, 7% from Maza-waje petroleum as the username and a password that can be used to sign-in to
limited, 13% from Forte Oil service station, 13% from A. A. the account. In the Add petrol station button, the MAA can
Rano, 7% from NNPC and 13% from Garima petroleum add a petrol station, edit and remove petrol station as shown
limited. in Figs. 5, 8, 9, 10 and 11 respectively.
From the analysis, 26.67% of the petrol stations have The PSA can sign in to the app after being registered by
internet access and 73.33% do not have internet access. 80% the MAA with a username and password. Whenever PSA
of the petrol stations are willing to provide information on login, they can add their branch petrol stations with the
the fuel situation online and 20% are not willing to provide necessary information as shown in Figs. 12 and 13. PSA can
information online. 13.33% of the petrol stations are willing also edit their information and remove their petrol stations.
to provide information hourly while 26.67% daily and 60%
are willing to provide information about fuel situation
weekly.
Analysis from random users, of the 45 questionnaires VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE DIRECTION
administered to users within Minna, Niger State, 11% buy In this paper, BRAZ, an Android based Mobile App for
fuel from Abu Hafsah oil and gas, 11% from Total service monitoring fuel situation was presented. Analysis of the
station, 9% from Oando petrol station, 7% from Maryland administered questionnaire shows that over 90% of PMS
Petroleum Company, 9% from Maza-waje petroleum consumers are interested in using the App to get update
limited, 18% from Forte Oil service station, 13% from about fuel situations and other services. This has been taken
A.ARano, 9% from NNPC, 9% from Garima petroleum to represent a greater percentage of the population, thus an
limited and 4% from Conoil. android based mobile application was developed to tackle
From the analysis, 89% of the users have access to the this issue. Validation test carried out shows that over 80% of
internet and 11% does not have access to the internet, which the sampled users were in agreement that BRAZ solved the
means 89% of the users prefer an Android Mobile App while challenges faced in accessing information about petrol
11% of the Users prefer SMS Based information. This stations. Others gave suggestions on how the system could
be improved. Thus, future work include increasing the
36
International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016)
coverage to cover all states in Nigeria, integration of users without smartphones to be able to access the system.
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code for
(a) (b) (c)
Figure 3. User interface (a), sign in page (b) and response page to invalid entry (c)
a b
Figure 4. Interfaces showing Admin login (a) and response to wrong entry page (b)
37
International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016)
Figure 5. Three consecutive interfaces showing how users can view gas stations in a particular area in Niger State
Figure 6. Snapshot of User Add Comment page
Figure 7. Snapshot show how MAA is granted access to the App
38
International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016)
Figure 8. Snapshot showing interface for MAA to Add Station Users Figure 11. Snapshot showing process of removing petrol station request
Figure 9. Snapshot showing interface to add petrol station Figure 12. Snapshot showing sign in and PSA interface
Figure 10. Web page interface to edit petrol station Figure 13. Snapshot showing PSA Add and Edit Petrol Station pages
39
International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016)
REFERENCES [6] N. K. Verma, S. Sarkar, S. Dixit, R. K. Sevakula, A. Salour, B.
Company, and S. Louis, “Android App for Intelligent CBM,” in
[1] N. Bustos, A. Reyes, and G. Lefranc, “Object Recognition using App Industrial Electronics (ISIE), 2013 IEEE International Symposium
Android,” in Electrical, Electronics Engineering, Information and on, 2013, pp. 1–6.
Communication Technologies (CHILECON), 2015 CHILEAN
Conference on, 2015, pp. 1–6. [7] J. Gutiérrez, J. F. Villa-medina, A. López-guzmán, and M. Á. Porta-,
“Smartphone Irrigation Sensor,” IEEE Sens. J., vol. 15, no. 9, 2015.
[2] A. Shingare, N. Chaudhari, and P. Deshpande, “GPS supported city
bus tracking & smart ticketing system,” in Green Computing and [8] G. A. A. Z. Rebolledo-Nandi, A. Chávez-Olivera, R. E. Cuevas-
Internet of Things (ICGCIoT), 2015 International Conference on, Valencia, A. Alarcón-Paredes, “Design of a Versatile Low Cost
2015, pp. 93–98. Mobile Health Care Monitoring System Using an Android
Application,” in Health Care Exchanges (PAHCE), 2015 Pan
[3] C. P. R. Reagan, “An Android App for Intelligent Dosage Planning in American, 2015, pp. 1–4.
Type2 Diabetes Using Anfisga,” in 2014 International Conference on
Recent Trends in Information Technology, 2014, pp. 1–4. [9] Ming-Hseng Tseng; Hsueh-Chen Hsu; Che-Chia Chang; Hua Ting;
Hui-Ching Wu; Ping-Hung Tang, “Development of an Intelligent
[4] N. Ya and P. Torroni, “Microdebates App for Android : A tool for App for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Prediction on Android Smartphone
participating in argumentative online debates using a handheld Using Data Mining Approach,” in 2012 9th International Conference
device,” in 2014 IEEE 26th International Conference on Tools with on Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing and 9th International
Artificial Intelligence, 2014, pp. 793–800. Conference on Autonomic and Trusted Computing, 2012, pp. 774–
[5] R. S. Yarrabothu and B. Thota, “ABHAYA: An Android App dor the 779.
Safety of Women,” in In 2015 Annual IEEE India Conference
(INDICON), 2015, pp. 1–4.
40