Sensor-Based Real-Time Monitoring Hazardous Chemical Cargo

Monitoring and tracking dangerous goods can represent a great improvement in security and safety when transporting hazardous goods by water road. In this paper we propose a complete monitoring and tracking system, which is able to check at the same time the position and real-time status of dangerous goods of the ship, as well as the conditions in the cargo bay. The system exploits battery-powered environmental sensors (temperature, humidity, pressure, gas concentration and liquid level), connected by a ZigBee-based Wireless Sensor Network, This approach guarantees flexibility, ease of deployment and low power consumption. Collected data is then sent from the ship to a fixed server via a GPRS link. The GPS positioning system is integrated by the use of Navigation System, which also guarantees a precise estimate of the position when the GPS signal is weak or temporarily lost. When dangerous goods of the ship start leaking, the system can develop a plan to solve the accident, according to the situation at that time. The proposed solution has been deployed in a real environment, and some performance evaluation tests have been carried out.