Application of fuzzy logic in a secure beacon–based guidance system for public transportation

Abstract

Promoting the use of public transport is increasingly urgent in our society, both to reduce traffic congestion, air pollution and stress levels, and to ensure the high level of mobility demanded by citizens. The lack of continuous on-trip assistance for public transport users discourages many travellers. Thus, the main objective of this work is to design a personal digital travel companion for outdoor location and event detection based on Bluetooth Low Energy, which can be used for intelligent transport technology. After analysing the functional requirements, the proposal is implemented as a mobile application for beacon-based event detection. The system includes an algorithm aided by fuzzy logic to determine the action to be carried out by the user at all times, being able to distinguish between different possible events when more than one beacon is detected. To defend the scheme against possible attacks based on beacon forgery or user tracking, the proposal includes different forms of authentication for data sent from beacons and data sent from the mobile application. The results obtained in simulations show that the proposed system is a viable guidance solution for public transport, including energy saving as one of its main advantages.