INTELLIGENT VEHICLE ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

NOOR AWLAH MUDA NORASWALIZA ABDULLAH ZURINA SA'AYA 2XRATUL I= MOHD YUSOH INTAN ERMAHANI ABDUL JALIL NOR MAS AINA MD BOHARI

Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Kolej Universiti Teknikal Kebangsaan Malaysia 2004

ABSTRACT

There are at least three aspects the research will look into, one is managing the usage of the assets such as handling the transportation booking and the transport scheduling, second would be managing the assets in terms of maintaining the road tax, insurance and servicing the vehicles and lastly managing the inventory of assets such as vehicle spare parts and the vehicle itself. The research will also focus on problems that had certain rules in developing an automatically dynamic booking scheduling where the recognized problems will be modeled into related viriables. The research will look into Artificial Intelligent area and it will concentrate on Rule Based technique. Rule Based technique is a common technique used to solve the scheduling problems and it will emphasize on it recognizable rules of the business process in any manually scheduling system. As a result of the research, it will develop a dynamic scheduling algorithm .to solve the transportation booking scheduling problems along with the intelligent vehicle asset management system itself.

Keywords: Transportation schedule, Prototype, Algorithm, Rule Based Technique, Scheduling, Artificial Intelligence (AI)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Highly praise to Allah SWT for giving us strength, patience and motivation to complete this research work. We wish to gratefully acknowledge the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication (FTMK), Unit of National- Industry Centre (UNIC) and Kolej Universiti Teknikal Kebangsaan Malaysia (KUTKM) for providing the grant for this research and subsequent support throughout the duration of thenp;oject. Without them, this project would not have been possible.

highly appreciation goes to Unit Kenderaan, KUTKM for all the contributions
throughout the duration of this project research

Noor Azilah Muda Noraswaliza Abdullah Zurina Sa'aya Zeratul Izzah Mohd Yusoh Intan Ennahani Abd Jalil Nor Mas Aina Md Bohari

TABLE OF CONTENT CONTENT ABSTRACT AKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES
1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Objectives 1.2 Problem Statement

PAGE

2.0 BACKGROUND
3.0 APPROACH 3.1 Methodology 3.1.1 Research Phases

4.0 RESULTS 4.1 Stand-Alone System 4.2 Online System

5.0 CONCLUSION 6.0 REFERENCES

APPENDIX

LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE NO. Figure 3.1 Figure 4.1.1 Figure 4.1.2 Figure 4.1.3 Figure 4.1.4 Figure 4.1.5 Figure 4.1.6 Figure 4.1.7 Figure 4.1.8 Figure 4.1.9 Figure 4.1.10 Figure 4.1.11 Figure 4.1.12 Figure 4.1.13 Figure 4.1.14 Figure 4.2.1 Figure 4.2.2 Figure 4.2.3 Figure 4.2.4 Figure 4.2.5 Figure 4.2.6 Figure 4.2.7 TITLE The Prototyping Methodology Main page of the system Transport information interface in the Transport Module Transport termination interface in the Transport Module Transport Servicing interface in the Transport Module Transport Insurance interface in the Transport Module Transport PUSPAKOM interfack in the Transport Module PAGE
8 10 11 11 12 12
13

Transport Component Record interface in the Transport Module 13 Transport Workshop Record interface in the Transport Module 14 Transport Servicing Form in the Transport Module Transport Maintenance Form in the Transport Module Staff Record interface in the Staff Module Staff Work Assignment Form in the Staff Module Booking List Form in the Booking Module Transport Schedule List in the Booking Module Main page of the system Menu interface for KUTKM Staff The Booking Form Page to check the Booking Status Administrator ~ 6 n interface u Booking Listinterface Transport Schedule interface

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15 15 16 16 17 18 19 19 20 20 21, 21

Introduction

Intelligent Vehicle Asset Management System is a research done to solve current manual file system's problems used by KUTKM Vehicle Unit. There are three important aspects this research has looked into. The first aspect is to improve the management of the assets usage such as handling the transportation booking and the transportation scheduling. The second aspect is to enhance the management of vehicle and its spare

parts data. The last aspect is to improve the management of vehicle maintenance data
such as road tax, insurance and service data. However the main focus of this research is to produce an automatic dynamic booking scheduling using Rule Based Technique that can solve transportation scheduling problems in the current system. This research was done fiom November 2002 to, November 2004 and has go through five,phases in System Development which k e planning, requirements analysis, system design, prototype development, prototype testing and maintenance. The prototyping methodology is chosen for the system development because it enables the users and developers to examine some aspects of the proposed system and decide if it is suitable or appropriate for the finished product. Prototyping provides a communication basis for discussion among all the groups involved in the development process especially between KUTKM Vehicle Unit as users for this system and developers. As the result of the research, the Intelligent Vehicle Asset Management System has been developed that also contains Online Transportation Booking System and a dynamic tramportation scheduling. The Online Transportation , Booking System enables KUTKM staffs to book the vehicle and check the status of their online booking. The vehicle and the driver for the booking can be assigned automatically by the transportation scheduling. In addition, the data of the vehicle, driver, spare parts and vehicle maintenance can be managed efficiently using the system that has been developed.

1.1

Research Objectives

The objectives of our research are as stated below:

1. To develop an Intelligent Vehicle Asset Management System that can be used to

manage the usage of the assets such as handling the transportation booking and the transport scheduling

2. To develop a system that can help in managing the assets in terms of maintaining
the road tax, insurance and servicing the vehicles
3. To develop a system that can manage the invmiory of assets such as vehicle spare

parts and the vehicle itself

4. To develop a dynamic scheduling algorithm using Rule Based Technique in

managing the transport booking based on the daily business process.

1.2

Problem Statement

There are some problems faced by the users with the current manual file system. The problems are:

1. The usage of manual file system involves many files and cause the booking data,
vehicle and spare parts data, as well as vehicle maintenance data are manage inefficiently.
,

2. The booking form may be lost because the booking process involve many peoplq
and the form will be move in many hands before it is approved.

3. A lot of booking forms received by KUTKM Vehicle Unit may cause the
redundancy in assigning the vehicle and driver for the booking.
4. Scheduling the vehicle manually is very difficult because there are many factors

such as date, time, purpose and person requested to be considered before assigning the vehicle and driver to each booking.

5. There is a possibility for the staffs to make errors in scheduling the vehicle

manually. 6. A lot of time is being wasted using the current manual system because the process of finding the available vehicle and driver for the booking must be done carefully to avoid redundancy in vehicle and driver schedule.

2.0

Background

KUTKM provides the transportation for the s& for outstation purposes.
However, the vehicle must be booked before they can be assigned to the requested staffs.
, The booking process managed by the KUTKM Vehicle Unit. This unit is not only

responsible in managing the transportation booking but also responsible in m a n a a g all the data about the vehicle including its spare parts data, the vehicle maintenance data such as road tax, insurance and service'and also the driver data who will be assigned for the booking. KUTKM Vehicle Unit is still using a manual file system in handling the information of the vehicle and its booking data. The process of managing vehicle data and handling its booking data in growing collection of file folders became time consuming and cumbersome with the manual file system. Staff who needs to request for a transport must fill the form and give it to the person in charge in the faculty or department. The form will be checked by the Head of Department or Dean and sent to Vehicle*Unitif approved. When the booking form received by the Vehicle Unit it is checked by the dedicated staff to assign the vehicle stated in the booking form.
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according to some conditions such as the person requested, date, time, purpose and place

The staff must check the available vehicle that match with the booking data and find the available driver for that vehicle. The scheduling for the vehicle is done manually and may cause the redundancy in assigning the vehicle and driver to the booking. Besides, the manual checking and scheduling the vehicle and driver is time consuming

and involve a lot of work to be done The result of the booking can only be known by the rquester through the phone when they make a call to the Vehicle Unit. In addition, all the data of the vehicle, spare parts, driver, vehicles maintenance such as road tax, insurance and service are kept in the manual file and saved in the cabinet. The manual file system involves many files and may cause the difficulties in managing the data. The process of adding, searching and updating data is done inefficiently with the manual file system. Intelligent Vehicle Assets Management System provides online application where

the staffs of every department can fill the transportah; booking form online when they
need the transport. This booking form can also be check online by the Head of
DeparXment or Dean. When approved by the Head of Department or Dean, the staff of
\I

Vehicle Unit can view the booking forms to see the booking data. The available whicle and the driver will be suggested automatically by the scheduling system based on-the

booking data. The result of the transportation booking will be shown online and the staff em v i m their booking status anytime.
In addition, the Intelligent Asset Management System also provides the database
system so that the vehicle, driver, spare parts and vehicle maintenance data can be manage efficiently. The process of adding, updating, deleting and searching the data can be done effectively with this system. As the result, the system makes data management more efficient and effective and may produce accurate, relevant and timely information to be used by the user.

3.0

Approach Methodology
The chosen methodology to develop the Intelligent Vehicle Asset Management

System will focus on all the system development phases that have been stated in the field of Software Engineering. The methodology that we used is called the Prototyping Methodology. Throughout the whole duration of our research, we have gone through each and every phases in order to develop a system that can be used and benefits the targeted users. The prototyping and implementation .concurrently, andmethodology performs the analysis, designin a cycle untiWle phases all three phases are performed repeatedly system is completed. With this approach, the basis of analysis and design are and work immediately begins on a s y s h prototype. The first prototype is usually the first part of the system that the user will use. This is shown to the users who will give comments and then those comments will be used to re-analyze, re-design and reimplement a second prototype that provides a few more features. This process continues in a cycle until the users agree that the prototype provides enough hctionality to be installed and used in the real environment. The key advantage of prototyping is that it very quickly provides a system for the users to interact with. This methodology re-assure the users that the works is being done throughout the whole duration of the research and the approach helps to more quickly refine real requirements., Rather than attempting to understand a system specification on paper, the users can interact with the prototype to better understand what it can and cannot do.

Prototype Testing
,

.
System Installation System Maintenance

Figure 3.1 The Prototyping Methodology During requirements gathering and analysis, we can see from the Figure 1, there

are other processes that has been done concurrently. Besides analyzing the gathered
requirements, we also did research for the Rule Based Technique information and we have developed the rules based on the daily business processes. A Rule is a means of expressing procedural or heuristics howledge in the knowledge base of a system. The
8

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is in the form pf a logical implication. If the conditions of fact on the left hand side of the rule are true then the implications (actions or assertions of new facts) on the right hand side of the rule are available to be activated by the control component of the system (Brule, 1986)

S1.1 Research Phases

Planning
planning phase focused on planning the tasks that involved in the project. It has detailed out the work schedule, duration for each task and resources allocated for the whole project.

Requirement Ana1ysis
Analysis phase focused on reviewing the previops similar project done by other

-her

using similar technique and approach to git the picture and guidelines. We

have recognized the problems that can be derived as rules. We also look into the current b i n process to get the requirements and analyzed it before start designing and ~ developing the system proposed in the project. What we have done is to make sure that

all the requirements and rules recognized and analyzed will picture the actual sce&io of the working current system.
m r Design hn
Designing phase focused on designing the system that will solve all the Erased on the dynamic scheduling algorithm we have developed in the

The produced design in this phase is basically using the Rule Based

.We have modeled the rules that identified during the requirement analysis

6-1ated
8 ,

mlng the problems and current business rules including the process. The design -.
the functions into the system components.
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Prototype Development
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Development or implementation of the system started during this phase. We

hi4ctranslated the modules identified in design phase into the programming codes.
Testing, Installation and Maintenance
All the testing works followed by the installation and maintenance work are in the last phase of system development.

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Figure 4.1.2

Transport information interface in the Transport Module

Figure 4.1.3

Transport termination interface in the Transport Module