Design and Development of a LoRa-Based Wireless Location System with Energy-Efficient Mechanism

Abstract

This paper presents the design and development of a wireless location notification system to address the problem of locating equipment or objects in large areas, such as warehouses and laboratories, where search processes are time-consuming and negatively affect overall operational efficiency. The proposed system employs LoRa wireless communication technology and consists of transmitter and receiver units that communicate through predefined device addresses. The receiver unit indicates its location using a light-emitting diode (LED) and a buzzer, enabling users to locate target equipment quickly and accurately. In addition, the system incorporates an energy-efficient mechanism by integrating the Deep Sleep Mode of the ESP32 microcontroller with the Channel Activity Detection (CAD) feature of the LoRa module. This approach significantly reduces power consumption during idle periods while maintaining reliable signal detection when required. Experimental results show that the receiver's current consumption can be reduced from 390 mA during normal operation to only 0.01 mA in sleep mode, corresponding to an energy saving of 99.997%. The system was evaluated through communication tests at distances ranging from 10 to 120 meters. The results indicate that the proposed system operates effectively within a range of up to 50 meters, achieving 100% accuracy while providing clear visual and audible notifications. Communication remains possible at distances of up to 100 meters; however, the effectiveness of the LED and buzzer notifications decreases as the distance increases. At a distance of 120 meters, the system can no longer operate reliably. The findings demonstrate that the developed wireless location notification system can be applied to the simultaneous localization of multiple devices, helping reduce search time, improve resource management efficiency, and extend the battery life of battery-powered devices.