This is our final SE 101 course project in Software Engineering at the University of Waterloo. There are separate components to this project separated on different branches (server, front-end, microcontroller code).

At the center of all purchases and verification on campus is Waterloo’s own NFC (near-field communication) compatible object called the WatCard. We thus decided to use the Watcard (campus identification card) to create a university-wide bike sharing system.

The primary hardware that was utilized was an Arduino UNO, a PN532 module, and a ESP32 WI-FI board, which allowed us to scan an NFC or RFID tag and connect to the internet. These components were used to read the user ID (UID) of Watcards and once a valid UID was recognized, the Waterloo students were able to use the bike. With this system, we also track who last took out the bike for the purposes of stolen/missing bikes. Since our bike lock system operates within the university, we created a portal that allows the admin to check the availability of the bicycle and its current user.

On the Arduino UNO board, along with the PN532 module and the ESP32 WI-FI board, we used several other components such as a 180 degree rotating servo motor, an RGB LED, a buzzer, and a 9V battery as the power source. Here is a simple schematic of the configuration:

There is also a Node.js server, and a React.js front-end portal which allows admins to view information of all registered locks. The server connects to a MongoDB NoSQL database to keep track of the student, admin, and bike lock information. The ESP32 WI-FI board connects to the server through HTTP POST and GET requests through a standard WPA WI-FI connection. Here is a flow chart describing the structure of our project

Finally, there is a React Native app which allows students to check if the bikes near them are taken or available to be used.

All of the separate sections of our projects (front-end, server, etc) can be found in their respective branches.