This project implements a dashboard to track drones positions in real-time. It consists of 3 modules: frontend (dashboard), backend (central server) and drone-simulator.

To run the project, execute the following command in the root folder:

docker-compose up

Docker will run all 3 modules as well as the required VerneMQ (https://vernemq.com/) MQTT broker. The dashboard will be accessible in http://localhost:8080

It was created for a programming challenge and as a learning experience.

The dashboard will show the position and speed of the drones, as reported by the server. Drones that have 'stopped' (for example, due to a malfunction) are highlighted in 'red'.

The message broker. The drones will send messages to its queue and the central-server will read them from it. It supports the MQTT protocol, a lightweight protocol, suitable for IoT devices.

This application generates a few "fake drones" that report their position periodically. The drones have a random chance to "stop moving", so that we can test if the detection of "stopped" drones is working properly. They also have a random chance to start moving again. By default, 10 drones are created in the same coordinates (latitude and longitude), but with a random bearing.

The main application, it reads the updates from the MQTT broker and stores the data to an "in-memory" fake database. It also calculates the drones speed based on their position and flags any drone that has not moved more than 1 meter in the last 10 seconds. The server can send the data via a websocket.

It connects to the central server websocket and receives the drone information through it. The dashboard consists of a table with the drones information and drones that are "stopped" have a visual marking.

For this project, the following language/tools/frameworks were used:

• Frontend

  • React
  • create-react-app
  • Reactstrap
  • Prettier (a code formatter)
  • sockjs-client and stomp-websocket (for websocket communication)

• Backend and Drone-Simulator

  • Java 8
  • Spring and SpringBoot (and modules such as MQTT, Websocket)
  • Gradle (as the build system tool)
  • JUnit and Mockito (for unit tests and mocking)
  • Spotless java (a code formatter / enforcer - https://github.com/diffplug/spotless)
  • Lombok (a tool that improves java code writing - https://projectlombok.org/)
  • Geodesy (a Java library to perform operations with latitude and longitudes - https://github.com/mgavaghan/geodesy)

• Other tools:

  • VerneMQ (MQTT broker)
  • Docker and Docker-Compose
  • IntelliJ IDEA IDE (both frontend and backend)
  • Git
  • SonarLint (code quality tool - https://www.sonarlint.org/)