Geolocation of Equipment or Machines by QR Code

In the field, it is sometimes necessary to track the position of certain equipment, whether for inventory purposes, traceability, or optimization.

Use cases: waste, construction sites, cleanliness…

There are numerous examples of equipment geolocation use cases:

Tracking the position of a waste collection bin (at deployment and/or upon its retrieval)

Tracking the location of a floor scrubber that is used across multiple sites

Tracking the position of machinery or dumpsters on a construction site

Example: Equipment geolocation in Google Sheets

Let’s consider the following use case: a waste management provider wants to track the position of a collection dumpster when it is placed at a client’s site, and then when it is collected.

Creating the Interface

Create a single-choice interface with 2 buttons.

In the general options, check the boxes:

Display instructions to explain the expected action to the user.

Display the name of the tracker so the user can ensure the QR code is correctly associated with the right equipment.

Enable geofencing to request the user’s smartphone position.

Optional: PIN code protection

If you want to ensure that only authorized users can geolocate the equipment, you can check the “PIN code protection” box. You will then need to select a list of PIN codes containing the valid codes, and remember to filter the data so that only data with a valid PIN code is taken into account.

Creating the Google Sheets

For the purposes of this tutorial, we will send the data to Google Sheets, but it is possible to do the same using other tools like Microsoft Excel, Zapier, Make.com, or your own software, through webhooks.

Create a Google Sheets table with the columns: Date, Action, PIN Code, GPS Position

Optional: Direct Google Maps Link

You can fill the Direct Google Maps Link column with the following formula to generate a direct link to the GPS location of the row in Google Maps:

=IF(D2<>"";CONCAT("https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=";D2);"")

Creating the Connector

Create a Google Sheets dispatch and map the fields.

Creating QR Codes

Then create a QOD (QR code) type tracker for each piece of equipment to be tracked, associating them with the previously created interface and connector. You can use the import and bulk creation functions to save time.

You have created a QR code-based equipment tracking system!