Aplicación móvil para automatizar y controlar préstamos e inventarios con tecnologías sin contacto e IoT

Abstract

The manual management of loans and inventories in university environments leads to operational inefficiencies, registration errors, and a lack of real-time traceability. This project proposes the development and implementation of an integrated system to automate these processes in a pilot laboratory at ESPOL. The solution combines a native Android mobile application, a web management panel, and a basic sensing module, all interconnected via a cloud infrastructure (Firebase). The mobile application allows users to register loans and returns in seconds by scanning contactless technologies (NFC and QR codes), automatically generating digital PDF receipts. The web panel centralizes inventory administration, user management, and report generation. The system evaluation, conducted using the Design Thinking methodology, demonstrated a 94% reduction in processing time per transaction (from 15 to 0.9 minutes). Identification technologies showed an accuracy of 100% for QR codes and 98% for NFC. The management panel was rated 4.7/5 in terms of usability by administrators. These results validate that the system meets the objectives of improving operational efficiency, ensuring traceability, and offering centralized control. It is concluded that the solution is viable and effective, laying the foundation for its scalability. As future work, implementing an offline mode for the mobile application and exploring integration with institutional systems via APIs is recommended. Keywords: Inventory management, asset loan, mobile application, NFC, QR code, real-time traceability, automation, university laboratory.