IoT based Smart Parking Systems for Smart Cities
In this rapid growing economy, the number of vehicle users increases exponentially that demanding more parking space. With improving number of vehicles on the road along with the mismanagement of available parking space, leads to parking associated concerns as well as enhanced traffic congestion in urban areas.
Thus it is necessary to develop an automated smart parking management system that would assist the driver to find out some worthy parking space for their vehicle. Smart Parking systems give choices to car owners for parking lots. This helps in effective management of parking space that will manage the space efficiently.
As per Recent research, 30% of the traffic in urban areas is generated by drivers and motorists looking for parking spaces. Market spending for smart parking products and services is supposed to develop at a CAGR of 14% and exceed to $3.8B by 2023.
What is Smart parking and how does it work?
Smart Parking makes use of sensing devices such as vehicle counting equipment, cameras, sensors installed in pavements, etc. to discover occupancy of the parking lot. The strong sensing systems are being built to examine and transfer the data to the database in real time.
The system increases the accessibility of parking with the use of sensors. The sensors placed in the pavement of the selected parking spaces to recognise if parking slot is occupied or vacant.
Sensors communicates with gateway and that data will be push to the cloud. Sensors then immediately show the availability of parking slots. This can be viewed on the APP or the sensors placed on the parking slots so drives can easily identify the space.
Where can Smart Parking solutions be used?
Smart Parking can be utilized in private parking lots, hospitals, hotels, shopping malls, public parking garages, offices, etc. to make the parking hassle free and time consuming. The intelligent parking system enables drivers to book the parking spots in advance and also get real-time accessibility of the parking spaces on their mobile devices.
Smart Parking is one of the most acquired and developing Smart City Solutions across the world. Airports, shopping malls, universities and city garages etc are just a few establishments that have started to realise the remarkable benefits of automated parking technology.
The capability to connect, monitor and automate data collected from devices, leveraged by and reported as the Internet of Things, is what makes smart parking possible.
Smart Parking includes the utilization of real-time data, low cost sensors and applications that empower users to analyze available parking slots. The aim is to automate and reduce time spent manually searching for the optimal parking floor, spot and even lot.
Some solutions will enclose a complete suite of services such as parking time notifications, online payments and even car searching functionalities for very huge lots.
Smart Parking System Functionality
Modern automated parking system generally involves coherent electromechanical transmission control, security control, detection systems and automated placement. The systems can fully help vehicle measurement, electronic payment scanning, image analysis and automatic retrieval.
In an automated parking, images of the car are catched and transferred to a controller where dimensions of the car are read and the license plate recorded. Meantime, the driver pays by card and the system gives authorization, perhaps via voice recognition.
Once sensors have confirmed the entry pallet or cabin is vacant of occupants, the process of automatic moving and parking will be started. The car will be shifted by an elevator or a carousel system up to the storage floors and parked into a proper space with security guarantee.
To command and synchronize all the controllers and subsystems, automated parking systems need precise control, robust and reliable networking and system maintenance.
Usually, the electromechanical systems, driving the automatic parking and improvement process are managed by a PLC (programmable logic controller) with which a parking attendant controls the system using a control panel at the entrance. The PLC is a closed system depends on a unique programming language and is frequently located in a remote location, presenting disruption when data is to be read from the PLC unit via an HMI device linked by an RS-485 serial cable.
Using an Internet of Things (IoT) gateway to attach with the PLC, however, sensors and other edge devices, field data can be restored, monitored and stored to the cloud. This helps the parking system to be analyzed and managed from a remote control center in real time, providing significant benefits to the management and efficiency of the parking systems.
The IoT gateway links the PLC with the PC-based monitoring control system, empowering PLC data to be read and maintenance tasks performed by the way of a handheld panel or other mobile device linked to the network through 3G/WiFi or other Ethernet connection.
As IoT gateways constantly transfer the PLC data to local servers and the cloud, operating status from multiple towers can be remotely analyzed in real time, alerting admin about the problems which can be reduced in a timely manner. Risk of system failure and the requirements of onsite maintenance are thus reduced, increasing efficiency and minimizing maintenance costs.
Further, with cloud computing enabled by IoT technology, new applications can be evolved to improve value-added services. A smart city parking system can be developed that allows drivers to locate nearby parking vacancies through a GPS/web-based mobile device accessing cloud data.
Challenges
Since automated parking garages show a remarkable investment, connection of existing PLC systems and equipment to external facilities requires a definitive, cost- efficient IoT solution. A beneficial IoT solution must make it easy to transfer field data to the cloud with no need to discard established assets, all with the minimum investment, reduced maintenance cost and increased ROI.
 There are Real Upfront Costs
Both the hardware as well as the network can have hidden costs that you may not have thought. For instance, most smart parking systems have some kind of in-ground sensors, which are more definitive than using smart parking sensors on a parking meter. But if you construct on a mesh network and you’re operating in a dynamic radio frequency (RF) environment, a car parking over the sensor may interrupt your mesh.
To solve this, you can have the smart parking meter that will communicate with the sensor in the ground—but then you’ll require to pay for two parking systems. So, if you want the mesh to execute, you will likely to have an over-engineer to assure that you don’t have to deal with blackouts.
Enforcement Can be an Issue
Let’s say someone pays for two hours of parking and stays only for 20 minutes. Depending on the application utilization, someone else might be able to park there without the meter registering that the previous car left the spot.
If the parking owner wants to leverage the revenue benefit of parking, both from a metering as well as execution perspective—you need to determine who paid for the parking space and when that particular vehicle leaves the parking spot.
Convenience Factor
If you require a smartphone app to pay for parking, you’ll need to refer your demographic. If you’re in a large city you can usually get away with this, but it’s going to be a little difficult in smaller cities. Additionally, you have to think about your city’s tourism industry.
Tourists requires to download an app and entering their credit card information just to park for a day or is there a more efficient method available for the visitors.
Smart Parking System Overview
Smart parking has preferred a system in which authentication is done using RFID tag. Data collected by sensors are reserved in cloud. Application map provides user friendly information related to vacant place.
In metropolitan areas, people prefer cab or car as suitable option to go to shopping centers, theaters or hotels. Searching place to park vehicles in highly in populated area would waste time and utilizes fuel during searching for parking space. Hence there is a requirement for assistive technology, which would convey the availability of parking slots to the registered users.
Mobile app would enable the users to register for the service and if the destination and calculated arrival time is described, the app need to find the free parking space and send the specific location to the user.
Effective car parking system presented which utilizes IR sensors; authentication is done using RFID tag. IOT based parking system allow the user to make a reservation for the parking place. Mobile application then finds the current parking place. In this whole system IR sensor is utilized to search a vacant place and is unveiled at entry and exit gate. RFID tag is provided to authorize a person entry to the parking place. If the person is authorized then signal is sent to open the gate.
For every parking region, Infra-Red (IR) sensors are located and IR sensors would recognise the number of parking slots, Number of free and booked slots are explicitly presented in LCD screen, WIFI module is utilized for communication between mobile app and sensors.
A parking solution can significantly benefit both the user and the lot owner. Here are some of the top benefits:
• Optimized parking
Users find the best spot available, saving time and effort. The parking lot fills up effectively and space can be used correctly by commercial and corporate establishments.
• Reduced traffic
Traffic flow improves as fewer cars are needed to drive around in search of an open parking space.
• Enhanced User Experience
A smart parking solution will combine the whole user experience into a united action. Driver’s payment, location search, spot identification and time notifications, all absolutely become part of the destination arrival process.
• New Revenue Streams
Many new revenue flows are possible with smart parking technology. For example, lot owners can allow bank payment options dependent on parking space location. Also, certain rewards can be combined into existing models to inspire repeated users.
• Improved Safety
Parking lot employees and security guards include real-time lot data that can help prevent parking breaches and sceptical activity. Automated License plate recognition cameras (a specific type of video surveillance camera specially designed to seize numbers and letters of license plates on still or moving vehicles) can collect relevant footage. Also, decreased spot-searching traffic on the streets can minimize accidents generated by the disturbance of searching for parking.
• Real-Time Data Insight
Over a time, a smart parking solution can generate data that detects correlations and movements of users and lots.
• Reduced Management Costs
More automation and less manual activity conserve labour cost and resource utilisation.
• Increased Service and Brand Image
The absolute experience can really improve a corporate or commercial entities brand image. Whether the end of line is a retail store, corporate business office, an airport, visitors will surely be impressed with the cutting edge technology and beneficial factors.
As evince of just these top benefits, the execution of a smart parking solution would steadily be a great investment. Our IoT Course guide will give you a thorough view on such an IoT Solutions.
As the global population resumes developing and urbanizing, it is essential to execute a well-planned and convenience-driven smart parking solution that can be used globally.