IOT BASED CAR PARKING

SYSTEM
REPORT

DARSH NILESH SHAH

179402046
MECHANICAL ENGG. SEC-A
ABSTRACT

 Nowadays congestion of traffic level increases with the increasing

development of population rapidly. With respect to the amount of population,
the utilization of personal vehicles also increased. Due to more use of cars the
traffic congestion occurred on the road. Most of the people chooses personal
vehicles than public transportation. It is very difficult and time consuming to
find parking space in most metropolitan areas, commercial areas, especially
during the rush hours. IOT Based car parking system that delivers information
to people finding a parking space online. It overcomes unnecessary time
consuming for finding the problem of parking space in parking areas. Hence,
the website is provided by this system user can view various parking areas and
choose the space from available slots.

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INTRODUCTION

 The recent growth in economy and due to the availability of low price cars in
the market, every average middle-class individual can afford a car, which is
good thing, however the consequences of heavy traffic jams, pollution, less
availability of roads and spot to drive the motor car. One of the important
concerns, which is to be taken in accounting, is that problem of parking those
vehicles. Though, if there is space for parking the vehicle but so much time is
squandered in finding that exact parking slot resulting in more fuel intake and
not also environment friendly. It will be great deal if in some way we find out
that the parking itself can provide the precise vacant position of parking slot
then it'll be helpful not limited to the drivers also for the environment.
Therefore, many innovations are created to find solution.

EXISTING SOLUTIONS

 At present some countries have portals which users can gain information
about parking areas via the in-telnet. This system can give user the
information about parking space, but it won’t be able to give which parking
slot is vacant and occupied. Hence, such system cannot smartly handle the
issue. Car lifts along with automated robotic system, which auto-magically
takes car to a particular parking spot as soon as the car enters on a platform.
This system cannot be installed by medium scale shopping malls, movie
theaters as it can cost them a huge amount. At many public places, the system
only shows the availability but it cannot show the exact slot and path to the
slot available. Hence, there is the need to smartly find the path to the vacant
spot.

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 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION AND ARCHITECTURE
 SYSTEM OVERVIEW AND REQUIREMENTS
After doing some research and going through different articles, I started to work on a system
that can help in the current traffic and parking issue our city faces. I started out with a grand
idea of finding a smart way to assist drivers to park their cars with consideration of the
implementation. From my research I found out a lot of ways the problem can be tackled; I
found some companies that made a business out of implementing a smart parking system.

 System mainly depends on

1. Space
2. Information
3. The right Individual
4. Real time.

 The working definition of the factors are:

1. Space: parking area/slot/building

2. Information: availability or occupancy
3. Individual: driver or concerned personnel/group
4. Time: real time

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 What is IoT?

In its broadest sense, the term IoT encompasses everything connected to the
internet, but it is increasingly being used to define objects that talk to each other
Simply, IoT is made of devices from simple sensors to smart phones and
wearables connected together. The Internet of Things is essentially a system of
machines or objects outfitted with data collecting technologies so that those
objects can communicate with one another. IoT is all about the Network, Devices
and Data.

Designed and implemented a system that gathers information about availability

of a parking space from its sensors, which will report to a lower level controller;
which in turn will send to a local controller which is responsible to send the
information to the server. The information gathered by the sensors need to be
accurate for the information to be accepted so we have also incorporated a way
in which parking attendants of parking areas and parking buildings contribute to
the system, they will be able to send information about the vehicles that entered
the premises. Based on the information from the sensors and the parking
attendant data the server will organized the data into a format that is suitable for
drivers so they can access it from their mobile devices to get the information
about the availability of a parking slot in a certain area. Our system is designed
and implemented to be a right hand for the drivers of our city by giving them
options of reservation and GPS based map guidance that comes pretty handy
when one doesn’t know where to find parking.

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 WORKING PRINCIPLE
Internet of Things(IoT) is a combination of interrelated devices which includes computing
devices, microcontrollers, different types of sensors and machines which are interconnected
with each other over the internet to perform a designated task with no human to computer
interaction. IoT is a technology that connects different devices to the internet and
communicates with the user where the user can remotely control and monitor the device or
just use the information fed to the system by the sensors. And the use of IoT has exponentially
increased in the recent years due to the availability of different technologies which will make it
easy to connect to the internet. IoT is integrated with four different characteristics which make
it perform the task is designated to.

 Sensors and devices are devices which may have special properties or perform simple
task to get information from the environment such as in this scenario to detect the
presence of a vehicles with the help of sensors. The task of the devices mainly is to grab
information from the environment.

 Connectivity this is the most important part of IoT which is to connect the sensors or the
devices to a cloud, a platform that can be accessed through the internet. So, we should
make sure that the internet connectivity is given. To achieve this, different methods are
used such as using GSM (which is the most common form) or by Wi-Fi or connecting directly
via Ethernet which will route to the internet.

 Data Processing once the data is transmitted over the internet to the cloud/server then
there have to be a data process which would be performed and displayed to the user. These
processes may involve displaying the temperature or the availability of a vehicle in a slot
(our project) and much more.

 User Interface this is the platform in which the data could be communicated with the
user. And also, the platform in which the user can remotely send instructions to devices to
perform particular tasks such to activate or deactivate, on or off etc. The users can connect
to the IoT application via a mobile or desktop application but the most commonly used
platforms as there is no need to design specific native apps and desktop apps for different
vendors but just implement the user communication module in the web interface as its
compatible to all devices.

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 COMPONENTS OF THE SYSTEM

As stated in the previous section, our project consists of sensors, microcontrollers and a server.
Besides that, there will be parking areas and parking buildings incorporated

 The components are:


 Parking buildings
 Parking areas
 Sensors
 IR sensors
 Ultrasonic sensors

 Microcontrollers
 Arduino
 Raspberry PI

 Server
 Users
 Parking Attendants
 Drivers
 Administrator

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 IR SENSOR
Infrared radiation is an electromagnetic wave with wavelength of 700nm to 1 mm. It
is emitted by objects with temperature above 0 kelvin. Furthermore, intensity and wavelength
of infrared radiation depends on the temperature of the object. The infrared sensors are the
sensors that detect/measure infrared radiation or change in the radiation from outer source or
inbuilt source.
Also, sensors that uses the property of infrared radiations to detect the changes in surrounding
are termed as infrared sensors.
A general working method of infrared sensors is as follows:

 Infrared Source
1. The source of infrared is either in built or form outside environment.
2. Range of detection and wavelength of infrared radiation to be detected can be configured.

 Transmission medium
1. Vacuum
2. Air
3. Optical fibers

 Optical system
1. To converge the infrared radiation into the detector
2. Optical lenses or mirrors
3. The material for optical system is chosen according to their transmittance/reflectance for
desired wavelength of IR

 Detector
1. Thermal detector has detector material and is independent to wavelength
2. Quantum detector is wavelength dependent

 Signal processing
1. The signals produced by the detector are small so amplification is
required.

There are two types of infrared sensor based on its function:

 Thermal Infrared sensor
 Quantum infrared sensor
These are the types of infrared sensors based on the working mechanism:
 Active Infrared Sensors
 Passive Infrared sensors

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Active infrared sensors are the types of infrared sensor that emit infrared radiation
which is later received by the receiver. The IR is emitted by an IR Light Emitting
Diode (LED) and received by photodiode, phototransistor or photoelectric cells.
During the process of detection, the radiation is altered, between process of emission
and receiving, by object of interest. The alteration of radiation causes change in
received radiation in the receiver. This property is used to generate desired output
with help of associated electronic circuit.
Break beam sensors, these types of Active IR sensor have emitter and receiver
placed in such a way that the IR emitted by the emitter falls directly in to the receiver.
During the operation, IR beam is emitted continuously towards the receiver. The flow
of IR can be interrupted by placing an object between the emitter and receiver. If the
IR is transmitted but altered, then receiver generates output based on the change in
radiation.

IR sensor (from electronicshub.com)

Similarly, if the radiation is completely blocked the receiver can detect it and provide
the desired output. For example: let’s consider a Break beam sensor and a conveyer
belt. When an opaque object interrupts the IR flow the receiver doesn’t receive any
signal thus the conveyer belt stops.
Reflectance sensors use reflective property of IR. The emitter emits an IR beam
which is reflected by the object. Reflected IR is the detected by the receiver. The
object causes change in the property of the reflected IR or the amount of IR received
by the receiver varies. The degree of change is dependent on the reflectance of the
object. Thus, detecting the change in amount of received IR helps in figuring out the
properties of object such as surface geography and reflectance.

These sensors are ideal for a parking area, because upon detecting an object in front
of it, it transmits to the controller that it has detected an object and this stays true
unless the object moves away from the sensor

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ULTRASONIC SENSOR
For years, ultrasonic sensors have been used in a wide range of applications including fish
finders, parking sensors in cars and burglar alarms. Ultrasound is an acoustic wave with a very
high frequency, beyond human hearing. Since the audible frequency range is said to be
between 20Hz and 20kHz, ultrasound generally means acoustic waves above 20kHz. Bats, with
their echo-location (biological ultrasonic radar), can hear sounds up to 200kHz, way beyond the
capabilities of the human ear.
Ultrasound has several characteristics which make it so useful and that have led touts use in
many electronics applications. Firstly, it is inaudible to humans and therefore undetectable by
the user. Secondly, ultrasound waves can be produced with high directivity. Thirdly, they are a
compressional vibration of matter (usually air). Finally, they have a lower propagation speed
than light or radio waves. The fact that ultrasound is inaudible to human ears is an important
factor in ultrasound applications. For example, a car parking sensor system generates sound
pressure of more than 100dB to ensure clear reception. This is the equivalent of the audible
sound pressure experienced when standing close to a jet engine. Ultrasound's high frequency
(short wavelength) enables narrow directivity, similar to its radio wave equivalent, microwaves.
This characteristic is used in kidney stone treatments, where ultrasound emitted from outside
the body is focused on the stone to break it down. Since the energy level is low, it does not
harm the body. Because ultrasound is vibration of matter, it can also be used to examine the
characteristics of that matter.

ULTRASONIC SENSORS (from electronicshub.com)

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Since it is known that sound travels through air at about 344 m/s (1129 ft./s), you can take the
time for the sound wave to return and multiply it by 344 meters (or 1129 feet) to find the total
round-trip distance of the sound wave. Round-trip means that the sound wave traveled 2 times
the distance to the object before it was detected by the sensor; it includes the 'trip' from the
sonar sensor to the object AND the 'trip' from the object to the Ultrasonic sensor (after the
sound wave bounced off the object). To find the distance to the object, simply divide the round-
trip distance in half.
Three different properties of the received echo pulse may be evaluated, for different sensing
purposes. They are:
• Time of flight (for sensing distance)
• Doppler shift (for sensing velocity)
• Amplitude attenuation (for sensing distance, directionality, or attenuation coefficient)

The main advantage of ultrasonic sensors is that measurements may be made without touching
or otherwise impeding the target. In addition, depending on the distance measured,
measurement is relatively quick (it takes roughly 6ms for sound to travel 1m). However, many
factors such as temperature, angle, and material may affect measurements.
Weighing in all the different mode of operations we picked this sensor to be part of our project
for its simplicity and quick response time.
The sensors we picked, IR sensor and Ultrasonic sensors are both cheap but we needed both
because we are working with different parking areas that needed different sensors to convey
the surrounding

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ARDUINO
Arduino is an open-source platform used for building electronics projects. Arduino consists of
both a physical programmable circuit board (often referred to as a microcontroller) and a piece
of software, or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that runs on your computer, used to
write and upload computer code to the physical board.
The Arduino platform has become quite popular with people just starting out with electronics,
and for good reason. Unlike most previous programmable circuit boards, the Arduino does not
need a separate piece of hardware (called a programmer) in order to load new code onto the
board – you can simply use a USB cable. Finally, Arduino provides a standard form factor that
breaks out the functions of the microcontroller into a more accessible package.
Arduino boards are generally based on microcontrollers from Atmel Corporation like 8, 16 or
32-bit AVR architecture-based microcontrollers. The important feature of the Arduino boards is
the standard connectors. Using these connectors, we can connect the Arduino board to other
devices like LEDs or add-on modules called Shields. The Arduino boards also consists of on
board voltage regulator and crystal oscillator. They also consist of USB to serial adapter using
which the Arduino board can be programmed using USB connection. In order to program the
Arduino board, we need to use IDE provided by Arduino. The Arduino IDE is based on
Processing programming language and supports C and C++.
There are many types of Arduino boards available in the market but all the boards have one
thing in common: they can be programmed using the Arduino IDE. The reasons for different
types of boards are different power supply requirements, connectivity options, their
applications etc.
Arduino boards are available in different sizes, form factors, different no. of I/O pins etc. Some
of the commonly known and frequently used Arduino boards are Arduino UNO, Arduino Mega,
Arduino Nano, Arduino Micro and Arduino Lily pad.
Arduino UNO is a basic and inexpensive Arduino board and is the most popular of all the
Arduino boards with a market share of over 50%. Arduino UNO is considered to be the best
prototyping board for beginners in electronics and coding.
UNO is based on ATmega328P microcontroller. There are two variants of the Arduino UNO: one
which consists of through – hole microcontroller connection and other with surface mount
type. Through-hole model will be beneficial as we can take the chip out in case of any problem
and swap in with a new one.

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 Arduino UNO (from electronicshub.com)

Arduino UNO comes with different features and capabilities. As mentioned earlier, the microcontroller
used in UNO is ATmega328P, which is an 8-bit microcontroller based on the AVR architecture.
UNO has 14 digital input – output (I/O) pins which can be used as either input or output by connecting
them with different external devices and components. Out of these 14 pins, 6 pins are capable of
producing PWM signal. All the digital pins operate at 5V and can output a current of 20mA. Arduino
Uno has 6 analog input pins which can provide 10 bits of resolution i.e. 1024 different values. The
analog pins on the Arduino UNO are labelled A0 to A5.

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 RASPBERRY
PI A Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized computer originally designed for education, inspired by
the 1981 BBC Micro. Creator Been Upton's goal was to create a low-cost device that would
improve programming skills and hardware understanding at the pre-university level. But thanks
to its small size and accessible price, it was quickly adopted by tinkerers, makers, and
electronics enthusiasts for projects that require more than a basic microcontroller (such as
Arduino devices).
It is powered by the Broadcom BCM2835 system-on-a-chip (SoC). This SoC includes a 32-bit
ARM1176JZFS processor, clocked at 700MHz, and a Video core IV GPU. It also has 256MB of
RAM in a POP package above the SoC. The Raspberry Pi is powered by a 5V micro USB AC
charger.
The Raspberry Pi is slower than a modern laptop or desktop but is still a complete Linux
computer and can provide all the expected abilities that implies, at a low-power consumption
level.

Raspberry Pi (from electronicshub.com)

There are two Raspberry Pi models, the A and the B, named after the aforementioned BBC Micro,
which was also released in a Model A and a Model B. The A comes with 256MB of RAM and one USB
port. It is cheaper and uses less power than the B. The current model B comes with a second USB port,
an Ethernet port for connection to a network, and 512MB of RAM.

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The Raspberry Pi A and B boards been upgraded to the A+ and B+ respectively. These upgrades
make minor improvements, such as an increased number of USB ports and improved power
consumption, particularly in the B+.
The Raspberry Pi was designed for the Linux operating system, and many Linux distributions
now have a version optimized for the Raspberry Pi. Two of the most popular options are
Raspbian, which is based on the Debian operating system, and Pidora, which is based on the
Fedora operating system. For beginners, either of these two works well; which one you choose
to use is a matter of personal preference. A good practice might be to go with the one which
most closely resembles an operating system you’re familiar with, in either a desktop or server
environment.
One advantage of using the Raspberry Pi over some other alternatives is the size of the
community. If you have a question regarding a project you are working on, there are a lot of
people who might be able to help you because of the large reach of the community. The
devices that are discussed in the above four sub-sections will be part of the hardware section of
our project. When selecting the devices, we were considered simplicity to use and availability
as our main criteria. The sensors we picked (i.e. IR and ultrasonic) can be found easily in the
market and are easily configurable with the micro controller we picked. Which takes us one
level up the ladder of our tree of devices. The Arduino is suitable for accepting sensors inputs
and acting on them quickly besides being cheap. The Raspberry Pi is a mini computer so it is a
better master to the Arduino which in contrary is a better slave.

✓ From above discussion we can understand that Arduino is good for repetitive tasks such as
opening the garage door, switching the lights on and off.

✓ While PI good for performing multiple tasks, driving complicated robots.

✓ For example, if you want to monitor the soil moisture and mail me if it is necessary to water
the plants. For this application, Arduino can be used.

✓ But if you want to monitor the moisture, mail me when the plants need to be watered and
check the weather report from online. If there is rain do nothing. For this application Raspberry
pi required.

✓ In simple Arduino is used for beginner’s projects and some complicated projects can be easily
handled by pi.

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 Comparison between Arduino UNO and Raspberry PI 2

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SERVER
All the data incoming from different Raspberry Pi’s set up will be sent to the central server.
A server is a computer designed to process requests and deliver data to another computer over
the internet or a local network. The word "server" is understood by most to mean a web server
where web pages can be accessed over the internet through a client like a web browser.
However, there are several kinds of servers and even local ones like file servers that store data
within an intranet network.
Although any computer running special software can function as a server, the most typical use
of the word references the very large, high-powered machines that function as the pumps
pushing and pulling data from the internet. Most computer networks support one or more
servers that handle specialized tasks. As a rule, the larger the network - in terms of clients that
connect to it or the amount of data that it moves - the more likely it is that several servers play
a role, each dedicated to a specific purpose.
Strictly speaking, the "server" is the software that handles a certain task. However, the
powerful hardware that supports this software is also usually called a server because server
software coordinating a network of hundreds or thousands of clients requires hardware much
more robust than what you'd buy for ordinary consumer use.

The server we used is built on the MQTT framework. We have explored different other web
frameworks and we picked MQTT for its simplicity and it is ideal for real time systems.

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PARKING AREA AND PARKING BUILDING
I have come across different parking spaces, some were underground ones while others were open
air and we have also observed parking buildings.
After observing this pattern, we have divided parking spaces to two broad categorized based on the
entrance mechanism to the parking area.
1. Parking spaces with single point of entry (Parking building)
2. Parking area with multiple entrance and exit (parking area)

The first one can be further divided in to two based on the exiting mechanism.in the first case we
have parking areas with the same entrance and exit gates; the second one on the contrary has
separate entrance and exit gates. The parking area will have several entrances and exit points
which makes it difficult to set a single point of entrance and exit.
It can be clearly seen from figure 17 the difference between the parking spaces in question, the
physical layout of both structures defines the sensors used and their placement to achieve a
maximum throughput.
In addition to the parking spaces, we have also narrowed down the specific kinds of cars that can
be parked in such parking spaces. As per our definition the vehicles that can be parked in the
parking spaces are four wheeled vehicles which don’t include heavy vehicles that are used in long
distance travels.

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SYSTEM DESIGN AND WALKTHROUGH
In this section, the overall system will be discussed specifying its working principle together with
the real world and experimental setup.
Our system design and implementation are divided into four major modules for better work flow
and abstraction. The four modules are:
1. Arduino and sensor configuration
2. Communication module
3. Server implementation
4. Mobile Application Development

We will look what each module contributes to the overall system step wise.

 HARDWARE COMPONENTS

 ARDUINO AND SENSOR CONFIGURATION

This is our building block for the whole project, it is in this module our sensors are
configured to sense their surrounding and report back to the Arduino. Data (availability of
parking slots) is collected and transmitted to the Arduino, which will make sense of it and
prepare the data for further transmission.
Our sensor configuration and placement depend on the parking space in question.

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Considering figure 18, our sensors are placed in two distinct areas; the first section which
includes UC 1 and UC 2 is our entrance trigger meaning if triggered first the system considers a
car is entering the building. On the other side are UC 3 and UC 4 which are considered as exit
trigger by the system.
Between the two sections there should be a gap labeled ‘X’ which has a minimum value of an
average cars length in order to perfectly detect a car by changing the states of the sensors. In
addition to that to give time for the sensor to detect the car and to avoid reckless driving we
have assumed a speed bump in the middle throughout the design.

 SERVER IMPLEMENTATION & MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

 Step 1: Install the smart parking application on your mobile device.

 Step 2: With the help of the mobile app search for parking area on and around your
destination.
 Step 3: Select a particular parking area.
 Step 4: Browse through the various parking slots available in that parking area.
 Step 5: Select a particular parking slot.
 Step 6: Select the amount of time (in hours) for which you would like to park your car
for.
 Step 7: you have successfully parked your car in the selected parking slot.

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CONCLUDE
we first explored different ways to implement such a system; such systems can
counter the parking problems that arise due to the unavailability of reliable,
efficient and modern parking system. The use of different modern techniques
such as expert systems, wireless sensor based and vision-based systems can
reduce the parking related issues. Such a system can help the economic, social
and safety based aspects of the society. It also helps in preserving the
environment, fuel and time. The economic analysis can help us find the optimum
solution that has the maximum throughput. From the technical and business
analysis we did on the design and implementation of the system, we can observe
that it has a huge potential. If the limiting factors such us better components is
supported with proper funding, we can further develop it to a fully functional
system that has commercial value.

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REFERENCES

 “2011 Commuter Pain Survey” IBM Press Room. IBM

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_parking_system Oct 20,2017
 K. Ashokkumar a, Baron Sam, R Arshadprabhu, Britton. “Cloud Based
Intelligent Transport System” Procedia Computer Science
 http://ijarcet.org/wp-content/uplods/IJ
 http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors .
 A parking management system based on wireless sensor network. Act
Automatic Sin
 Shim, S., S. Park and S. Hong, 2006. Parking management system using
zigbee. Int. J. Comput. Sci. Network Security
 http://www.sbf1.sbfisica.org.br/procs/2006/pdfs%20optics/Inter
aerometry, %20Holography%20and%20Applied%20Optics/604%20- 2.pdf
January 12,2018
 http://www.st.com/st-
webui/static/active/en/resource/technical/document/application_note/D
M0 0096551.pdf. Choosing an ultrasonic sensor for proximity or distance
measurement.
 http://b_sc__thesis_documentaion_for_iot_based_parking_system__6ZRYs
hiUVl.pdf

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