Special Issue Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

2017, Vol. 9(7) 1–9
Ó The Author(s) 2017
Optimization design and evaluation of DOI: 10.1177/1687814017712416
journals.sagepub.com/home/ade
parking route based on automatic
assignment mechanism of parking lot

Yan Han, Jiawen Shan, Meng Wang and Guang Yang

Abstract
The congestion causes of parking lot were analyzed with causal chain method and a questionnaire about individual
demand of parking users was carried out. The results show that more than 90% of the users hope parking spaces can be
automatically assigned to them when it’s difficult to find a parking space. The layout principles of WiFi in parking lot were
provided. The automatic assignment mechanism of parking lot was given considering the individual demand of parking
users and the avoidance of traffic conflicts. Some attribute decision factors such as lane occupancy conditions, travel dis-
tance, walking distance, and the occupancy situation of parking space on both sides were selected and optimal parking
lot assignment model was established. Optimal paths were calculated through Dijkstra algorithm, and the information
about the assignment location and path was sent to the drivers’ cell phones. The driver’s compliance was evaluated by
comparing the driver’s parking trajectory with system recommended path. Finally, a large parking lot in Beijing was taken
as an example. The results can offer constructive suggestions on parking route design and parking assignment mechan-
ism, which can make the use of the limited parking resources more effectively.

Keywords
WiFi location technology, optimization design of parking route, automatic assignment mechanism of parking lot, optimal
parking space assignment model, parking evaluation index system

Date received: 13 September 2016; accepted: 6 May 2017

Academic Editor: Hai Xiang Lin

Introduction parking space, they have to drive blindly and disorderly

in the parking lot that causes traffic congestion. (2) The
With the development of economy and incensement of parking management administrators cannot obtain the
car ownership, the supply–demand difference problem space utilization rate in different parking zones timely,
of parking spaces has become more and more promi- so that they cannot make the right decision to adjust
nent. Recently, the intelligent parking guidance system resource allocation. The parking management adminis-
is widely used in the super-large underground parking trators had to arrange a lot of manpower to maintain
garage and plays a role to improve the parking effi-
ciency. Due to the problems such as the unreasonable
traffic organization design and assignment and gui- Beijing Engineering Research Center of Urban Transport Operation
dance of parking lot, the existing parking system gra- Guarantee, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
dually cannot meet the parking needs and lead to a
series of problems such as longer searching time for Corresponding author:
Yan Han, Beijing Engineering Research Center of Urban Transport
parking space. The problems were analyzed with causal Operation Guarantee, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124,
chain method and listed as follows:1 (1) because the China.
drivers do not know the actual location of empty Email: hanyan422@bjut.edu.cn

Creative Commons CC-BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without
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open-access-at-sage).
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

the order of the parking lot, which increases the man- automatically through empty parking space detection
agement cost; (3) because the GPS does not work well system and show the messages through the message
in the underground parking garage, the existing park- board to the drivers. This system only can tell the drivers
ing system generally lacks the information exchange where the empty parking spaces are, but do not tell the
with the drivers and does not satisfy their needs. They drives which empty parking space they can park and
cannot monitor the parking trajectory of vehicles and how to reach the empty parking space. The Sipark park-
effectively guide the drivers in the parking lot, which ing guidance systems can reduce the congestion in the
results in poor satisfaction of users.2 Therefore, how to parking lot to some extent, but did not solve the key
use the limited parking resources effectively has become problems such as the assignment and guidance of park-
an urgent problem needed to be solved by parking lot ing spaces. In recent times, the focus of parking gui-
managers. An automatic assignment mechanism of dance has changed from the outside of the parking lot
parking lot considering the users’ information demand to the inside. Liu discussed the design of vehicle gui-
is proposed and discussed to solve all the above dance and reversed searching system. She pointed out
problems. that parking space detection was the basis of parking
intelligent management, and real-time monitoring of
parking spaces was the precondition for providing accu-
Literature review rate parking space information to managers and driv-
ers.8 C Ye9 put forward the principle and solution of
Parking issues need to be studied with systematic per- parking guidance system in the parking lot. A technol-
spective because they involve various indicators such as ogy which can be used in parking space detection is dis-
ecological capacity, social capacity, financial capacity, cussed by some researchers. It can be concluded that
psychological capacity, efficiency of service, and other WiFi system has a wider effective coverage and low
various indicators.3–5 The core concept to solve the environmental requirements. Through the deployment
parking problems in large parking lots is to accomplish of WiFi hotspots as well as a range of software and
scientific guidance of drivers’ parking behavior through algorithms, the location of intelligent terminals can be
the optimal design of intelligent parking system. The detected. There are a variety of algorithms to implement
strategies that can be taken include the optimal design wireless location, such as time of arrival (TOA), time
of parking route, parking guidance and information difference of arrival (TDOA), angle of arrival (AOA),
distribution, vehicle guidance, and reverse searching. receive signal strength (RSS) (algorithm based on signal
Domestic and foreign scholars have conducted a lot of strength value), and the combination of several algo-
research in these areas and achieved many important rithms mentioned above.10
research results. In summary, drivers’ information demand has not
In the research of parking route design, based on the been considered in parking behavior research. The
principle of separating pedestrians and vehicles, the existing parking guidance system is lack of effective
driving routes of vehicles in parking lots are designed methods to track the parking trajectory and guide park-
with reasonable traffic organization and optimization ing. Parking users still perform for self-organizing to
design. The parking intelligent management systems search parking spaces in the large parking lot. The
were divided into vehicle guidance subsystem and vehi- automatic parking garage can achieve automatic assign-
cle management subsystem.6 The identification of empty ment of parking spaces, but the investment is so huge
parking space, parking space assignment, and guidance that the applications are limited. Thus, to solve all
of parking spaces are key elements of auto parking gui- above questions, a parking behavior model under auto-
dance systems. The auto parking guidance systems are matic assignment mechanism of parking lot was estab-
widely used in the cubic parking system. The storage/ lished considering the individual demand of parking
retrieval queuing system was utilized in stacker crane in users. A questionnaire about individual demand of
cubic parking system, and some efficiency analyses were parking users was carried out. Then, the layout princi-
taken based on the queuing theory.7 As we all know, ples of WiFi in parking lot were provided based on
both cubic parking system and auto parking guidance WiFi location technology. The location fingerprint
system are so expensive that they cannot be widely used information were collected and matched to determine
in the underground parking lots. Automatic parking the real-time vehicle location, which can be utilized to
guidance system is used in the parking lots in Singapore. collect drivers’ actual parking trajectory. The automatic
The drivers just need to drive the vehicles to the entrance assignment mechanism of parking lot was given. Some
of parking lot. Vehicles will be guided to the lane in attribute decision factors such as the lane occupancy
which the traffic volume is smaller through the vehicle conditions, travel distance, walking distance, and the
flow detection system. The Sipark parking guidance sys- occupancy situation of parking spaces on both sides
tems was utilized in Germany Munich Airport. The were selected, and the optimal parking lot assignment
parking system will search for an empty parking space model was established. Optimal paths were calculated
Han et al. 3

through Dijkstra algorithm, and the information about parking space which provide basis for automatic
the assignment parking location and path was sent to assignment of parking spaces. Based on auto-
the drivers’ cell phones. The study can provide data assignment mechanism of parking lot, the individual
support to improve the efficiency of parking lots. demand of parking users is considered in the parking
space assignment and route distribution module.
Based on the discussion of the drivers’ microcosmic
Methodology choice behavior and the avoidance of traffic conflicts,
the automatic assignment model of parking spaces was
Introduction of parking management system
established to assign the parking spaces and measure
The optimization design process of intelligent parking the parking routes. Finally, the real-time induction mes-
management system based on WiFi location technology sages were sent by WiFi. At the same time, the parking
is shown in Figure 1.10,11 Parking management system users’ compliance level to recommended route should
is divided into three modules: parking lot management, be considered. By tracking the users’ driving trajectory,
user management, and space assignment and route dis- the system will timely discover the vehicles which did
tribution. Through the WiFi location technology, park- not follow the recommended route and then will send a
ing management module obtains and timely updates message to remind the user. When the user enters the
the occupancy situation information of parking lot. In parking space, the system will update the information
user management module, the system obtains users’ of empty parking space automatically. The core con-
registration information and individual needs of tents of three modules are introduced below.

Figure 1. Parking management system.

4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 2. WiFi indoor positioning stage schematic.

Figure 3. AP device layout diagram.

Related technology the intervals to place the AP device should be less than
15 m. When a driver connects WiFi in the parking lot
WiFi-based positioning technology. Compared to tradi-
with their mobile, fingerprint information of WiFi posi-
tional GPS positioning and mobile cellular network
tion can be collected at the same time to match with
locating,12 WiFi positioning advantages in the indoor
the datum in the offline database. The reference point
environment. A schematic view of WiFi indoor posi-
which has the minimum Euclidean distance to collec-
tioning stage is substantially shown in Figure 2. The
tion point has been found so that the position of the
parking user’s mobile receives information from three
vehicle can be matched. Installation and layout of the
parking wireless access points (APs). Then, a database
AP devices in the parking lot are shown in Figure 3.
is established, and positioning calculation is carried
shows the position where the AP device is installed
out using the weighted nearest neighbor (WNN)
on the roof of the corresponding position.
method. The reference point can be found to deter-
mine the user’s location, which has the minimum
Euclidean distance to the collection points. The posi- Investigation and analysis of the individual needs of the parking
tioning result and the path trajectory can be shown on users. In order to solve the problem of finding parking
the mobile by WiFi. space for a long time and driving disorderly, the auto-
In order to ensure the positioning requirements that matic assignment mechanism of parking lot was given
all areas are covered by three AP hotspots at least, AP considering the individual demand of parking users.
hotspots in parking lot are laid at intervals of 15 m Hence, a questionnaire about individual demand of
referring to general indoor installation experience. In parking users was carried out.13 The survey consists of
the actual installation environment, AP signals will the following parts: socioeconomic and demographic
wear and tear if there are too many walls in one direc- characteristics, assignment demand of parking spaces
tion within 15 m. In order to avoid the above situation, when parking spaces are numerous and tight, route
Han et al. 5

Figure 4. Relation between driving skill and parking space preference.

Figure 5. Attribute preferences of parking space.

navigation requirements, and willingness to obey and transportation after parking and shorter walk distance.
perform the assigned parking spaces. Second, 23% of respondents select the parking space
Because of the difference existed in the users’ driving which is close to the exit of the parking lot.
skills, the corresponding location attribute preferences Approximately 14% and 11% of the respondents hope
of parking spaces are also different. As shown in for the shortest parking time and shortest parking dis-
Figure 4, 70% of users who are unfamiliar to driving tance, respectively.
would like to select the parking space where no car The results of the survey showed that more than
parked on both sides. In addition, the users who have 90% of the users hope parking space can be automati-
general driving skills would like to select the parking cally assigned to them and route guidance can be pro-
lot where no car parked on both sides and only one vided when parking spaces are tight. They are willing
side of car-free parking. Because skilled drivers are con- to comply with the allocation result.
fident with their parking skill, they can accept any
parking space situations. Optimal parking lot assignment model considering user
Attribute preference results of parking spaces are needs. In order to avoid conflicts caused by drivers’
shown in Figure 5. It can be concluded that 50% of blindly searching and low efficiency of the parking lot,
respondents hope the parking space is close to the ele- automatic assignment mechanism of parking lot is pro-
vator and easy to reach the destination by vertical posed and established. Automatic assignment
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

mechanism of parking lot consists of three parts: opti- value is, the better the effect is. Another type is benefit
mal parking lot assignment according to user needs index, such as the vehicle occupancy condition on both
and attributes of parking space, calculation and distri- sides of empty parking spaces. The higher the index
bution of the shortest parking path, and assessment of value is, the better the effect is. In order to eliminate
the compliance rate of parking lot assignment. First, the influences of different physical dimensions, the
calculate the optimal parking assignment spaces con- index is normalized as following17–19
sidering both the traffic conflict avoidance and the
maximum satisfaction of the parking users’ needs. Benefit index: Zij ¼ yij =yj max ð1Þ
Second, calculate the shortest path between vehicles’
current position and the empty parking space with Cost index: Zij ¼ yj min =yij ð2Þ
Dijkstra shortest path algorithm.14–16 Finally, provid-
where Zij is the attribute value under normalization
ing real-time route guidance information to users by
process. yij is the original property value. yjmax is the
the WiFi, tracking the parking trajectory and checking
maximum value in attributes column of the decision
the parking users’ compliance status.
table. And yjmin is the minimum value in attributes col-
In the third part, the ‘‘obey willingness factor to
umn of the decision table.
allocation result’’ is proposed and added. The value is
The attribute values of each empty parking space are
between 0 and 1. The bigger the value is, the more
calculated and then the weighted sum is given. The
parking users are willing to comply with the allocation
parking space with the maximum weighted sum will be
result. To analyze and discuss the automatic assign-
recommended as the optimal parking space by the intel-
ment mechanism of parking lot, we assume that people
ligent parking management system.
are willing to comply with the allocation result to avoid
the conflicts caused by drivers’ blindly searching. In
this article, the ‘‘obey willingness factor to the alloca- Case study
tion result’’ is assumed to be 1.0. The following mea-
sures can be taken to ensure the user to comply with A large parking lot in Beijing was taken as an example
the allocation result. (1) Voice messages reminding the to be optimized. The layout of parking lot is shown in
parking users to follow the allocation sent by the park- Figure 6.
ing management system. If the user still failed to follow When the rear vehicle (No. 2) reaches the entrance
the allocated result and chose their nearby parking of the parking lot, suppose the parking space (E12) had
space, the system will immediately update the parking been assigned to the front vehicle (No. 1), the parking
lot information and the parking space can participate guidance system will count the number of the empty
in next allocation. (2) Credit scoring system is estab- parking spaces. The results show that there are seven
lished. The driver will be deducted a certain score when empty parking spaces left, which are located at B5,
he fails to comply with allocation result. Parking fees B17, C8, C9, D9, E10, and E16. The multiple attribute
will be increased when reaching a certain score. decision table of empty parking spaces is shown in
Not only the conflicts between the front and the rear Table 1.
vehicles should be avoided during the assignment pro- To avoid the conflicts between the front and the rear
cess but also the drivers’ choice behavior and subjective vehicles, the three parking spaces whose numbers were
preference factors should be considered. Therefore, the C8, C9, and E16 were excluded first because the park-
parking space assignment problem is converted into a ing trajectory to these parking spaces conflict with the
multi-attribute decision-making problem. Each empty assigned parking trajectory of the front vehicle. The
parking space has four attributes such as vehicle driv- attribute weights of driving distance, walking distance
ing distance, walking distance to the elevator, parking to the elevator, and parking space occupancy on both
occupancy on both sides, and lane occupancy condi- sides were calculated to determine the optimal parking
tion. To improve the efficiency of parking, parking space.
space which is on the same lane with the front vehicle In order to eliminate the influences of different phys-
should be excluded first to avoid the conflicts between ical dimensions, the index is normalized with functions
the front and the rear vehicles. Lane occupancy condi- (1) and (2). The results are listed in Table 2.
tion is defined to be ‘‘yes’’ when the front vehicle car According to the investigation and analysis of the
and the rear vehicle are on the same lane. Second, the individual needs of the parking users, the weight coeffi-
attribute weights of driving distance, walking distance cient of driving distance, walking distance to the eleva-
to reach the elevator, and parking space occupancy on tor, and parking space occupancy on both sides were
both sides are determined. All above four indicators determined, respectively, as 0.25, 0.5, and 0.25. The
affecting user’s parking space choice can be divided comprehensive weighted sum of each empty parking
into two categories: one is the cost index, such as driv- space was calculated. It can be seen that the
ing distance and walking distance. The lower the index comprehensive weighted sum of parking space B17 is
Han et al. 7

Figure 6. Layout of parking lot.

Table 1. Multiple attribute decision table of empty parking space.

Location Lane occupied condition Driving distance (m) Walking distance (m) Parking space occupancy on both sides

B5 No 118 75 Car Parking on one side

B17 No 96 24 Car Parking on both sides
C8 Yes 239 81 Car Parking on one side
C9 Yes 236 85 Car Parking on one side
D9 No 55 63 Car Parking on both sides
E10 No 84 74 No Car Parking on both sides
E16 Yes 201 22 Car Parking on both sides

Table 2. Normalized attribute decision table.

Driving distance (m) Walking distance (m) Parking space occupancy on both sides Comprehensive weighted sum

B5 0.4661 0.3200 0.7500 0.4640

B17 0.5729 1.0000 0.2500 0.7057
D9 1.0000 0.3810 0.2500 0.5030
E10 0.6548 0.3243 1.0000 0.5759

the maximum one, which indicated that parking space Table 3. Evaluation index.
B17 is the optimal one and should be assigned to
vehicle (No. 2). Index Evaluation result
To evaluate the parking system with automatic
The reduced parking time for each vehicle 5 min
assignment mechanism under WiFi positioning technol- Fuel consumption saving 87.5 L
ogy, an evaluation index system is established. The eva- Equivalent cost of time and fuel e2500
luation index system is composed of six indexes, such as consumption savings
the reduced parking time for each vehicle, fuel consump- CO emissions reduction 16.71 kg
HC emissions reduction 2.111 kg
tion saving, equivalent cost of time and fuel consump-
NOX emissions reduction 1.950 kg
tion savings, CO emissions reduction, HC emissions
reduction, and NOX emissions reduction. An under-
ground parking lot with 1000 vehicles coming in and out entrance to the parking space is obviously reduced for
in 1 day was evaluated, and the results are listed in each vehicle. The velocity of the vehicle in the parking
Table 3. It can be seen that the parking time from the lot is conversely improved. The optimal design of the
8 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

parking lot can not only improve the parking environ- Funding
ment but also reduce the driver’s economic loss. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article: This research was supported by the National Natural
Conclusion Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51308015) and
Project of Science and Technology Plan of Beijing Municipal
To solve parking lot problems, automatic assignment Education Commission (grant no. KM201510005023).
mechanism of parking lot is proposed considering the
individual demand of parking users’ based on the WiFi
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