IoT BASED SMART VEHICLE PARKING SYSTEM

WITH AUTOMATED RESERVATION VERIFICATION

By

Oyewo Maroof Olayinka

Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical/Computer Engineering
PG/MENG/2019/0451

A Proposal submitted to the Department of Electrical/Electronics

Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
award of Masters in Electronics and Telecommunication
Engineering

APRIL 2023
1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Due to the steady increase in the number of car owners, finding a parking spot in public

places such as shopping malls, offices, organisations, stadiums and universities poses great

challenges like the amount of productive time wasted and increased amount of carbon soot

released into the atmosphere.

According to Iyaka (2017), people make use of two different sort of parking managements

systems namely: The Automatic Parking System and the Marshalling Parking System. The

Marshalling Parking System is a type of parking whereby an officer or officers are required

to be on ground so as to indicate to drivers where there is a slot available. The automatic car

parking system, on the other hand, is a type of parking that is designed to help the driver and

administrators of the parking status by putting screens to notify drivers of the number of

spaces available.

Over the years, the automated parking system as defined above has developed into a more

sophisticated system that integrates various technologies such as IoT, Arduino, RFID and

Bluetooth in the management of vehicle parks. The resulting product became referred to as

Smart Parking System.

Smart parking systems, as put by Basu, (2014), typically obtains information about available

parking spaces in a particular geographic area and process in real-time to place vehicles at

available positions. It involves low-cost sensors, real-time data collection and mobile-phone-

enabled automated payment systems that allow people to reserve parking in advance or very

accurately predict where they will likely find a spot. When deployed as a system, smart
parking thus reduces car emissions in urban centres by reducing the need for people to

needlessly circle city blocks searching for parking. It also permits cities to carefully manage

their parking supply.

The implementation of a smart parking guiding system, which greatly minimises the

difficulties in conventional parking systems, was worked on by Poonam (2018). By

positioning sensor(s) on each parking spot, the system is able to monitor its condition. The

sensor(s) detect the presence of a vehicle – which must satisfy certain dimension criteria – to

determine the parking status of the spot and notifies the Microcontroller Unit (MCU) of the

central node server. The Node MCU gathers data from every sensor node in the entire

parking lot and uploads them to the server, where users can log into, through the internet,

from any location to verify the status of the parking spots. Furthermore, users can open a

timed parking spot subscription to reserve a parking space by creating a profile on the server.
1.2 Statement of the Problems

Free parking spots are very difficult to locate in a large traditional parking lot due to the

plethora of cars parked. Valuable time, effort and fuel are wasted in the process of looking for

a free spot not to mention the unnecessary increase in carbon footprint. Some car owners, out

of urgency, end up parking on illegal parking spaces such as on lawns and highways. These

situations lead to loss in productivity, traffic hazards and deterioration of the atmosphere by

increased output of greenhouse gases.

In previous works on smart car parks, the mode of verification and authentication of drivers

who enter to park in the spots that they subscribed to is usually a manual process needing the

attendance of security personnel who may be in limited number hence causing prolonged

waiting periods by car owners waiting to be authenticated especially at peak hours.

Lastly, the mode of payment in previous works on parking spot subscription payment is

usually not integrated with the web application section of smart parking systems. Payment is

designed to be made at a specific location in the vicinity of the parking lot. This poses

inconveniences as clients will have to walk or drive to make payment at that location before

making their way to the parking spot they subscribed to. Hence, there is need to develop an

IoT based Smart Vehicle parking system with automated reservation verification which can

eliminate these limitations.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Research

The aim of this project is to develop an IoT based Smart Vehicle Parking System with

Automated Reservation Verification.

The objectives of this research are to:

(a) Simulate the designed IoT based smart vehicle parking lot system

(b) Construct the designed IoT based smart vehicle parking lot system

(c) Implement a smart vehicle parking system such that it uses internet web application

services to generate billed reservations of varying durations with QR code for

verification and controlled access of car owners.

(d) Test the constructed IoT based smart vehicle parking lot system with automated

reservation verification for efficiency

1.4 Review of Related Works

This section presents reviewed related works on Smart car parking systems. With respect to

monitoring, different types of parking systems have been identified namely: Electronic

Parking system, Counter based parking system, Image based parking system and Wireless

sensor based parking system.

According to Iyaka, (2017), an Electronic parking system allows drivers to select or enquire

about the availability of a parking slot. And if a spot is available, then they can reserve for the

space as they wish so as to make sure that they do not have problems parking when they

arrive at their destination. The Electronic Parking System enables drivers to book for a spot in

various ways such as: Sending SMS, Phone call and online. This system is mostly used in

Airports (Airport Parking Reservation Systems). The limitation of this system is the absence

of payment in the reservation process. The parking client would be required to pay only after

arriving at the destination at a specified location in the parking lot. This will cause

unnecessary delay for the driver before he parks his vehicle.

In a Counter based parking system sensors are placed at the entrance and at the exit of the

parking so as to count the number of cars that are entering and exiting the parking. This type

of parking calculates the number of available parking slot by subtracting the number of cars

that are registered every time by the sensor placed at the entrance to the total number of space

registered in the system. This information is displayed on a screen at the entrance for car

owners to see (Iyaka, 2017). The challenge of this system is that monitoring is restricted to

the screen display at the entrance of the parking lot. Parking clients cannot remotely monitor

the status of the parking spaces at the lot on their mobile devices or computers through the

internet. This limitation prevents drivers from planning their parking positions ahead of time.

An Image based parking system is the type of parking that uses cameras to register images of

the parking. This system is mostly used around. When a car arrives at the gate, the sensor

automatically registers the car number plate and then stores it in the database. This

automatically updates the status of the parking. Once the car comes to exit the parking, the

sensor registers the number plate and then deletes it from the database which automatically

updates the availability of the parking. Car owners can get the information about the

availability of parking space from the database server from a display screen at the entrance or

by browsing to the web server linked with the database (Iyaka, 2017). This monitoring

system does not come with subscription as another client may occupy a targeted space before

your arrival.

A Wired sensor based parking system is the type of system that uses ultrasonic sensors at

each point of the parking which are connected with wires to carry their signal to the server.

This system is commonly used to retrieve data about the parking from each individual

parking slot. But this type is known to be expensive (Iyaka, 2017).

According to Elechi, (2022), the car is first detected by the ultrasonic sensor at a given

distance. Once the vehicle is being detected the vehicle is expected to move into the next

stage for barcode generation. The barcode is generated using the car plate number but if the

car fails to be detected by the ultrasonic sensor the program returns to start, these imply that

the vehicle has not been detected. For a detected vehicle, it moves to get a parking slot but if

a parking slot isn’t available, it waits until a slot is available. At any available slot the vehicle

moves into the slot and a warning alarm sounds when the vehicle is parked wrongly but

proceeds to park in the slot if the vehicle was parked rightly. Before leaving the car park, the

barcode must revalidate the vehicle then here ends the program. Although vehicle verification

is efficient in this work, clients do not have prior knowledge of an available parking space

before arrival at the car park. They still have to wait until a space is available.

Sewagudde (2016) explains that when a driver finds a parking space, the driver wants to “Pay

parking” fee which action requires the system to Check Credit balance to cover the parking

fee due. The driver furthermore wants to “Get Electronic parking permit”, this action invokes

the Permit Issuer – an external system that manages the issuance of parking permit. The

Admin, just like the driver, both have to Login/Logout and the system must verify that they

are who they claim to be using User Authentication engine. The system admin also wants to

“Manage User Accounts” in case of a problem or during routine maintenance of the system.

The Enforcement officer wants to Get Info about parked Cars which tells if a car has a

parking permit or if it has the parking event running at the end of which the parking fee

would be paid. The challenge here is that user authentication is not without enforcement

officers to manually carry out checks. The automated user verification and authentication

proposed in this work eliminates the need to have human interference in the process.
Azshwanth, et al (2019) implemented a CMOS, ultrasonic and electromagnetic sensor for the

conception of detecting the presence of the car in the parking slot. Then with the help of an

Arduino and modem they transmitted the signal wirelessly to the receiver. In display level

there are two aspects which are taken care of. Firstly, the parking area once booked changes

the colour of LED in the parking slot to indicate that it’s taken. Secondly, the user’s mobile

application and the server work at the client level and admin level. This in turn helps the user

to understand the processes happening in real time with the help of the display unit in the

system optically. The limitation of this one is that upon arrival of the subscriber at his parking

space, verification has to be done manually by a checking officer or personnel before he is

allowed to park his vehicle.

In the work of Banode, et al (2022), a monitoring system comprising Inductive sensors, LED

strips and Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) was employed. The sensors are durable

devices that are primarily developed to meet the needs of proximity sensors. A sort of

proximity sensor is an inductive sensor. An inductive sensor is an electrical device that

detects or measures objects using the principle of electromagnetic induction. It senses the

existence or movement of an object without coming into physical contact with it. As a result,

an inductive sensor can detect whether or not the car is parked. A semiconductor light source

is a light-emitting diode (LED). It emits light when current goes through it. The PLC can

easily control it. LEDs were utilised as indicators to direct car drivers to available parking

spaces. The SIMATIC S7-1200 PLC was used in the project. It is a ruggedized and adapted

industrial computer for controlling manufacturing processes such as assembly lines,

machineries, robotic devices, or any activity requiring high dependability, ease of

programming, and process fault identification. The PLC is used for control mechanism in the

parking system. This method is simplistic lacking the sophistication needed for real time and

remote monitoring by clients of the parking status of the spaces in the lot. This reinforcement
can be implemented through a database and web server connected to microcontrollers which

receive signals from the inductive sensors. It also lacks an integrated subscription and

verification system which are services that can be provided by dedicated software in the

server.

This research, in monitoring the parking status of the various spaces in the parking lot

employs a set of MQ2 sensors and infrared sensors positioned at each parking space to detect

presence or absence of vehicles. The sensor, on detecting a vehicle, sends the signals to the

Atmega328 Main Controller which then relays the signal to the Esp8266 microcontroller.

From there, the sensor signal is sent to the MQTT broker. The MQTT broker unit serves as

an interface between the web application client and the parking mall hardware system. It

publishes messages to web client from esp8266 and vice-versa.

The web application client allows users to interact with the parking system remotely by

viewing space status and making reservation. This unit is sub-divided into front-end and

back-end. The front-end is graphical user interface (GUI) that users interact with using their

devices (phone or PC). The back-end on the other hand, includes the logic for handling data

storage, query and general requests handling.

1.5 Methodology

The following are the methodology that would be adopted for the proposed study;

1. The conceptual design of the IoT based smart vehicle parking lot system with

automated reservation verification shall be discussed and developed using a physical

miniature parking lot model

2. Real sensors shall be placed on the miniature parking spaces to sense the presence of

vehicle.

3. The sensors shall be connected to microcontrollers placed at a strategic position in the

model parking lot which will be connected to on-line client software for monitoring

the parking status of the spaces.

4. The web application shall be connected to a payment gateway for on-line payment for

parking space subscription.

1.6 Scope and limitations of the Research

This research is limited to providing a seamless parking space subscription process and a way

of monitoring the status of the parking lot. Automated verification and authentication process

is also worked on. All these features are powered by IoT technology. The case study of this

research shall be the parking lots at Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun

(FUPRE).

1.7 Expected Outcome

At the end of this research study it is expected that:

1. Vehicle owners using this parking system shall be able to remotely monitor

the status of the parking lot from their computers and mobile devices over the

internet.

2. Subscription payment for free parking space shall be made online on same

web app used for monitoring.

3. Parking clients, on arriving at the parking space they subscribed for, shall be

able to carry out client verification and gain entry into the parking space by

scanning a QR code generated from the web app after making payment.
 REFERENCES

1. Iyaka, B. (2017), “Automated Car Parking System”, Heriot Watt University, Dubai,

p.10

2. Basu, A. (2014), “Smart Parking”, Happiest Minds – The Mindful IT Company, p.3

3. Poonam, M. (2018), “Smart Parking System based on Internet of Things”,

International Journal of Applied Engineering Research”, 13(12), pp.10281-10285,

Retrieved from: http://www.ripublication.com

4. Iyaka, B. (2017), “Automated Car Parking System”, Heriot Watt University, Dubai,

p.17

5. Ibid. p.18

6. Ibid. p.18

7. Ibid. p.19

8. Elechi, P., 2022, “Improved Automated Car Parking System”, Journal of

Semiconductor Devices and Circuits, 9(2), p.20, Retrieved from:

http://engineeringjournals.stmjournals.in/index.php/JoSDC/index

9. Sewagudde, C. W., 2016, “The design and implementation of a smart-parking system

for Helsinki Area”, Aalto University School of Science, pp. 11-12

10. Azshwanth, D. et al, 2019, “Automated Car Parking System”, Journal of Physics,

Conf. Ser. 1362 012059, p.3

11. Banode, S. V. et al 2022, “Automated Car Parking System Using PLC”, International

Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science, 4(4), pp

2-3