American Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology

2017; 2(4): 112-119

http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ajset
doi: 10.11648/j.ajset.20170204.13

Communication
Smart Car Parking Management System Using IoT
Aniket Gupta*, Sujata Kulkarni*, Vaibhavi Jathar, Ved Sharma, Naman Jain
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication, Thakur College of Engineering and Technology, Kandvali, Mumbai University, Mumbai,
India

Email address:
[email protected] (A. Gupta), [email protected] (S. Kulkarni), [email protected] (V. Jathar),
[email protected] (V. Sharma), [email protected] (N. Jain)
*
Corresponding author

To cite this article:

Aniket Gupta, Sujata Kulkarni, Vaibhavi Jathar, Ved Sharma, Naman Jain. Smart Car Parking Management System Using IoT. American
Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology. Vol. 2, No. 4, 2017, pp. 112-119. doi: 10.11648/j.ajset.20170204.13

Received: May 23, 2017; Accepted: August 2, 2017; Published: November 30, 2017

Abstract: Proliferation in the number of vehicles is leading to problems of vehicles parking at an appropriate place especially
the car parking. This indirectly leads to traffic congestion. This is because of the fact that current transportation infrastructure and
car park facility are unable to cope with the arrival of large number of vehicles on the road. To alleviate the aforementioned
problem, authors proposed a Smart Parking Management System that helps users to automatically find a free parking space with
a smaller amount. Smart Parking involves use of Ultrasonic sensor, Arduino Uno, ESP8266-01 Wi-Fi Module, Cloud server. IOT
based new parking platform enable to connect, analyze and automate data gathered from devices and execute smart parking
possible. Smart parking would enable vehicle occupancy, monitoring and managing of available parking space in real-time that
reducing the environmental pollution. Proposed system provides optimize usage of parking space and get considerable revenue
generation.
Keywords: Smart Parking Management, Internet of Things, Traffic Congestion, Optimize Parking, Revenue Monitoring

mobile-phone-enabled automated payment systems that

1. Introduction allows people to reserve parking in advance [2].
Traffic congestion caused by vehicles is an alarming The importance of smart parking is:
problem at a global scale and it has been growing 1. Accurately sense and predict spot/vehicle occupancy in
exponentially. Car parking problem is a major contributor and real-time.
has been still a major problem with confined parking spaces in 2. Guides residents and visitors to available parking spot.
urban cities. Searching for a parking space is a routine (and 3. Optimize Parking Space Usage.
often frustrating) activity for many people in cities around the 4. Simplifies the parking experience and adds value for
world. This search burns about one million barrels of the parking stakeholders, such as merchants and drivers.
world’s oil every day. These problems will get worse as the 5. Helps the free flow of traffic in the city leveraging IoT
global population continues to urbanize without a technology.
well-planned, convenience-driven retreat from the car. 6. Enables intelligent decisions using data, including real–
According to a report Smart Parking could result in saving 2, time status applications and historical analytics reports.
20,000 gallons of fuels till 2030 and approx. 3, 00,000 gallons 7. Smart Parking plays an important role in creating better
of fuels by 2050 if implemented successfully as shown in urban environment by reducing the emission of CO2 and
Figure 1 [1]. other pollutants.
Smart Parking systems obtain information about available 8. Smart Parking enables better and real time monitoring
parking spaces in a particular geographic area. This process is and managing of available parking space which results in
real-time to place vehicles at available positions. It involves significant revenue generation.
real-time data collection using low-cost sensors and 9. Provides tools to optimize workforce management.
 American Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology 2017; 2(4): 112-119 113

Things is not achieved. These end nodes are sometimes also

called as objects and many times they work as sensing nodes.
These nodes usually have dual nature [4]. Examples of
end-users are all types of sensors but these sensors are
normally basic and a designer can convert it into active device.
Proposed system has used Ultrasound Sensors as end node.

Figure 1. Estimation of fuel saved (in Gallons).

Comparison between existing conventional parking and

smart parking management system is as shown in Table 1. Figure 2. Basic Architecture of IoT

Table 1. Comparison of Conventional and Smart Parking.

Conventional Parking System Smart Parking Management System

No optimum use of available Provides optimum use of all available
spaces spaces
Congestion may increase due to Congestion can be decreased by
parking traffic diverting traffic to available spaces
Increase fuel consumption to Decrease fuel consumption to search
search space space
Increases time to search space Decreases time to search space
No Real Time parking space Provides Real Time Parking space Figure 3. Node Based Architecture of IoT.
tracking tracking
No efficient revenue monitoring Provides efficient revenue monitoring b. Processing Node
Processing node is the central important block. It is used to
2. Proposed Work provide an artificial intelligence to the whole circuitry. It
processes the data and information received from end-nodes
2.1. Internet of Things and transfers it to further link for next action which in this case
is a cloud platform. In our system we have used Arduino Uno
Moving towards smart city, smart parking is a very good as the processing node presented in Figure 3.
example for a common citizen of how the Internet-of-Things
(IoT) can be efficiently and effectively used in our day to day 2.2. Flow of Proposed System
life to provide different services to different users. Proposed
application is user friendly and even non-technical person can In any system, wired or wireless Connectivity is important
use it through mobile device. Through this application user to establish a connection. Proposed system used ESP8266-01
can search a free parking slot from anywhere in the world. WiFi Module to send data over the cloud. It consists of many
Proposed system provides well-organized car parking network layers to establish a connection between software and
management through isolated parking spot localization. hardware. Protocols used in each layer have a specific task as
Conventional reservation based car parking method has a shown in Figure 4. Physical layer deals with the mechanical
limitation of space and time. Proposed smart parking system and electrical support to the system. Every system has a
providing the free parking slot efficiently that saves time and unique MAC address. This system dynamically assigns IP
fuel and reduces atmospheric pollution and congestion in address to each node and users. So a DHCP enabled
cities [3]. IOT based new Parking platform enable to connect, connection can be used. A secure and fast connection MQTT
analyze and automate data gathered from devices, and execute [1] protocol is used along with TCP (wired connection). This
efficiently that makes smart parking possible. Figure 2 shows protocol works on pub/sub (publish and subscribe) basis.
the basic architecture of IoT. Pub/sub allows one to many communication and in this the
a. End -Node clients are unknown to each other. Flow of Proposed System is
Starting from the front end, the end-node is the first node of as shown in Figure 4.
any IoT system, without this node the ‘T’ part of IoT i.e.
114 Aniket Gupta et al.: Smart Car Parking Management System Using IoT

(a)

(b)
Figure 4. Flow of Proposed System.

The application displays the data as per the above of IoT Figure 5.
mentioned algorithm.
2.3. Application

The end point in IoT system is the Cloud based service

provided by Thingspeak which is essential to see the true
output of the project or the output of the data send forward end
nodes. Users can modify and manipulate the information
available on this node easily and can apply various techniques
to make its representation effective. In this parking system we
have used Thingspeak tools on their website page to view the
output. It consists of Application, Transport, Network, Data
Link and Physical Layers as shown in Layering Architecture Figure 5. Layering Architecture of IoT.
 American Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology 2017; 2(4): 112-119 115

3. Framework of Proposed System

The proposed system will have Ultrasonic sensor, Arduino
Uno, ESP8266-01 Wi-Fi Module, Cloud server i.e.
www.thingspeak.com, User-End Application on Smartphone.
The interfacing is shown in Figure 6.
The framework of proposed system is as shown in Figure 7.
The ultrasonic sensor is used to determine the availability of
the vehicle at the parking spot. It is connected to the Arduino
Uno module interfaced with Wi-Fi shield [5]. The Arduino
Uno module is connected to the cloud server through an
Internet connection to transfer the data from the local car park.
At the user end application a software system runs on Android (a)
operating system. The user has to install this application on
their smart phones and use it to reserve parking spaces.

(b)

Figure 6. Framework of Proposed System.

3.1. Analysis and Planning

The rapid growth in the number of vehicles worldwide is

raising the problem of the scarcity of parking space as shown
in Figure 7. According to industry data, 30% of the traffic
congestion occurs due to the struggle of vehicle drivers to find
parking space. These in turn are magnifying the necessity of (c)
efficient and smart parking systems [6]. Today’s intelligent Figure 7. Framework of Proposed System (a) top view (b) front view (c) side
parking management systems are capable of providing view.
extreme level of convenience to the drivers, automating and
simplifying the business operation and administrative From 2014 to 2019 the global parking management industry
functions of the parking site owners. Trends are emerging in is expected to expand at a Compound Annual Growth Rate
Parking some of are the few trends having the greatest effect (CAGR) of 11.4%. In 2014 the parking management market is
on Parking Industry [7]. The high growth rate in the estimated to be at $5,025.9 million. The growth in vehicle
registration of new cars worldwide, with major boom from ownerships and parking facilities development is expected to
regional economies like Asia Pacific (APAC), will open the grow the market in tandem [2] as shown in Figure 8. The key
window of opportunities for parking management business. drivers for the parking management industry are the need for
The upcoming and ongoing smart city projects worldwide will smooth traffic flow, business benefits to the parking site
create room for the intelligent parking management systems. operators, less hardware and connectivity costs. Traffic
congestion and gasoline prices lead the list for the major
changes having significant influence on parking.
116 Aniket Gupta et al.: Smart Car Parking Management System Using IoT

Figure 8. Demand for various Specialized Area.

3.2. Challenges clients, servers and hardware drivers and application

interfaces [9].
The challenges for the proposed system are wide from Enabling all these devices from thousands of different
protecting the system from environmental conditions and harsh vendors to communicate with each other and tying them
weather so as to making it operational in all weather. Integration together into one platform is the greatest challenge in reducing
of the devices amongst various hardware and software modules the complexity and cost of smart parking.
[8]. Protection can be provided by using a proper insulator case The variety of infrastructure hardware and software systems
for the hardware module which will not affect the functionality that need to be integrated is enormous and an add-on to it the
of the device and also provide durability, resistance against conventional older hardware making investment in Smart
external weather and mechanical forces. Parking solution. It is highly risky and fragmented. Another
The major challenge in Parking Systems is of system major pain point comes from the electronic payment vendors
integration due to wide variety of hardware and software [5]. These payment processors provide permit based
platforms involved and hence possess a great concern to the electronic payment, typically for a convenience fee.
system scalability. Scalability is the key to many of these hosted solutions which
The technology platform supporting P&E, PARC and is the ability of the transaction processor to support over wide
PUCRS systems comprises of dynamic messaging systems, a geographical market and service areas with minimal cost.
myriad of hardware sensors and traffic control devices, Income based Market evaluation is shown in Figure 9.
wireless and wire line telecommunications systems, computer

Figure 9. Income based Market Evaluation.

 American Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology 2017; 2(4): 112-119 117

3.3. Indian Ecosystem Challenges personal navigation devices and car telematics services.

Smart Parking Booking page of Mobile application is as

shown in Figure 10. 4. Results and Discussion

(a)

Figure 10. Login Page of Mobile Application.

1. Unavailability of matured billing system possibly

leading to revenue leakages.
2. Interoperability between devices/lack of standards.
3. Indian standards do not have proper regulatory body for
two wheelers parking station.
4. Various Security issues and threats to the installed
on-site parking meter.
5. IoT enabled Parking System shall support mechanisms
to compare charging data/records from different IoT
Application Service Providers.
6. The IoT enabled Parking System shall support
triggering Machine-to-Machine Devices to report
on-demand information regarding collected data from
other Machine-to-Machine Devices.
7. Smart parking providers will need to establish reliable
application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable
service partners to provide consumers an access to smart (b)
parking services on-line through a variety of channels,
including the web, mobile phone apps, connected
118 Aniket Gupta et al.: Smart Car Parking Management System Using IoT

(c)
(b)
Figure 11. Android Application of Smart parking Slot (a) Available Parking
Slots (b) Parking Booking Details(c) Navigation.

Screenshot of the mobile application shows the execution

steps for allocation of parking slot as follows.
To access the parking slot application the first step is to
register and login. The application shows the availability of
parking slots shown in Figure 11(a) if it is free then shows the
booking details 11(b) along with fastest route through
navigation as shown in 11(c).
The data from the ultrasonic sensor is updated on the cloud
server i.e. “ThingSpeak.com” via the Arduino. The data from
the hardware is shown in graphical form on the cloud server
then read by the application and the user data from the
(c)
application is then updated on the cloud server for further
booking. Figure12 shows execution of the smart parking Figure 12. Smart Parking Booking (a) Distance between the sensor and the
car (b) Vehicle occupancy (c) Time slot for Parking.
booking.

5. Future Scope
The smart parking management system can be broadly
applied for many future applications. Apart from its basic role
of parking management of cars it can also be applied for plane
and ship and fleet management. With the ever growing field of
Internet of Things many concepts can be interfaced along with
our system.
Smart Parking system can be modified into fleet
management of ship and plane with very few external
hardware changes and almost the same software just replacing
the interface fonts of cars with ship or plane for better Graphic
Interface and real world application based visual appearance.
(a)
 American Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology 2017; 2(4): 112-119 119

For residential and domestic parking system the device can users to monitor available and unavailable parking spots that
be interfaced with Home Automation system which can lead to improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit.
control the various home appliances by sensing whether the
user is arriving or departing from the parking space. For
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