Proceedings of ICAEEC-2019, IIIT Allahabad India, 31st May - 1st June,2019

Application of IOT Devices

for Smart Car Parking System

Anju Yadav and Lal Bahadur Prasad

Department of Electrical Engineering,

Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur-273010, U.P., India
[email protected],[email protected]

Abstract. Nowadays a car parking has become a major issue in transportation

sector due to lack of parking facilities and increased number of vehicles on
road. The development of Internet-of-Things (IOT) devices, networking, and
mobile applications are favoring the deployment of new and smart parking sys-
tems through which users can be informed in real-time about the presence of
vacant parking slots. The IOT device links the objects of the real world to the
virtual world and enables connectivity of anything, anytime, anywhere. This
paper introduces a smart car parking system and develops a network architec-
ture based on IOT technology.

Keywords: IOT, Sensors, Microcontroller (Arduino), Wi-Fi.

1 Introduction

This paper aims to present the designing of an advanced car parking system by using
Internet-of-Things (IOT) technology. The proposed devices for a car parking system
can be monitored through Wi-Fi server using a mobile phone or laptop. Automation
of systems/services is the need of nowadays. Requirement for automation has brought
many revolutions in the existing technologies in industry applications, and is im-
portant having user-friendly features. Considering the advantage of Wi-Fi connectivi-
ty as an advanced information sharing means it gives a platform for developing an
automation system to monitor the live status of car parking places.
Nowadays there are various technologies available which can be used for monitor-
ing of parking places. To find the best one a comparison of all these technologies are
required on the basis of advantages and disadvantages of technologies to provide best
service to the user [1]. A booking system can solve parking issues in rush areas, and a
user can book a parking spot by paying parking fee online [2]. Smart car parking sys-
tem can be implemented by adding Google map facility with parking related events,
to instruct drivers where to park a car [3]. By using cloud services, economy of the
parking system increased and it requires enabling value-added services across parking
place for both service providers and car users (drivers) [4]. The problem of traffic
system’s monitoring and controlling in real time can be solved by using real time
monitoring of traffic system for vehicle location with map representation, and it helps

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 Proceedings of ICAEEC-2019, IIIT Allahabad India, 31st May - 1st June,2019

to find about dangerous condition on the road [5]. In a concrete proof-of-concept

implementation, developed for city has been discussed as a related example of IOT
technology for smart cities [6]. An intelligent parking solution which is based on IOT
has capacity to replace traditional IC card by RFID card, and intelligent gateway ar-
chitecture is used to make successful intercommunication for different interfacing [7].
Smart city remains always a dream for humans, but IOT and Cloud technology rise
together to make this dream possible in reality [8], Car parking system can be
switched on and off through a Wi-Fi server using IOT devices and smart phones [9].
An approach for car parking system using IOT reservation system facility on cloud
[10], reduce traffic congestion in rush areas for improving the quality of citizen’s life
using IOT protocols and emerging technologies [11]. An intelligent IOT cloud-based
car parking system is an important part of smart transportation system (STS) for smart
cities with cloud applications, and OSGi (Open Service Gateway Initiative) based
web applications and android applications [12]. Adoption of PaaS (Platform as a Ser-
vice) platform on cloud helps to make a parking system smarter [13]. By decreasing
the number of drivers who fails to find a free parking spot can improves the system
response, and help to minimize moving cost also [14]. This paper presents a smart car
parking system and develops a network architecture based on IOT technology.

1.1 Conventional Automated Parking System

A car parking system requires some basic components, for example: Ultrasonic sen-
sors, Arduino Uno Board, Wires to provide connection between devices and Bread
board.
For this conventional system HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor is taken. Ultrasonic sen-
sor used to detect radiation into ultrasonic range. It is used to calculate distance of
sensor module from object, and for this it works with arduino board. Ultrasonic
transmitter sends ultrasonic pulse of 40 KHz, after that it waits to listens the return
sound pulse. And then calculate time which is taken by pulse to come back which is
in microseconds. Here we use software to display free availability which is represent-
ed into a temporary webpage [15]. Table 1 shows the available parking slots of park-
ing area. Data has to be displayed using HTML with CSS and add logic for showing
sensors of parking area through PHP (Personal Home Page).

Table 1. How output of free parking places displayed

Position Availability
P1 X

P2 X

P3

P4 X

P5

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 Proceedings of ICAEEC-2019, IIIT Allahabad India, 31st May - 1st June,2019

The problem with this project is that, it can only displays free parking spaces but not
give any information about the entries that how many cars enters into parking area. To
resolve this problem you can use a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi module, which facilitate to
transfer data to the cloud-server. So that continuous monitoring of parking can be
achieved anytime from anywhere.

2 Smart Car Parking System

The combination of hardware and software is called embedded system and used to
perform the given instructions. Microprocessors and microcontrollers are embedded
products which basically used in automation field. We can take an arduino based car
parking system which can be used to monitor the free slots of parking area, and then
improve the response by using IoT technology in the project to transfer data into serv-
er. Finally, you can monitor free parking slots of parking area near about you. It helps
to monitor parking area from anywhere and also gives car entries live which shows
that how many cars enters into parking area.

2.1 IoT Based Car Parking System

The project on “Smart Car Parking System using IOT Devices” is designed to monitor
the live status of car parking areas from anywhere through the user webpage. User can
also monitor the car entries which gives the knowledge that how many cars are en-
tered and leaved the parking area.
For this purpose we proposed a smart car parking system using Internet-of-Things
technologies. The block diagram of the proposed project is shown in following Fig. 2.

Fig. 1. Block diagram of IOT based smart car parking system

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 Proceedings of ICAEEC-2019, IIIT Allahabad India, 31st May - 1st June,2019

3 System Architecture

The designing of individual modules is considered in this section. The components

which are used to make the car parking system using IoT are described below one by
one. The main devices that are used to construct this project are:

3.1 IR Sensor

Infrared (IR) sensor is a short range obstacle detector with no dead zone. The range of
IR sensor can also be increased by increasing the power to IR LEDs or also by adding
more IR LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). An IC LM358 uses with IR sensor, works as
a comparator. So when IR receiver senses IR radiations the output of IC LM358 goes
high, and LED connected to the output turns on.

Fig. 2. IR obstacle sensor

3.2 Arduino Uno Board

Arduino Uno board is an open source microcontroller board. It is based on the micro-
chip ATmega328. Arduino Board has 6 analog pins to receive inputs, 14 digital in-
put/output pins out of which 6 provides PWM outputs, a power pin (Barrel Jack), a
Power USB connection, a crystal oscillator of 16 MHz to helps Arduino in dealing
with time issues. An ICSP pin (a tiny programming header), 5 volt output pin to sup-
ply 5 volt DC power to operate external devices, and power LED indicator. It contains
all things which required supporting any microcontroller. We have only require to
connect Arduino to the PC with an USB cable and powering it by using an AC-to-DC
adapter or also can use battery to start the arduino.

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 Proceedings of ICAEEC-2019, IIIT Allahabad India, 31st May - 1st June,2019

Fig. 3. Arduino Uno board

3.3 LCD Display

Here we use 16*2 LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) named so because it has 16 columns
and 2 rows. There are 16 pins out of which 8 are data pins, 2 background display pins
(A=5V, K=GND) and 6 contrast (GND, Vcc, Vo, RS, R/W, E) pins. LCD is a high
quality 16 character by 2 line intelligent display module with back lighting. It works
with almost any controller.

Fig. 4. LCD display

3.4 WI-FI Module

Node MCU is an open source IOT platform, and includes firmware. Firmware runs on
the ESP8266 Wi-Fi SOC from Espressif systems; and hardware which is based on
ESP-12 mode. Firmware uses Lua Scripting language which is based on eLua project
and built on the Espressif Non-DS SDK for ESP8266.

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 Proceedings of ICAEEC-2019, IIIT Allahabad India, 31st May - 1st June,2019

Fig. 5. Wi-Fi module ESP8266

3.5 Wires
Wires are single, cylindrical, and flexible piece of metal which basically used to bear
the loads of electric as well as telecommunication signals.

4 Hardware And Software Implementation

The project “Smart Car Parking System using IOT” is mainly used to access the status
of cars in parking areas with entry details which displays into software through Wi-Fi
server. Controlling device for this system is Arduino Uno microcontroller. Infrared
sensors are connected with the arduino board, and works as input to the Arduino.
Arduino receives the data from sensors and transmits this data through Wi-Fi, which
received by mobile phones or laptop. To achieving the required task arduino micro-
controller is loaded with a program written in C, C++ language, and coding done
using Arduino IDE (Integral Development Environment). The driver who searches a
free space to park their car required to connect from Wi-Fi network of the particular
parking area. Infrared sensors send status of parking slots to the arduino. The arduino
sends this information to the server webpage using Internet of Things. In this way
user can find a free parking space without wastage of time.
The following software’s are used in this project:

1. Arduino IDE – for programming part

2. Thinkspeak – for simulation work

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 Proceedings of ICAEEC-2019, IIIT Allahabad India, 31st May - 1st June,2019

Fig. 6. Entry displayed into software

5 Discussion

The project “Smart car Parking System using IOT devices” was designed to monitor
the live status of car parking areas from anywhere by the user’s webpage, and this is
achieved by using Wi-Fi.

Fig. 7. Working hardware of the project

Here, the user can be connected from particular parking area using Wi-Fi network
continuously. Therefore user can easily access the server webpage to know the status

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 Proceedings of ICAEEC-2019, IIIT Allahabad India, 31st May - 1st June,2019

of parking places. The Fig. 8 shows the status of parking area when a car enters into
parking slot. Here the circle for parking slot-1 becomes green, and when all parking
slots are full then all four circles becomes green as shown in Fig. 9. If Wi-Fi connec-
tivity is lost through the process, a notification displays into software webpage. It
displays that field value unavailable, and it is shown by Fig. 10.

Fig. 8. Availability of parking slots when only first slot is full

Fig. 9. When all four parking slots are full

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 Proceedings of ICAEEC-2019, IIIT Allahabad India, 31st May - 1st June,2019

Fig. 10. When Wi-Fi connectivity lost

6 Conclusion

The aim of this paper has been achieved and the trouble for searching free parking
places are completely short out by monitoring parking spaces using Internet of
Things. Smart car parking system using IoT devices links the objects of real world to
the virtual world and provides us facility to access the parking system continuously in
real-time from anywhere. The security issue of this project is reduced here by using
the password facility. This system can be used anywhere because it is very effective
and anyone can operate easily. In future we can also implement this system by adding
some new and advance functioning into proposed smart car parking system using IoT
devices. This parking system can be enhanced by adding reservation facility. So that
user can reserve parking lots before reaching parking place by using Global System
for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
communication.

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