Smart Parking System Based on Embedded System and Sensor Network

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International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 140 – No.12, April 2016
45
Smart Parking System Based on Embedded System and
Sensor Network
Faiz Ibrahim Shaikh
Student, Department of
Computer Engineering,
JSPM’S Jaywantrao
Sawant College of
Engineering,
Pune, India
Pratik Nirnay Jadhav
Student, Department of
Computer Engineering,
JSPM’S Jaywantrao
Sawant College of
Engineering,
Pune, India
Saideep Pradeep
Bandarkar
Student, Department of
Computer Engineering,
JSPM’S Jaywantrao
Sawant College of
Engineering,
Pune, India
Omkar Pradip Kulkarni
Student, Department of
Computer Engineering,
JSPM’S Jaywantrao
Sawant College of Engineering,
Pune, India
Nikhilkumar B. Shardoor
Assistant Professor,
Department of Computer Engineering
JSPM’S Jayawantrao
Sawant College of Engineering
Pune, India
ABSTRACT
Locating a parking space in central city areas, especially
during the peak hours, is cumbersome for drivers. The issue
arises from not having the knowledge of where the available
spaces may be at the time, even if known, many vehicles
may seek very limited parking spaces to cause severe traffic
congestion. In this paper the design and implementation with
a prototype of Reservation-based Smart Parking System
(RSPS) that permits drivers to effectively locate and
withhold the vacant parking spaces in mentioned. This
system use cluster based algorithm which helps in
periodically learning the parking status from the sensor
networks deployed in parking spaces, the reservation service
is influenced by the change of parking status. The drivers are
allowed to access this said cyber-physical system with their
personal communication devices. The system implemented is
cost efficient smart parking system for multi-level parking
facility using WSN (IR Sensor) and develop an android
based application, by cluster based allocation method and
performs automatic billing process. The system monitors the
availability of idle parking slots and guides the vehicle to the
nearest free slot. Cost is minimized by keeping the number of
sensors low without sacrificing the reliability. Energy
consumption of each mote is kept in check by allowing the
systems to sleep periodically and by reducing their
communication range. This system‟s reservation-based
parking policy has the potential to smoothen the operations
of parking systems, as well as mitigate traffic congestion
caused by searching for parking.
Keywords
wireless sensor networks, internet of things, embeded
system, reservation, resource alloaction, parking guidance
and information.
1. INTRODUCTION
In today parking lots there are no standard system to check
for parking spaces. The system heavily relies on human
interaction with the physical space and entity. This leads to
wastage of human manpower and also parking spaces at
times. These parking lots are dependent on Human-to-
Human Interaction (HHI) which is not efficient. Previously,
various techniques have been proposed to overcome such
problems like Short Messaging Services, Zigbee, RFID, etc.
Most of the time when users go to malls and commercial
complex, they experience that there is a limited space for
parking spots especially on prime hours. Hence, there is a
desperate need of a robust parking system that will enable us
to reserve the parking spots. For that it is necessary to build a
centralized system to gather all the information on parking
spots of malls, commercial complexes, and multilevel car
parking systems. According to the International Organization
of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA), the number of cars
produced in 2014 alone stands at 60 million. With the
explosive growth in automobiles, on-street parking will soon
disappear, given the constraints on road space. Hence there is
a desperate need of multilevel car parking and which should
be smart also.
In urban areas, one-third of cars which have reached their
destination and are circling around looking for a parking
space thus leading to problems like pollution and traffic
congestion. In a recent survey, researchers have found that in
one year, car cruising for parking created the equivalent of
38 times trips around the world, burning 1.7 lakh litre of fuel
and producing 730 tons of CO2. So, it is essential to control
the air pollution using a robust parking system that will be
used for the reservation of parking spot as well as parking
spot allocation in on spot resource allocation scenario.
Reservation can be made using multiplatform tools such as
Android application, iOS application, Windows applications
or even Web Portal allowing user to have a hassle free
parking experience. Recommender system will help user find
the right parking lot closest to his location.
With the help of recommender system predictability of
nearest available slot becomes easier. User location data is
accessed in the mobile platform to suggest best location for
parking. The Google Map API uses user‟s geo-location and
location of parking spot to determine the above.

International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 140 – No.12, April 2016
46
2. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
Figure 1. System Architecture
2.1 Raspberry Pi
The system is using Raspbian OS based on Debian OS
running on raspberry pi 2B model which has a configuration
of ARM cortex-A7 quad core , 900MHz CPU . It also has 4
USB ports, 40 GPIO pins, Full HDMI port, Ethernet port,
micro SD card slot. System has a 16GB SD card of class 10
which is used to mount Raspbian OS. System is designed in
such a way that it will use Raspberry Pi as a web server.
Raspberry Pi is mounted with a custom designed shield that
is used to connect 4 IR sensors using FRC cable. Hardware
system consists of 4 IR sensors which are connected to
raspberry pi through FRC cables.
The system uses 24 GPIO pins to interact with IR sensors
and tricolor LEDs. They are connected over a common VCC
and GND.
2.2 IR Sensors
An infrared sensor is an electronic device which is used to
sense light wavelength of its surroundings by either emitting
or detecting infrared spectrum. It is also capable of
measuring the heat being emitted by an object and detecting
motion. LED will glow with respect to the IR sensor
detection. Every IR sensor has a transmitter and a receiver.
For every transmitter and receiver, there are total two
registers and one more register is present to maintain voltage
of LED that will show the status of parking slot to customers.
When the IR does not detect any object in front of it, it
returns the value TRUE, meaning HIGH volt output from the
sensor and FALSE for when a object is detected meaning
LOW volt output.
2.3 LED
A tricolor LED has a cut section at either of its sides. These
LED have 4 pins. The longest one is common cathode and
the rest are represented as RGB.
2.4 Parse
Parse is an open source web server framework that allows
the implementation of the back end server. It is suitable for
implementation of a prototype for various projects. Parse
works as a mediator between the Raspberry Pi and other
Platform applications. Parse handles the NoSQL database
behind the system. It also facilitates the use of push
notifications through its services.
2.5 Admin Dashboard
Admin gets different kinds of data from various sources in
JSON formats on its dashboard. Admin dashboard shows the
activity logs, reserved parking slots , free parking spaces. It
is also responsible for the parking spot allocation to different
users. Algorithm will allocate the nearest free parking space
to various customers who don‟t reserve their parking spaces.
Figure 2. Hardware Architecture
3. SYSTEM REALIZATION &
WORKING
3.1 Parking Space Detection:
The system works on real time parking information based on
which it makes reservation and on spot resource allocation of
parking spaces for drivers. Several sensing technologies
available to monitor real time parking status like ambient
light sensor, Ultra sonic sound,etc. System works on IR led
Sensors providing Energy efficiency with less power
consumption.
IR led keeps transmitting infrared rays up to some range
when some object is detected in the infrared range the IR
waves hits the object and comes back at some angle the
photo diode next to IR led detects that infrared rays reflected
from the object.
Thus the object or the car standing in front of the IR sensors
gets detected, providing us the status or availability of a

International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 140 – No.12, April 2016
47
particular parking space.
3.2 V2I and I2V Communication
For the need of utilization of resources a reliable and
effective two way communication is essential between the
vehicle and the allocation center (infrastructure).
In this system V2I communication involves drivers sending
their parking request providing driver information, status
confirming reservation and utilization of resources to the
system. In I2V communication the system reserves the space
for user and the application shows the driving directions to
the reserved parking space with the help of a directed map,
the map contains the images of the path allocated to the
driver by the system.
Both I2V and V2I communication are implemented through
an Android application & other Windows or Web
application.
3.3 Reservation Guarantee
In case of an efficient parking system the resources allocated
to a particular user must not be designated to any other user.
To successfully imply this idea, QR Code Generation
technology is applied.
The system does QR code verification at the entrance of the
parking lot with the help of a web camera which is placed on
the system. User with its application reserves a parking
space, QR code gets generated on the reservation which
provides unique “object id” for every user on every
transaction. This generated QR code should be presented in
front of the camera. The System scans and detects the unique
object ID and then verifies the ID from the database.
3.4 Optimal Allocation
The most powerful feature of the system is that it determines
the nearest or closest parking space for the user with the help
of globally optimized list.
The Admin dashboard fires the query on the database
through the application in such a way that it returns only the
unreserved resources which are globally optimized. On the
acquired list linear search is performed and it gives the
closest parking slot from the list which also the first element
of the optimized list[O(1)].This helps in optimal allocation of
the resources through the system.
3.5 Backend
For the efficient working and communication of the server,
application and database backend devices use server side
languages to build an application and data storage tools to
find change or save data and serve it back to the user.
The system uses NoSQL database management system
which contains unstructured data. NoSQL also provides
storing of images and videos. It also is scalable, instead of
using tables NoSQL stores data in the form of objects and
key/value pairs tuples.
JSON (Java Script Object Notation) it is a light weight
format used for data interchanging. It is used as a web
service response. Instead of using XML as a primary data
format for the transfer of data JSON is more preferred format
due to its light weight property.
RESTful API (Representational State Transfer Application
Programming Interface) is used to ease development and
simplify client adoption it does not follow a prescribed
standard except for HTTP. System uses four important
methods viz POST, GET, PUT, DELETE.
 POST: POST is utilize to “create” new resources
especially used to create subordinate resources
means POST to the parent. On creation, return
HTTP status 201.
 GET: GET method is used to “read” or “retrieve”
resource. It returns representation in JSON and
HTTP response code 200 and in case of error it
returns 404.
 PUT: PUT is utilize for “update” the resources it
can also be used to create resource when the
resource id is chosen by client instead of server.
 DELETE: It is used for “deleting” the resource. On
deletion it returns HTTP status 200 with response
body. It can also return HTTP status 204 with no
response body.
3.6 Sensors
Sensors are the devices which senses from the physical world
and stimuli on the environment. The system uses IR sensors
to detect the vehicle above it.
Sensors respond to system to the availability of the vehicle
above the IR sensors. If the vehicle is present above the IR
sensor, it will return value FALSE and the voltage goes
LOW, If the vehicle is not present above the IR sensor, it
will return value TRUE and the voltage remains HIGH.
The parking space is reserved but the vehicle is yet to arrive,
the LED glows RED. In another case vehicle is at the
entrance of parking lot then LED glows BLUE, to notify the
driver the parking slot allocated to him. When a vehicle has
already occupied a parking slot the led will glow GREEN.
The GREEN LED is used as a positive indicator to showcase
proper functioning of IR Sensors.
3.7 Data Analysis
 Nearest resource allocation:
Admin fires the query to get the globally optimized
list. The list contains only the unreserved free
parking spaces available in the parking lot. The list
is natively optimized so, the first element in the list
is the nearest of all.
 QR scanner:
Every time when user reserves a parking slot for
him, a QR code is generated along with the
payment receipt with the help of unique object id.
While entering in the parking lot, user first has to
scan his unique QR code. For that user has to place
his QR code i.e. smart phone in front of the
webcam. The webcam will scan the QR code and
object id along with the name of reserved parking
slot will get displayed. Admin dashboard updates
the logs and the event gets generate by glowing the
LED light BLUE. User already has a directed map
showing the exact location of parking space. Only
after a successful authentication via QR code, user
is allowed to enter into the parking area.
 System Logs:
System log is produced on the admin dashboard
showing all the activities which are done in the

International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 140 – No.12, April 2016
48
past. It includes username, vehicle number, object
id for every transaction, slot number allocated to
user, time of arrival and departure, date of
reservation etc.
Figure 3. Working state(Slot S2 & S4 Reserved and S1
occupied)
3.8 Platform
An Android application is created using Android studio. The
android applications are developed using the JAVA code.
Using the JAVA compiler the source files are converted to
JAVA class files. The .dex file and the resources of an
android application are packed into an .apk (Android
Package) file. The resulting .apk file contains all data to run
the Android application and can be deployed to an Android
device using adb tool.
The Windows Application is made using Visual Studio 2012.
Visual Studio allows us to create windows forms and
windows runnable applications. This application has its
minimum requirements according to the safety standards of
.Net Framework. This platform generates a setup file for the
“Smart Parking” and allows us to run the .exe for creation of
account to reserving parking.
Using the slot allocation method these application are
developed for the “Smart parking”. Slot reservation can be
done using the slot allocation method. The request is updated
in the server and forwards it to parking area. Platform allows
user to enter arrival and departure time of the parking. Both
platform application ensures that reservation of parking
spaces is allowed maximum two days before the actual
reservation date. The reserved spot will be available again
only after three hours of departure time of previous reserved
vehicle, maintaining a buffer for consecutive reservation of
same parking spot.
4. MATHEMATICALNMODELBAND
SIMULATION RESULTS:
S={C,Fme,S,F}
Let,
C={FL,OL,RL}
Where,
 FL be set of Free Lots { I1,I2,I3,In }
 OL be set of Occupied Lots { I1,I2,I3,In }
 RL be set of Reserved Lots { J1,J2,J3,Jn }
Fme={LS,RS,Lo,Rr,Qr,OSr}
Where,
 Let LS be the LED Light Status {BLUE(B),
GREEN(G),RED(R)}
Where,
 BLUE (B) is currently assigned slot.
 GREEN (G) is currently occupied Lot.
 RED (R) is currently reserved Lot.
 Let RS be Reservation Status {NOT RESERVED
(nRS),RESERVED(RS)}
Where,
 NOT RESERVED (nRS) is Reservation
not done.
 RESERVED (RS) is Reservation done
 Login (Lo) is User Login Function
 Reservation Request (Rr) is Function to reserve
specific lot
 Qr is Generated Qr code after successful
Reservation
 On Spot Request (OSr) is to request nearest free
parking lot without registration
Let S be Set of successful cases
S={Rp,OSp}
Where,
 Park (Rp) is successful occupied lot
 On Spot Park (OSp) is successful occupied lot
F = Failure Cases where Qr Code was not generated, Parking
lotdwasfnotbreserved
5. MOBILE BACK END AS A SERVICE
(MBaaS)
It is a model for providing web and mobile application
developers with a way to link their applications to back end
server which also can be used as a cloud storage. APIs
exposed by back end applications MBaaS also provides
features such as user management, push notifications,
analysis of performance measures and integration with social
networking services, file storage, geo-location and ability to
store custom objects. These services are provided via the use
of custom software development kits (SDKs) and application
programming interfaces (APIs). Backend as a Service
eliminates the need for developers to construct their own
servers. MBaaS providers offer developers a ready-made,
customizable back end that's already outfitted with common
back-end features. As a result, proponents of the approach
say it shifts developers' focus away from time-consuming,
complex server end development, and gives them more time
to invest in front-end work such as UI/UX. The scalability of
mobile apps, which is a huge pain-point for mobile app
developers, is also handled by MBaaS providers; apps are
scaled automatically, in the cloud, according to variations in
volume of users and traffic.
6. PROTOTYPE IMPLEMENTATION:
The proposed system has been partially implemented and
tested in lab prototype. Client devices have been connected
via TCP/IP protocol to a parking database. The latter is
updated in real-time with the status of parking lots. Two
kinds of client applications have been considered for parking
lots monitoring: mobile device application, for phones and

International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 140 – No.12, April 2016
49
tablets, and desktop application for laptops and desktop
computers.
6.1 Hardware Prototype
Hardware prototype contains 4 IR sensors as of now that
will represent the 4 parking spaces as shown in
fig.2.According to fig1 ,these IR sensors are connected
through wires to Raspberry Pi which will also act as a server.
A webcam is also attached to Raspberry Pi to scan the QR
code for the authentication of the driver at entry point.
Internet is provided to Raspberry Pi via LAN connection to
send the real time data to admin dashboard.
6.2 Android Application Prototype
Android application contains only one parking area. That
parking area contains only 4 parking slots viz. S1, S2, S3,
and S4 which are present on the hardware. Fig.4 shows the
layout of parking slots as well as 3 legends to depict whether
the particular slot is “Available”, “Unavailable/Reserved”,”
User selected”.
Fig. 5 shows the details of the reservation. It contains name
of parking area, name of parking slot, arrival time, departure
time, date and duration. User must have to enter his vehicle
number to uniquely identify his vehicle in case a user has
multiple vehicles.
Figure 4. Android app prototype shows S1 and S4 are
unavailable or reserved and only S2, S3 are available.
Figure 5. Android app prototype shows the details of
reservation before confirming the slot
6.3 Windows Desktop Application:
On windows desktop application user has to enter arrival
time, departure time, date, and vehicle number. Then
windows application will show the map and layout of all
parking lots which are similar to the android application. It
will also show the available parking slots so that user can
enter the desired resource very easily. After clicking on the
“Book” button user will be greeted with a pop up window
showing the QR code and other relevant information about
reservation.

International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 140 – No.12, April 2016
50
7. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
The authors conducted a number of experiments and
simulations to quantitatively investigate the impact of the
proposed framework in terms of engineering and economic
efficiency. Three classes of performance metrics are
considered. The first tab is to check which database class the
query is being fired upon. The 2nd tab suggests which type
of query the application is requesting. 3rd tab gives the total
number of counts and fourth calculated the slow percentage
of query. The “Median” tab gives the avg. time required to
give the output of the query which is no longer than 7
milliseconds which is much less that SQL query which takes

International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 140 – No.12, April 2016
51
appx. 5 sec on an average. The last tab gives the maximum
time required for a query to fetch data over all its
performance.
8. COMPARISON
The figure below gives a comparison of the Smart Parking
system which allows reservations over the various system
such as
1. Blind Search
2. Parking Information Sharing
3. Buffered PIS
4. Smart Parking
Figure 9. Comparison of Smart Parking with other
parking systems
Over a given period of time the Smart Parking System
proves efficient by providing real time data and facility to
book the parking.
9. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE
SCOPE
Various system proposed by different authors helps us to
cogently in reserving and also annihilating the need of
searching for parking spaces in private parking lots.
Researchers have acquired the systems which dynamically
arrange the scheme for different drivers as per their
requirement, based on the real-time parking information.
Thus, this concludes that the paper simplifies the context for
the researchers for innovating various techniques to
administrate and solve the problems faced by drivers on day
to day basis.
In future, the system can be extended which is not only
specific to a private parking like Malls, Company parking,
etc. but also can be implemented over various multiple
platforms such as public parking also extending the feature
by giving parking information based on cost in real time.
This will make the management of the parking spaces more
efficient, by purging the need of human labor.
10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project is partially funded by SHREE ENTERPRISES.
It is also co-funded by the project members under the
academic curriculum of SAVTRIBAI PHULE
UNIVERSITY. We are grateful to our guide Prof.
Nikhilkumar B. Shardoor Assistant professor, Computer
Department, JSPM‟s Jaywantrao Sawant College of
Engineering for helping us in preparation of this paper and
his valuable suggestions and encouragement.
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