Smart Parking System Using Wireless Connectivity.

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SMART PARKING SYSTEM USING WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY

MOHD FAREEZ BIN MOHD AFIF

This report is submitted in particular fulfillment of the requirements for the award of
Bachelor of Electronic Engineering (Wireless Communication) with Honours

Faculty of Electronic and Computer Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka

JUN 2013

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Specially Dedicates
To my beloved parents, family and all my friends
Not forgetting the supervisor who has the support,
assistance and suggestions
in completing this project.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Praised be to Allah for his blessings and giving us the strength. I would like to
express my deepest appreciation to all those who provided me the possibility to
complete this report.

Furthermore I would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation the crucial
role of the staff of Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, who gave the permission to use
all required equipment and the necessary material to complete the task Smart Parking
System Using Wireless Connectivity . And thanks to all my class mate member of 4
BENW students for helping to complete this report.


Last but not least, many thanks go to my supervisor of this project, Mr. Hamzah
Asyrani Bin Sulaiman who was abundantly helpful and offered invaluable assistance,
support and guidance in achieving the goal.

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ABSTRACT

With the increase in vehicle production and world population, more and more
parking spaces and facilities are required. In this paper a new parking system called
Smart Parking System is proposed to assist drivers to find vacant spaces in a car park in
a shorter time. IR sensors are used to detect either car park occupy or not. Different
detection technologies are reviewed and compared to determine the best technology for
developing smart parking system. Features of Smart Parking System include vacant
parking detection, display of available parking spaces, and directional indicators toward
vacant parking spaces through the use of specific LEDs. The technologies for
communication system that used in the Smart Parking System also have been discussed
in this paper.


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ABSTRAK

Dengan peningkatan dalam pengeluaran kenderaan dan penduduk dunia, tempat
letak kereta dan kemudahan yang lebih diperlukan. Dalam kertas kerja ini sistem letak
kereta baru yang dipanggil Smart Parking System dicadangkan untuk membantu
pemandu untuk mencari ruang kosong di tempat letak kereta dalam masa yang singkat.
Sensor Infrared digunakan untuk mengesan sama ada tempat letak kereta menduduki
atau tidak. Teknologi pengesanan yang berbeza dikaji dan dibandingkan untuk
menentukan teknologi yang terbaik untuk membangunkan sistem letak kereta pintar.
Ciri-ciri Sistem Parking Pintar termasuk pengesanan kosong tempat letak kereta,
paparan tempat letak kereta yang ada, dan penunjuk arah ke arah tempat letak kereta
yang kosong melalui penggunaan LED tertentu. Teknologi untuk sistem komunikasi
yang digunakan dalam Sistem Parking Pintar juga telah dibincangkan dalam kertas ini.

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TABLE OF CONTENT


CHAPTER

I

II

TITLE

PAGES

TITLE PAGE

i

DECLARATION

iii

DEDICATION


v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

vi

ABSTRACT

vii

ABSTRAK

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ix

LIST OF TABLE


xii

LIST OF FIGURES

xiii

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

xv

INTRODUCTION

1

1.1

Introduction

1


1.2

Problem Background

2

1.3

Objective

3

1.4

Scope of Work

3

1.5


Chapter Structure

4

LITERATURE REVIEW

5

2.1

5

Introduction

x

2.2

III


Type of Sensor Selection

5

2.2.1

Passive Infrared Sensor

6

2.2.2

Active Infrared Sensor

6

2.2.3

Inductive Loop Detector


7

2.2.4

Magnetometer

8

2.2.5

Anistropic Magnetoresistance Sensor

8

2.2.6

Piezoelectric Sensor

8


2.2.7

Pneumatic Road Tube

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2.2.8

Weight-in-motion Sensor

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2.2.9

Microwave Radar

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2.2.10 Ultrasonic Sensor

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2.2.11 Image Processing

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2.2.12 Vehicle License Plate Recognition

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2.3

PIC Microcontroller

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2.4

Selection of Wireless Communication Device

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

16

3.1

Introduction

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3.2

Research Procedure

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3.3

Analysis Circuit

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3.3.1

PIC Microcontroller (16F877A)

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3.3.2

Voltage Regulator Unit

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3.3.3

IR Sensor

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3.3.4

Interface LCD (2x16 Characters)

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3.3.5

Electronic Component

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3.3.5.1 Resistors

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3.3.5.2 Capacitors

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LM324

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3.3.6

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IV

RESULT AND ANALYSIS

28

4.1

Introduction

28

4.2

Software Implementation

29

4.2.1

29

4.3

4.4

V

Visual Basic Studio

Hardware Implementation

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4.3.1

Designing Circuit

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4.3.2

Xbee Pro Setting

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System Operation

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4.4.1

Left Detection

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4.4.2

Right Detection

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CONCLUSION

48

5.1

Conclusion

48

5.2

Future Work

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REFERENCES

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APPENDIX A

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APPENDIX B

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xii

LIST OF TABLE

NO.

TITLE

PAGES

Table 2.1

Comparison between Zigbee and Bluetooth

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Table 3.1

LCD Connection Pin

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Table 3.2

Resistor color code

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Table 3.3

Pin Description LM324

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LIST OF FIGURE

NO.

TITLE

PAGES

Figure 2.1

Passive Infrared Sensor

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Figure 2.2

Active Infrared Sensor

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Figure 2.3

Inductive Loop Detectors

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Figure 2.4

Piezoelectric Sensor

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Figure 2.5

Weight-in-motion Sensor

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Figure 2.6

Microwave Radar

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Figure 2.7

Ultrasonic Sensor

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Figure 2.8

Vehicle License Plate Recognition

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Figure 2.9

PIC Microcontroller

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Figure 2.10

Overall Overview using PIC

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Figure 2.11

Programming Software

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Figure 2.12

Download Programmer

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Figure 3.1

Flowchart of Project

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Figure 3.2

Pin Description

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Figure 3.3

Voltage Regulator

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Figure 3.4

Model of the parking system

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Figure 3.5

Interfac LCD

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Figure 3.6

Example of Resistor

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Figure 3.7

Example of Capacitor

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Figure 3.8

Pin Diagram LM324

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Figure 4.1

COM Port Selection

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Figure 4.2

COM Port Connected

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Figure 4.3

COM Port Disconnected

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Figure 4.4

Software Monitoring System Flowchart

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Figure 4.5

Detection Unit Flowchart

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Figure 4.6

Parking System Flowchart

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Figure 4.7

Overall Circuit

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Figure 4.8

PCB Layout

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Figure 4.9

COM Port Test

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Figure 4.10

Modem Configuration

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Figure 4.11

Configuration of Both Modules

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Figure 4.12

Transmit and Receive Test

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Figure 4.13

Xbee Startup

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Figure 4.14

COM Port Selecting

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Figure 4.15

System Connected

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Figure 4.16

LEFT 1 Detection

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Figure 4.17

LEFT 2 Detection

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Figure 4.18

LEFT 1 Monitoring System

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Figure 4.19

LEFT 2 Monitoring System

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Figure 4.20

Display LEFT status FULL

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Figure 4.21

LEFT Side Detection

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Figure 4.22

RIGHT 1 Detection

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Figure 4.23

RIGHT 2 Detection

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Figure 4.24

RIGHT 1 Monitoring System

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Figure 4.25

RIGHT 2 Monitoring System

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Figure 4.26

Display RIGHT status FULL

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Figure 4.27

RIGHT Side Detection

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LIST OF ABBREVIATION

GUI

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Graphical User Interface

PIC

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Programmable Interface Controller

IC

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Integrated Circuit

LED

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Light Emitting Diode

MCLR

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Master Clear Reset

IR

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Infrared

LCD

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Liquid Crystal Display

PCB

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Printed Circuit Board

UART

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Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter

USART

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Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver
Transmitter

USB

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Universal Serial Bus

VB

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Visual Basic

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Introduction
Attractive place for locals and tourists to shop is in the shopping mall, it

became the focal point of a town that has a modern shopping center and also
provides a variety of services, where it became the attracted place to come. Many
shop owners prefer to locate their business in the shopping mall to increase revenue
and get more customers. They are two important factors of human life which is time
and cost, either to individuals or businesses. As the quality of life is increases, many
people inhabiting cities and urban life requires centralized utilities [1].

Recently, shopping mall has started providing a lot of services not just a place
that only has pure selling and buying. Customers can use cinemas, food court, post
offices, banking services, children play areas and much more. For example, windowshopping or visiting to shopping mall in Malaysia just to find and not to buy, is a
common activity. Development of shopping malls has influenced shopping culture
and behavior [2].

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The main issue in developing shopping mall is providing sufficient parking
for a customer. A sufficient number of parking spaces and paying attention to
handicapped driver with offering safe and secure parking lots are a few of the factors
which can attract and increase customer loyalty to visit a shopping mall frequently.
There are various types of parking lots such as roadside, roadside with ticket, barrier
gate and multilevel parking. The most preferred by patrons is the multilevel parking
lot [3]. The main factors that customer choose a specific parking lot is weather
conditions, safety, proximity and car park fees respectively.

The objectives of this purpose are to identify the difficulty drivers to parking
their vehicles at shopping mall, propose a solution to solve the problems and outline
a Smart Parking System architecture design.

1.2

Problem Background

On weekend or public holidays, finding a vacant space in parking lot in
shorten time is difficult. 86% of drivers have a problem in finding a vacant parking
lot [3], 66% of visitors facing a problem to finding spaces during weekends or public
holidays can take more than 10 minutes. At peak hour shopping mall becomes
crowded, and difficulty in finding parking lot is a major problem for customers [4].
Insufficient parking spaces lead to traffic congestion and driver frustration [5].

The selection of detection technology is by referring the objective and scope
of the purpose. There are various types of detection discussed in this study, infra red,
ultrasonic, inductive loop detector, magnetometer, piezoelectric sensor, weigh in
motion sensor, microwave radar, image processing and vehicle license plate
recognition. Also the communication system between sensor modules and
monitoring system is how to transmit the data of sensor module to monitoring
system.

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1.3

Objective

The objectives of this project are listed below:
i.

To design a parking system that will guide the drivers to vacant parking lots.

ii.

To design graphic user interface (GUI) for monitoring system.

iii.

To design a parking system that capable to determine parking availability.

1.4

Scope of Work

The scope of this project will focus on the following areas:
i.

To understand and learn the suitable sensor that will be use in the parking
system.

ii.

To understand and apply to transfer data by using wireless communication
system using Zigbee.

iii.

To design the graphic user interface (GUI) by using Visual Basic Studio for
monitoring system of the parking system.

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1.5

Chapter Structure

This report have a 5 chapters consists of the introduction, literature review,
methodology, result, and discussion and the last chapter is conclusion and
recommendation.

The first chapter of this thesis is about an introduction of the project. It
explains the objectives and problem statement of this project in detail. The scope of
work for this project also discusses in this chapter.

The second chapter will discussed about the literature review of this project.
Gaining a knowledge and learn a method how to develop a smart parking system.

The third chapter focuses on the project methodologies. It explains the
method for develop this project such as designing a circuit, selecting a component
and workflow of this project.

The forth chapter discusses about the result of this project. It explains all the
results obtained, system operation, implementation of hardware and software for this
project.

The last chapter for this thesis is about conclusion and future work for this
project. This project was fully functional and tested as expected. The new ideas for
improving this system already explain in the future work part.

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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Introduction

This chapter reviews some information from previous project, journals,
articles, books and datasheets. In order to develop a Smart Parking System that will
demonstrate the objectives of the project, from the different sources such as library,
internet, product manual and etc these information were collected to overcome the
objective of this project.

2.2

Type of Sensor Technologies

There are a various detection technologies that being used in a parking
system. Each sensor determines the function to detect an object and have advantage
and disadvantage for using the technology to apply in parking system.

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2.2.1 Passive Infrared Sensor

Passive infrared sensors measured the changes in the energy emitted by
vehicle and the roads for identify the occupancy status of a parking space [6]. The
sensitivity of the sensor is reduced in snow, heavy rain and fog, the sensors are able
to be implemented in a multilane environment to measure vehicle speed. And also
certain models are not recommended for presence detection.

Figure 2.1: Passive Infrared Sensor

2.2.2 Active Infrared Sensor

The emitting infrared energy and detecting the amount of energy reflected an
active infrared sensor will detects the vehicles [6]. The active infrared sensors are
used to measure of vehicle position, class and speed, multiple beams are measured
and transmitted from the sensor. This sensor is sensitive about environmental
conditions.

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Figure 2.2: Active Infrared Sensor

2.2.3 Inductive Loop Detectors

A wire loop of various sizes is called an Inductive Loop Detectors, this sensor
using frequencies range from 10 to 50 kHz to send a signal [6]. The oscillation
frequency of the inductive loop is directly controlled by the inductance of the loop
which changes with vehicle presence.

Figure 2.3: Inductive Loop Detectors

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2.2.4 Magnetometer

There are two type of magnetometer which is flux gate magnetometer and
search coil magnetometer [6]. The search coil magnetometer are insensitive and are
intrusive sensors, meanwhile the flux gate magnetometers are insensitive to weather
conditions, proximity is required for accurate detection.

2.2.5 Anistropic Magnetoresistance Sensors

These sensors are simply energized by providing a constant current:
Anistropic Magnetoresistance Sensors (AMR), Giant Magnetoresistance Sensors
(GMR), magnetic Tunnel Junction Sensors, Extraordinary Magnetoresistance and
Ballistic Magnetoresistance. In their research the AMR sensor is for detect a vehicle
and its sensitivity to position and orientation has noted.

2.2.6 Piezoelectric Sensor

When the specially processed material is subjected to vibration or mechanical
impact this sensor will convert kinetic energy to electrical energy [6]. It gives more
accurate and it needs multiple detectors. It is very sensitive to high temperature and
stress.

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Figure 2.4: Piezoelectric Sensor.

2.2.7 Pneumatic Road Tube

When air pressure created, and closes a switch, and then produces the signal
when the vehicles pass over the vehicle will be detected [6]. It is temperature
sensitive and sometimes in accuracy, and it is easy to maintain and implement.

2.2.8 Weight-in-motion Sensor

This sensor is useful to highway planner, designers and law enforcement
agencies that will detect with their weight of the vehicle [6]. Piezoelectric, load cell,
bending plate and capacitance mat are the four technologies are used in this sensor.