The UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicted that the entire world population will be living in urban areas. And the growth rate is anticipated to reach 68% in 2050. Population increase is not only a pressing problem of governments, but it’s also a real daily reality for most citizens. Searching for a parking lot will result in a huge loss of time and fuel, and there’s $345 billion wasted on this each year. Let’s dig deeper into the parking issues and the need for a smart parking system using IoT.
The parking issue is not common, especially in big cities. According to an IoT analysis report, the market expenditure of smart parking products and services will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 14% by 2023 and surpass 3.8 billion dollars. It’s actually great news as it forces people to find ways to solve the traffic issues rather than doing nothing. This issue is pretty obvious, but the bigger problem is what technology can do to solve this issue, and are there any ways for it?
What issues would you encounter while parking vehicles?
Components involved in the smart parking system using IoT usually include:
Among the popular parking sensors on the market, ultrasonic, electromagnetic field detection, and infrared are several types.
Ultrasonic: The precision of the smart parking sensor is improved by using ultrasonic wave. The disadvantage of this type of sensor is that it can get clogged with dirt.
Electromagnetic Field Detection: The sensor can detect small changes in the magnetic field when a metal object is near it.
Infrared: This type of sensor measures changes in ambient temperature and detects movement.
The number of parking lots determines the hardware and software requirements of the IoT configuration and system architecture. For a large parking lot, sensors adopt the gateway and LPWAN protocol. Adopting the LoRaWAN standard is one of the trends of IoT, also a method to increase the automatic system’s operating time by decreasing the power consumption. It’s under the LoRa Alliance specification so as to operate with low power consumption, and battery life is extended to 5-10 years.
Besides, different kinds of sensors are installed in different ways. For example, the camera is tricky, so it needs to be installed at a certain distance and angle to avoid blind spots. Laser radar sensors are usually installed in a pillar with 30~80 centimeters and are located repeatedly in a certain range, but it makes sense only when conducting massive processing.
The surface-mounted smart parking sensors are the easiest to install and are usually installed on the surface of each parking lot to detect space status. Such IoT sensors can be simply glued on the surface or fixed with screws. Additionally, such IoT sensors are easy to transform without any unique installation practice and most of them don’t need any maintenance. The smart parking system using IoT can communicate with the gateway through the parking site and transfer the data to the internet.
Three possible detection conditions
Space occupation: The object distance detected by the sensors is between 10~50 centimeters(about 4~20 inches)
Free space: The object distance detected is over 50 centimeters(about 20 inches)
Dirty space: The object distance detected is less than 10 centimeters(about 4 inches)
If the condition is “dirty”, then the sensors might be covered or blocked by something and need to be inspected.
Detect the presence of a vehicle in two steps. First, the parking sensor device needs to identify the presence of cars parked in the specific parking lot. Second, you need to make sure that the parking lot is detected as occupied, as there’s only one car. Both of these steps can be realised through various engineering technology approaches, which allow the smart parking system using IoT to offer searching, navigation, and reservation of a parking lot.
Computer vision, proximity detection, distance detection, and even RF/magnetic presence can be used for building smart parking sensor. Such technologies offer advantages such as high precision parking detection, wide angle parking detection, energy saving, and monitoring multiple parking slots simultaneously. Hence, using mixed parking sensor with remote communication is the best choice. LoRa parking sensor offers the extended range required and decreases the overall cost of the system due to the minimal number of gateway devices.
LoRaWAN parking sensors from MOKOSmart enable real-time monitoring and detection of the parking space occupancy.
1. Each parking space is equipped with a battery-powered occupancy sensor that detects the absence, arrival, presence and departure of vehicles. Due to their low-power design, these sensors can be self-configured to assign each unit a unique MAC address associated with a serial number and bar code. The LW009 can run up to 5+ years without external wiring.
2. When an occupancy sensor detects vehicle activity, the embedded LoRa receiver will send a short message package containing the change in status to any wireless network gateway within its range.
3. Gateway can be a part of a private LoRa network or a node of a public LoRaWAN service provider. It transmits packets to the PIN parking cloud service application, which can reside on a cloud-based server or a dedicated server. This turnkey parking management solution uses sensor information to track open and occupied Spaces. It can present the parking events on the web page and offer parking data to third-party applications that generate billing information and notify the available parking spaces for drivers through smartphones and other wireless devices. Moreover, sensor-based parking monitors and street cameras work with other parking technologies to eliminate “camping”.
The LoRaWAN protocol supports two-way communication capabilities, allowing parking lot administrators to manage end sensors.
In urban areas:
Direct benefits
Indirect benefits:
Private areas: malls, hotels, thematic parks…
Direct benefits
Indirect benefits:
Taking 10 minutes searching for a parking spot several times a day means you should spend 240 hours a year, and an average of 700 days of your whole life.
A smart parking system using IoT can reduce
Traffic volume: -8%
Gas emissions: -40%
Km. travelled: -30%
Time spent: -43%
There are a number of cars that need to be placed in place to avoid congestion. In this case, the parking guidance system provides the driver with direction and parking accuracy.
As per the survey by the Smart Parking Institute, 42 percent of respondents voted in favor of the need for Parking systems. The good news is that thanks to parking lot sensor systems, connectivity platforms and other IoT applications, drivers can know where the nearest parking space is if it’s occupied. Real-time parking maps will be common in the future.
As for innovations already in the field, here are the top smart parking apps that have been released or will be released soon.
IoT is the core technology of the vehicle tracking platform. Tools such as GPS or OBD sensors can help collect location data from cars or fleets and monitor parking space occupancy. The information is transmitted to the CSA, processed, and then sent to the network server. This data will be shown to drivers and car company managers in an understandable and clear way.
At present, vehicle trackers based on the Internet of Things are mainly used for fleet management of large enterprise organizations. In the future, when the rollout of 5G makes the Internet of Things more accessible, parking technology will spread among car drivers and will be used to manage daily commutes and ease parking challenges.
The connected metering system detects when a car enters and leaves the parking lot. In this way, an IoT platform will be able to provide drivers with a real-time meter of available spaces.
Facility managers can use the meter system to improve the efficiency of parking facilities, identify trends and patterns about the ridership, and be able to predict the surges of future vehicle.
Automatic parking systems help reduce parking spaces and maximize space efficiency. An automated system is used to move the car up and down to the upper level of the facility. Since the APS facility is fully automated and has access restrictions, it is safer to park there.
Automatic parking systems help reduce search time and engine emissions that accumulate due to increased driving time. In such a facility, the use of resources is minimized because there is little light and ventilation required to maintain the automatic parking system.
The Internet of Things, as a powerful traffic law enforcer, contributes to urban security and order. Using a network of sensors and fast data-processing algorithms, the parking control system can detect, register, collect and store required evidence, issue tickets, and notify of parking violations in seconds.
Smart parking will have a significant impact on all stakeholders throughout the process. Drivers can book parking Spaces in advance, plan trips and commutes, and take parking lot occupancy into account. The reinforcement mechanism will be able to detect and assess the severity of illegal parking in a split second.
Parking managers will be able to optimize the use of space and resources within their parking lots, effectively formulating future developments. Community leaders will improve the comfort of city residents by applying IoT parking solutions.
Here are some additional benefits that the Internet of Things offers in the parking space:
When the parking meter is about to expire, the connected platform will notify the driver. Such a tool will help extend parking time at a click once the driver pays for the extension. The automatic parking meter extension system will reduce traffic violations and increase revenue for the facility.
Red areas such as bus stops, pick-up and drop-off areas for passengers, and parking Spaces for disabled people will be identified by the platform and notified to drivers. In this way, the number of negligent parking violations will be reduced. If a driver still parks in an area where parking is prohibited, a connected platform will immediately notify the strengthening department violator, increasing the chances of a successful penalty for the violator.
With a network of sensors, automated parking planners can collect occupancy data for all parking lots. In order to evenly distribute the number of parking Spaces in a city, municipal communities can use the data provided by the iot platform to adjust fees and allowed parking hours in the decision-making process.
IoT parking management software
A parking lot management system can be a one-stop shop, uniting parking facility managers, law enforcement agencies, drivers, and other stakeholders into a connected network. Parties affected by the transformation of parking management make contributions to the overall well-being of urban communities by connecting with each other, asking and answering questions.
To function properly, parking management systems based on the Internet of Things must make full use of the advantages of intelligent parking technology. Here are the features that an intelligent platform should take advantage of in the parking industry:
Smart parking systems are widely used to improve People’s Daily life, so the use of smart parking systems is expected to increase constantly. The system can also add the following advanced functions, making it a multi-functional management tool.
For large parking lots, augmented reality might create a mapping function on real images captured by smartphones. These AR outdoor and indoor navigation systems can guide drivers to their parked cars via virtual paths.
Another innovation is the use of visual image processing technology to catch the license plate number of a car and identify it with the help of optical character recognition technology. It then automatically opens the gate to the parking lot and the system leads the driver to a suitable parking lot space.
The future of smart parking systems seems promising. The technologies behind this solution include the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine learning and augmented reality, which are also driving the digital transformation of enterprises in Industry 4.0 terms. Leveraging these innovations, Parking 4.0 will improve the efficiency of parking systems by addressing urbanization challenges.
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