Arduino Car Parking system is very interesting project to start playing or to demonstrate your basic understanding of Arduino Programming and Sensor Interfacing. There are many options and Algorithms to build a car parking system but here we will discuss the Arduino Car Parking system using IR Sensors. IR sensor could be used as a proximity sensor to sense the presence of object placed near to that sensor. which in our case suits best. The overall algorithm to detect the vacant parking spaces in our Arduino Car Parking system is to detect how many sensors are not detecting any vehicle.
Problem Statement:
First of all, let’s discuss about the problem we are going to solve in this project. The problem is very simple, to manage the parking space efficiently, to know the vacant spaces and inform users and to control and enter and exit queue of cars into the parking space. So, the project should know the vacant spaces in parking area and inform user which spot is available for him to park his car. This way we can manage the parking space efficiently and if the parking space is full, we will not allow further cars to enter into the parking space until some space is vacant again by exiting already parked vehicles.
Required Components
Here is the list of components which you may require while developing an Arduino Based Smart Car Parking system. This system required mechanical parts like motors to control the barriers and sensor fusion to detect the proximity of vehicles occupying the parking slot. So, there are two options like IR Sensor which we are using in this project, there is also another sensor which could be used, and that sensor is Ultrasonic Sensor with Arduino. We can also use the Ultrasonic sensors with the Arduino to detect the proximity of the vehicles. Here is the list.
- Arduino Uno
- Servo Motor for barrier control
- IR sensors for proximity detection
- 16×2 LCD for displaying available Parking Space or Indicating if Parking is full
- Buzzer to beep if parking is full
- Mounting brackets, stands, or housings to secure sensors in place
- Motor driver modules to control the barrier gate motor. You may need this if you are using DC motor or Stepper motor. Servo could be directly interfaced with Arduino
- Power source for the Arduino board and motor controllers
Occupancy Grid Mapping
In the parking system we have to think about how to represent the parking space. The parking space in our project of Smart Car Parking System using Arduino and IR Sensor is represented using the Grid. After that we can map the Grid Occupancy. We need to divide the Parking space into some kind of Grid. Once we divided the parking space into the grid, we can represent it in our coding with 2d Array and could handle this using Occupancy Grid Mapping Algorithm.
IR Sensor Fusion
Once we created the parking space as grid, we can mount the IR sensors into that grid. One sensor per cell. So, when the card is placed in front of the sensor the sensor will detect the proximity of the vehicle and indicate the main microcontroller which in our case is Arduino. The Arduino will be aware that that cell is occupied and update the Occupancy Grid using mapping algorithm. Two IR sensor would be placed on the barrier which will check the enter and exit of the vehicle. So, when the IR sensor placed at the entrance detects that the vehicle is there waiting for barrier to open, it will read the grid Occupancy, and if there is vacant space available it will allot a cell to that vehicle and open the barrier using the Servo motor.
