I

n
t
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
o
n

Drivers searching for parking are estimated to be responsible for about 30% of traffic
congestion in cities. Historically, cities, businesses, and property developers have
tried to match parking supply to growing demand for parking spaces. It has become
clear, though, that simply creating more parking spaces is not sufficient to address
the problem of congestion. New approaches using smart parking systems look to
provide a more balanced view of parking that better manages the relationship
between supply and demand.

Smart parking can be defined as the use of advanced technologies for the efficient
operation, monitoring, and management of parking within an urban mobility strategy.
The global market for smart parking systems reached $93.5 million, with the United
States representing 46% market share, and offering a strong growth opportunity for
companies offering services in the United States and overseas. A number of
technologies provide the basis for smart parking solutions, including vehicle sensors,
wireless communications, and data analytics. Smart parking is also made viable by
innovation in areas such as smartphone apps for customer services, mobile payments,
and in-car navigation systems. At the heart of the smart parking concept is the ability
to access, collect, analyze, disseminate, and act on information on parking usage.
Increasingly, this information is provided in real-time from intelligent devices that
enable both parking managers and drivers to optimize the use of parking capacity.
1-

Motivation to use Smart parking:

1. Optimized parking – Users find the best spot available, saving time, resources and
effort. The parking lot fills up efficiently and space can be utilized properly by
commercial and corporate entities.

2. Reduced traffic – Traffic flow increases as fewer cars are required to drive around
in search of an open parking space.

3. Reduced pollution – Searching for parking burns around one million barrels of oil
a day. An optimal parking solution will significantly decrease driving time, thus
lowering the amount of daily vehicle emissions and ultimately reducing the global
environmental footprint.

4. Enhanced User Experience – A smart parking solution will integrate the entire
user experience into a unified action. Driver’s payment, spot identification,
location search and time notifications all seamlessly become part of the
destination arrival process.

5. New Revenue Streams – Many new revenue streams are possible with smart
parking technology. For example, lot owners can enable tiered payment options
dependent on parking space location. Also, reward programs can be integrated
into existing models to encourage repeat users.

6. Integrated Payments and POS – Returning users can replace daily, manual cash
payments with account invoicing and application payments from their phone. This
could also enable customer loyalty programs and valuable user feedback.

7. Increased Safety – Parking lot employees and security guards contain real-time
lot data that can help prevent parking violations and suspicious activity. License
plate recognition cameras can gather pertinent footage. Also, decreased
2-

spotsearching traffic on the streets can reduce accidents caused by the distraction
of searching for parking.

8. Real-Time Data and Trend Insight – Over time, a smart parking solution can
produce data that uncovers correlations and trends of users and lots. These trends
can prove to be invaluable to lot owners as to how to make adjustments and
improvements to drivers.

9. Decreased Management Costs – More automation and less manual activity saves
on labor cost and resource exhaustion.


Mechanical Design:
These designs were built by Solid Works Software program.

Suggested designs:

Final Design:
3-

Electro-Mechanical System
In constructing the parking system as shown the previous Figure, one servo
(Motor1) motor and two stepper motors including rotating system motor (Motor2,
Motor3), and two Ultrasonic sensors for the distance measurements and signal
processing for opening the first gate and to order the stepper motor to run and lift the
car. The two stepper motors are at the top, to allow for prismatic movement of the
care and lift and other to rotate the whole structure; there is one servo motor at the
first gate waiting the cutting signal from the first Ultrasonic sensor.

1- Servo Motor

A servomotor is designed to move to a given angular position. A typical servo

motor has three connections. Two of them are the positive and 0V supply lines. The
third connection carries the control signal pulses from the control circuit (the Arduino
in this case).Servo motors may be classified, according to the torque it can withstand,
as mini, standard and giant servos. Usually mini and standard size servo motors can
be controlled by Arduino directly with no need to external driver.

The rotor of the motor has limited ability to turn. Generally it can turn 60-90° on
either side of its central position. The control signal is a series of pulses transmitted
at intervals of about 18 ms, or 50 pulses per second.
4-

The angle (of mechanical rotation) is determined by the width of an electrical

pulse that is applied to the control wire. This is a form of pulse-width modulation,
however servo position is not defined by the PWM duty cycle (i.e., ON vs. OFF time)
but only by the width of the pulse. The width of the pulse will determine how far the
motor turns. For example, a 1.5 ms pulse will make the motor turn to the 90 degree
position (neutral position)as shown in. A1 ms turn as far as possible to the left. A2 ms
turn as far as possible to the right. Intermediate pulse lengths give intermediate
positions; this is very useful for controlling robot arms.
 2- Stepper motor
Stepper motors are used in precision applications where a high rotational speed
is not required. A stepper motor has a large number of magnetic poles in the stator
winding that enables the motor to achieve very small increments of rotational
movement. Common stepper motors are able to provide 200 discrete increments per
revolution. Stepper motors are generally driven with an open-loop control structure,
meaning the controller assumes that the motor responds as expected to all control
signals.

A typical stepper motor has four sets of coils, arranged so that the rotor is turned
from one position to the next as the coils are energized in a fixed sequence. This is
listed in Table 2-1. The sequence repeats and at any step, two coils are on and two are
off. The sequence of pulses needed to drive the motor can be provided by a
microcontroller.

Table 2-1 The sequence of pulses for running a stepper motor [58].

Step number Coil 1 Coil 2 Coil 3 Coil 4

0 on Off On Off
1 Off On On Off
2 Off On Off On
3 On off Off On
To get from step to step, first coils 1 and 2 change state, then 3 and 4 change
state, then 1 and 2, and so on. The result of this is to produce clockwise turning of the
rotor. If the sequence is run in reverse, the rotor turns anticlockwise.

At any step, the rotor can be held in a fixed position by halting the sequence. If a
stepper motor is used for driving something like an arm of a robot, the arm can be
positioned exactly by programming the controller to produce the required number of
pulses. There is no need for limit switches; the robot always knows where its limbs
are. It can move precisely from one position to another simply by working out how
many pulses to generate. Once in the required position, the rotor is, in effect, locked
there and cannot move.
 Another advantage of the stepper motor is that its speed is precisely controllable.
It is not affected by the load on the motor, except perhaps an excessive load, which
might completely prevent the motor from turning. A stepper motor is less likely to
stall, overheat, and possibly burn out its coils, than ordinary motor. Unlike servo
motors, stepper motors can't be controlled by Arduino directly without need to
external driver. It needs external driver, in this work "DM422 Fully Digital Stepping
Driver" is used. This stepping driver needs external 24v power supply.

Figure 2-1 shows an example of the stepper outputs for step and direction mode.
When step and direction mode is configured, each commanded step (or microstep)
produces a pulse on the step output. The direction output signal level indicates the
command direction of motion, either forward or reverse.

Fig. 2-1Stepper outputs for step and direction mode.

Figure 2-2 shows an example of the stepper outputs for clockwise

(CW)/counterclockwise (CCW) mode. CW and CCW mode produces pulses on the
CW output for forward-commanded motion and pulses on the CCW output for
reverse-commanded motion.

Fig. 2-2 Stepper outputs for clockwise /counter clock wise mode.

For both types of motor (servo motor and stepper motor), torque decreases as
angular velocity increases, but a servo motor can reach higher rotational velocities
and will generally provide a higher torque at a given rotational speed than a stepper
motor, as illustrated in Fig. 2-3.

Fig. 2-3 Torque curve of (260 oz.in) stepper and (240 oz.in) servo.

3- Microcontroller
Microcontroller is used to convert the position signal from the image processing
done on the PC to control signals to move the motors using the IK of the robot. The
proposed microcontroller used in the research is the commercial wellknown Arduino
board.

An Arduino is a single-board microcontroller and a software suite for

programming see Fig. 3-1. It is designed for an Atmel AVR processor and features
on-board I/O support. Arduino Mega microcontroller board is based on the
ATmega1280. It has 54 digital input/output pins (of which 14 can be used as PWM
outputs), 16 analog inputs, 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports), a 16 MHz crystal
oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It
contains everything needed to support the microcontrolle.
 Fig. 3-1 Arduino Mega microcontroller board .

5- Motor selection
After calculating the payloads we find that we need the next items to implement
the proposed design:

A- Servo motor for the gate:-

• L=20cm. m=0.05kg.
• The Torque required =m.L

• T=m.L=20*0.05=1kg.cm

• After adding the safety factor (25%) of the torque

• value it will be 1.25kg.cm.

We select SG-90:

‘Specification’

• Operating voltage:- (4.8-6) V.

• Operating speed:- 0.12sec/

60degree(4.8V), • 0.1sec/60degree(6V).

• Stall torque:- 1.8 kgf.cm.

• Dimensions:- 22.2*11.2*31mm.

• Weight:- 9g.

• Torque:- 1.6kg.cm.
B- Linear Bearing: Select LM8UU:- Specification:- • L = 24mm.
• D out = 15mm.
• D in = 8mm.
• Dynamic load rating C=260N.
• Static load rating Co=400N.
• 4ball races in side.
• 2 grooves with 14.5mm outer diameter.
• Grooves very in width between (1:1.25)mm

C- Stepper Motor:
Stepper Motor (NEMA 17 - 4.2 Kg.cm)

Features:
Step Angle (degrees) : 1.8 2 -Phase
Voltage: 12V
Rated Current: 1.3A/Phase 5mm Diameter Drive Shaft Holding Torque: 4.2 Kg.cm
NEMA 17 form factor Wire Leads: 4 Wires

6- The Control Algorithms

The controls Algorithms were done using MATLAB/SIMULINK program
as will be shown.
A- Smart Parking SIMULINK Algorithm

B- Smart Parking SIMULINK Algorithm [Gate system]

C- Smart Parking SIMULINK Algorithm [Lift system]

View publication stats