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Development of an automated multi-level car parking system

Conference Paper · December 2015

DOI: 10.1109/APWCCSE.2015.7476222

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 Development of an Automated Multi-level Car
Parking System
V. Padiachy, J. Kumar, A. Chandra, K. Prakash, P. Prasad, H. Prasad,
U. Mehta, K. A. Mamun, P. Chand
School of Engineering and Physics, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji
Email: s11085794@student.usp.ac.fj

of the design was carried out in AUTOCAD with

Abstract – With the increased development of
hardware being introduced at input and output stages.
mechatronics system and scarcity of land space, this paper
introduces and prospects an engineering application to solve
Programming in AUTOCAD is done in a way which is
or reduce the mentioned issue by designing and implementing user friendly and can be handled by an inexperienced
automated multi-level car parking system. The paper operator.
discusses the research antiquity, brief model methodology,
software implementation, design analysis and II. LITERATURE REVIEW
recommendations. The endless search for free spaces in a car park is a
burden for any driver nowadays since vehicles are a
Keywords – mechatronics, multi-level car
predominant mode of transportation. With rising number
parking, automation.
of vehicles and dwindling parking spaces, vehicles parked
I. INTRODUCTION along the road and even on sidewalks have become fairly
The number of cars on the streets of Fiji is increasing common phenomena. With these parked vehicles
alarmingly as there has been an increase in the variety of encroaching on road space and pedestrian space, traffic
motor vehicles which also have low prices. Fiji, being a congestion and accidents are inevitable. A well-organized
third world country, is facing problem in catering these parking system which makes maximum use of available
vehicles in available parking spaces and a time may come space offers a solution to this situation. There are two
when we may not be able to cater for vehicles any longer. A categories of parking systems which have been identified.
prominent example of this is the parking spaces at These are traditional parking systems and multistoried
Damodar City (Suva, Fiji) where parking space is limited parking system.
compared to the vast number of vehicles which require a In traditional parking systems, vehicles are parked in
parking area. Vehicle parking is becoming a major problem perpendicular or parallel fashion. With no safety against
nowadays. As the population is increasing, the number the protection against atmospheric conditions, it is not a
of vehicles on the roads is also increasing leading to an space efficient system either. Multistoried parking
insufficient area to park these vehicles. This creates a systems are preferred since they multiply parking
greater problem when people end up parking cars on roads capacity of a given area [1]. Various floors are present for
which causes traffic jams. parking the vehicles with ramps and staircases provided
Multi-storied car parking system will help in parking for moving between floors.
large number of vehicles in a smaller area. This Automatic There are various types of existing systems that are
Car Parking System enables the parking of vehicles, floor applied in many countries to improve parking facilities for
after floor and thus reducing the space used. Also crowded areas [1-6]. This review identifies a few of them.
automating this will help in less manual intervention and To begin with, Lot-specific systems use signs to provide
thus will lead to fewer problems. parking information that typically contain simple
Such a system has been proposed and designed in this directions to parking facilities and advise for drivers to
project. Additions are made to the existing systems to find the available space using signs that typically have
ensure maximum space utilization. To serve this both passive and active components [2]. The passive
purpose, parking slots are assigned inside the multi storied component provides simple directions to parking
structure depending on the size of the car. Implementation facilities, such as with an arrow. The active component
supplements the passive component to advise the traveler spaces and reduced frustration of visitors and easier
of the availability of spaces at the facility. The advantage of access to parking place. There is also reduced effort for
this type of system is that it displays the number of available venue operators in order to satisfy the customer, since
spaces in the entrance of car park, in the entrance of each they will be responsible for choosing the place not the
level and at the end of each aisle. It also displays the venue operator. Parking operators will also benefit from
directional signage for each aisle, showing the driver increased occupancy and associated increase in revenue as
which direction to follow. Different colored LED lights customers will pay for advanced reservations besides the
help the drivers to differentiate between spaces (reserved, cost of parking [8]. However, there are few drawbacks of
occupied, vacant or handicapped). It also avoid improper this system as it is expensive to implement everywhere,
parking. A second type of parking system is the Floor-Aisle the architecture of the system may require a lot of
and Space specific Parking Information Systems. These equipment, which in turn requires a huge budget. It also
provide information about the number of places in the car requires huge amount of time, cost and effort to
park, including both full and empty places. They provide implement and finally it needs sophisticated and modern
more detailed information and are placed in the entrance technology.
of car park, on each floor, at the beginning of every
From the review of a study by P. Bhauguna (2009)
aisle and even in front of every individual place of
[9], automatic multi-level car parks provide lower
parking. This system helps the parking management to
building cost per parking slot, as they typically require
manage the parking inventory, allows them to obtain
less building volume and less ground area than a
accurate up-to-the-minute data and helps keep the car park
conventional facility with the same capacity. However,
open to its true capacity [3]. This system has certain
the cost of the mechanical equipment within the building
advantages and this includes reduced vehicle build-up at
that is needed to transport cars internally needs to be
entries, exits and aisles, a shorter vacant slot search times
added to the lower building cost to determine the total
resulting in less vehicle emissions. It also avoids
cost. Other costs are usually lower too, for example
congestion and unwanted traffic with the help of effective
there is no need for an energy expensive ventilating
signage within the car parks. Moreover, at shopping
system, since cars are not driven inside and human
centers, customers can spend more time shopping rather
cashiers and security personnel may not be needed. A
than looking for parking space and a convenient parking
multi-level car park offers the greatest possible
experience will be valued. However, the main drawback of
flexibility for the realization of optimum parking
this system is that from a customer’s perspective,
solution. However to date elevating type parking
there is n o opportunity to reserve a place in advance
mechanism not found from the literature. Hence this
which may lead to congestion in front of some available
research focuses on developing such a system which
spaces.
will also increase the parking space.
A final type of parking system that could be identified
was the Online Reservation Systems. This is one of latest III. PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
trends in parking management system, this facility enables The need for a solution of a car parking system for
the driver to reserve a parking place in any multi-story various reasons such as; efficient use of space of land,
park through the website or mobile phone application, and lack of time consumption, secure, environmental
pay online in order to reserve that place, thus they will friendly and comfortable for the drivers has been
receive a message containing information about the place discussed.
of parking in that car park. This mechanism is very useful The proposed solution for this problem, is an
for reducing the time it takes to find a place. This approach automated multi-level car parking system. The vehicle
is implemented in many countries such as the U.S. In 2004, parking areas will be elevated to a certain level. A
Mobile Parking LLC and Spot Scout TM are two system as such would be inexpensive compared to the
companies that offer clients or drivers the chance to check normal parking, since the value of land to be used for
for available spaces in about 400 parking area in 50 cities normal car parks would add expense to its total cost, this
across the U.S., using their radio, cellular telephone, or is because the value of land increases as days go by.
computer, it was used to reserve a place in any type of
parking area, not only multi- story park [7]. The benefits of The requirements that our solution meets are:
this system are that reduced time is spent for parking  optimal utilization of space
  Low maintenance cost
 Low operational cost
 Low constructional cost
 Secure
 Environmental friendly
 Comfortable for the drivers
 Automated
The proposed system will employ three aspects of
mechatronics, the use of actuators, sensors and transducers.
Fig. 2. Sketch of Lifting Mechanism
IV. METHODOLOGY
A mechanism was designed that is proposed to be
A. Hardware used to pick up vehicles and place it in the empty slots
1. Identifying and sketching the solution available in the cark park, as shown in Fig. 2 above. A
The best way to put any ideas in action is to sketch it up. plate was designed that will scoop the vehicle from the
Thus all the structures and the components needed were side and as directed by the micro controller it is going to
either sketched or listed down. In this research a scale place the vehicle in the empty slot available. As show in
down 3 level parking space model was considered during Fig. 2 a pin and rack gear is used to move back and
the design phase. A thorough research work was done to forward and the whole system is connected to a belt
identify the appropriate size that is needed for a vehicle to drive mechanism which will lift the car and all of this is
be parked in, depending on the size the uncertainties were connected to the axial for easy movement.
also considered to prevent the vehicles from getting
damaged. First of all, by looking at the size of the car that 2. Drawing the components in AutoCAD and 3D print
will be used as a model for hardware development this
Structural designs; namely 3 different gears (i.e. Rake &
research multiple toy car were used during the
Pinion), a base structure was made for the lifting
experimental stage and came up with dimensions of the car
component to move back and forth and two shafts were
park area (sketched shown in Fig. 1).
for the lifting structure are drawn using AutoCAD. CAD
designs of various parts are shown in Fig. 3; which were
finally fabricated using 3D printer.

Fig. 3. Auto CAD Designs

3. Construction of parking components

Ply wood was used to build the multilevel
Fig. 1. Sketch of Car Park Compartment compartments due to the availability and ease of
fabrication. Fig. 4 shows the constructed model of the
multilevel compartments used in this research. Finally a B. Software
Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) is used in each A program in c language was developed that will lift a
compartment. vehicle and put it in an empty slot by a push of a button
and will also retrieve the vehicle from its compartment
by a push of a button for the slot the vehicle is in. For
the motor to know when to switch on and off to do
the right thing this research used timing sequences. An
efficient feature of the PIC micro-controller, timers
enabled the model to achieve real time intervals to
switch on and off the three directional motors were used.

At first all necessary header files, devices, fuses and

clock were included. After this all LDR input port with
pin number were initialized together with all the
variables used.
Fig. 4. Parking Compartment Timer 0, 16 bit of Prescaler was used; the reason for
4. Design and implementation of the horizontal choosing timer 0, 16 bit is as this can read values from 0
to 65535. As 8 bit timers can only count values from 0 -
X movement
255 it would not be sufficient enough for counting
A lead screw was used to cater for the horizontal
small to large timing (seconds).
movements. The threaded lead screw is rotated by the
motor. The center of the base is connected to the lead When a button is pressed it will either sense by the
screw. As the lead screw spins the base starts to move. LDR which compartment is empty t o place car or to
On the other hand the base of the system and the axial which button is pressed for retrieving a car. When it
column will be mounted. So as directed by the detects an empty space for placing or button pressed for
microcontroller the motor will spin to get the vehicle in retrieving it enables the timer and calls the timer function.
the right position for parking. Once conditions are satisfy, it switches motors on and off
respectively to carry out the task of placing and
5. Design and implementation of the vertical Y and Z retrieving. After doing that it disables the timer and waits
movements for a button to be pressed for its next task.
For the vertical movement, a motor wa s u s e d to
move the ramp up and down. The system or component
that will move vertically (i.e. z-direction) is shown in Fig. V. DESIGN CALCULATION
5. The platform is connected with a belt to the side of the
platform to lift it up and also to move it down. The pinion A. Rack and Pinion Calculations
and rack gear system will move the vehicle in and out, Given below are the calculation for the design of the
which will be driven by the motor. pinion and rack (Fig. 6 & 7), where all measurements in
millimeters.
Diameter Pitch (P) = 0.15
Number of teeth (N) = 5
Pressure angle (PA) = 51

1. Pitch Diameter (D) = N/P = 5/0.15 = 32

2. Pitch radius (R) = D/2 = 16
3. Base circle diameter (DB) = D * cos(PA) = 16 x
cos(51) = 10
4. Base circle radius (RB) = DB/2 = 5
Fig. 5. Components used for Z Movement 5. Addendum(a) = 1/P = 6.7
6. Dedendum (d) = 1.157/P = 7.7
7. Outside diameter (OD) = D + 2 x a = 32 + (2x6.7) =
45.3
8. Outside radius (OR) = R + a = 16 + 6.7 = 22.7
9. Root diameter (DR) = D – (2xd) = 32– (2x7.7) =16.6 This is when the LDR is uncovered and when LDR
10. Root radius (RR) = R – d = 16 – 7.7 = 8.3 resistance is about to increase the value of output voltage
changes. The resistors rating is 82 kilo ohms and all the
LDR are of same value. The above circuit was interfaced
with the PIC 18F8722 and it is used in this prototype to
sense the occupancy of car in the compartment. Fig. 8
shows the LDR interfaced circuit with PIC 18F8722,
during the experiment.

Fig. 6. Pinion Design

Fig. 8. Voltage Divider Circuit testing on bread board

C. Timer 0, 16 bit Sample Calculation

Using timer 0- 16 bit, Prescaler 16 and clock frequency
of 20 MHz the following times and counts are produced.
For 20 MHz clock frequency, we get,

Fig. 7 Rack Design 20 𝑀𝐻𝑧

4
= 5 MHz
B. LDR Interfacing
1
LDR is used to sense the occupancy of the car in the Time Period = = 0.2 us
5 𝑀𝐻𝑧
compartment. The LDR is connected at the base of each
compartment and a light is placed on top. When the car Prescaler Period = 0.2 us * 16 = 3.2 us.
is parked, the LDR gets covered and tells the system which
level compartment is full and which one is available. Overflow Period = 3.2 us * 65535 = 0.209712
According to calculation, the required values of resistors
were used with the LDRs. Each Flow time is 0.209712 s
When LDR is left uncovered, in light the resistance it
1
has 10 kilo ohms and when it is covered the resistance it To get delay for 1 s, we need 0.209712
= 4.78 = 5 counts
has 80 kilo ohms.
5
A voltage divider circuit with LDR was connected. The To get delay for 5 s, we need 0.209712
= 23.84 = 24
calculated output voltage is 0.5 volts. The calculation is as counts
10
follows. To get delay for 10 s, we need = 47.68 = 48
0.209712
counts
 VI. DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION DC motor 2 and DC motor 3 that control X, Y and Z
The overall circuit diagram (Fig. 9) is divided into two movement respectively. As the driver or the security in
sections known as placing circuit and retrieving circuit. charge press the button the empty slots will be detected.
Firstly, the placing circuit explains how the empty
slots in the compartment are detected and how the The slots are detected through LDR sensors which are
hardware design operates to place the vehicle in the detected placed on the base of each slot in the compartment. Once
empty slots. The placing circuit is operated through an empty slot is detected the motors 1, 2 and 3 are turned on
microcontroller 2 as illustrated in the block diagram. Inputs accordingly for X, Y, Z movement. Once the vehicle is
t o this microcontroller are 6 LDR sensors to detect the parked the owner is indicated the slot number, where his
empty slot and a push button for placement to begin. The vehicle is parked in through the display.
outputs connected to this microcontroller are DC motor 1,

Fig. 9. Overall Circuit Diagram

 Secondly, the retrieving circuit explains how the parked REFERENCE
vehicle is removed from the compartment. Retrieving circuit [1] S. Lee, D. Yoon, A. Ghosh, “Intelligent Parking Lot Application
Using Wireless Sensor Networks”, International Symposium on
is operated through microcontroller 1 as shown in the system Collaborative Technologies and Systems, pp.48-57, 19-23 May 2008.
block diagram. Inputs to the microcontroller are the 6 push [2] J. Takahashi, K. Sekiyama, T. Fukuda, “Cooperative Object Tracking
With Mobile Robotic Sensor Network”, Distributed Autonomous
button and the outputs are the three DC motors. In order for Robotic Systems. Springer, Berlin, pp 51–62, 2009.
the vehicle owner to remove his vehicle from the [3] H. G. Jung, D. S. Kim, P. J. Yoon, J. Kim, “Uniform User Interface
compartment, he/she has to press the push button for Semi-Automatic Parking Slot Markings Recognition”, IEEE
Trans. Veh. Technol., vol.59, no.2, pp 616–626, Feb. 2010.
corresponding to the slot his/her vehicle is parked in earlier. [4] L. Wenghong, X.Fanghua, L. Fasheng, “Design of Inner Intelligent
Once the button is pressed the DC motors are turned on Car Parking System”, International Conference on Information
Management, Innovation Management and Industrial Engineering
accordingly for X, Y and Z movement to remove the vehicle 2008.
from the slot. Overall design is shown in Fig. 10. [5] E. M. T. M. Y. Idris, "Smart Parking System," Journal of Information
Technology, pp. 114-127, 2009.
[6] T. Moran, J. Meiners, “The Arrival of Problem Free Parking”, Autom.
News Eur., vol.11, no.24, pp. 8, Nov. 2006.
[7] K. A. A. Albagul, "Design and Fabrication of an Automated Multi
Level Car PArk System", Manufacturing Engineering, Automatic,
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[8] E. M. T. M. Y. Idris, "Smart Parking System", Journal of Information
Technology, pp. 114-127, 2009.
[9] P. Bahuguna, “Multi Level Parking”, Final Year Project report,
College of Engineering Roorkee, 2009.

Fig. 10. Complete model of multilevel cark park system.

VII. CONCLUSION
The automated multi-level car park designed in this
paper represents a new parking innovation technique. As
documented, due to less land availability, parking is a
growing concern in the Fijian or a city context. A multi-
level car park offers the greatest possible flexibility for the
realization of optimum parking solution.

However, this prototype can be implement in real; using

more powerful motor for faster movement, limit switches
for accuracy, bearings and appropriate materials for less
friction, more rigid structure for more stability, closed
system to reduce noise pollution and display system to
show parking availability.

ACKNOWLEDEGEMENT
The research team would like to thank the School of
Engineering at the University of the South Pacific for
funding this research project.

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