3rd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INNOVATIVE COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATION

(ICICC-2020)

Machine Learning and IoT based Real Time Parking System: Challenges
and Implementation

Ravi Kumar Gupta a, Geeta Rani b,*

a
Mechanical Engineering Department, SAMM, Faculty of Engineering, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur-Ajmer Express Highway, Dehmi Kalan, Jaipur
303007, India. Email: rkgmuj@gmail.com
b
Dept. of Computer & Communication Engineering, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur – 303007, India

Abstract:
There is a tremendous increase in number of vehicles in last two decades. So, it becomes important to make effective use of technology to enable hassle
free parking at public and/or private places. In traditional parking systems, drivers face difficulty in finding available parking slots. These systems ignore
the fact of parking the vehicles on roads, time management in peak hours, wrong parking of a vehicle in a parking slot. Moreover, the traditional systems
require more human intervention in a parking zone. To deal with above said issues, there is an urgent requirement of developing Smart Parking Systems. In
this manuscript, the authors propose a Smart Parking System based on IoT and Machine learning techniques to answer the real time management of parking
and uncertainties. The proposed solution utilizes smart sensors, cloud computing and cyber physical system. Development of graphical user interface for
administrator and end-user is a major challenge as it requires to ensure smooth monitoring, control and security of parking system. Moreover, it needs to
establish effortless coordination with an end-user. The proposed system is successful in smartly addressing the challenges such as indicating status of parking
slot well in advance to end-user, use of reserved and unreserved parking slots, wrong parking, unauthorized parking, real time analysis of free and occupied
slots, detecting multiple objects in a parking slot such as bike in car slot, fault detection in one or more components and traffic management during peak
hours. The system minimizes the human intervention and saves time, money and energy.

Keywords:
Smart Parking, Object Detection, Image Processing, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing.

1. Introduction
There is an exponential increase in number of vehicles in past few years.
As per report presented by Government 210023289 vehicles were
registered in India in 2015 (Community Data. Gov.in, 2019). There is an
average increase in number of vehicles is 17.55 percent. The organizations
such as schools, Universities and MNCs witness heavy inflow and outflow
of vehicles throughout the day. Vehicles’ drivers find it difficult to get real
time information about an available parking slot and managing the parking
of the vehicle as size of parking slot is getting reduced and vehicle size is
increasing (Community Data. Gov.in, 2019). The inconsiderate parking of
vehicles on roads causes the problem of traffic congestion and pollution. In
corporate sectors and academic premises, time management is imperative.
Smart parking can be seen as an easier, more efficient solution. In recent
years, Indian Government took initiatives to develop smart cities. Smart
parking system is an important component of smart cities. Thus, it becomes
an urgent requirement to set up a well-managed, smart and automatic
parking system.
The study of literature in related field shows that researchers designed
Smart Parking Systems to facilitate hassle free parking to common public.
But the existing systems ignore the wrong parking in a parking slot, parking
of multiple vehicles in a single slot such as bike in a car slot (Nimble et al.,
2016). These systems do not focus on reserved and unreserved parking slots
individually. The existing systems also lack in providing a Graphical User
Interface (GUI) based administrative control panel to resolve real time
issues (Shree, 2017). Moreover, these systems require more human
intervention for smooth working.
The above said challenges motivate us to propose “Machine Learning
and IoT based Real Time Parking System”. The proposed system makes an
effective use of devices embedded with internet and wireless connectivity,
sensors and processors, object detection and image processing algorithms.
All devices communicate with each-other over the Internet.
The remaining paper is organized as: Section 2 presents the state of art,
section 3 demonstrates the proposed system, section 4 presents the
discussion and section 5 concludes the work.
2. Literature Review
The review of related literature given in Table 1, shows that the systems
designed for smart parking successfully address the challenges of notifying
about free slot, automatic gate opening and closing by scanning RFID,
showing the status of a parking slot and car theft. The presented systems
regulate the number of cars that can be parked in a given space at any given
time based on the parking space availability. The availability of car parking
is first confirmed at the main gate and then the car is taken to the slot in two

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steps, first to the entrance of parking space where parking slot is confirmed sensors and other electronic devices used to develop
and then to the parking slot by using mechanical system. But managing smart parking systems is presented.
improper parking in a parking slot, parking of two wheeler, in a slot of four ElakyaR et al., Smart Parking System using IoT, notify a user
wheeler, handling of parking mechanism with robustness, in case one or 2019 whether a parking slot, is free or not. In case no free
more components of the parking system are not working, real time analytics parking slot is available, the barrier gate will not
about the parking slots, dealing with reserved and unreserved parking are open. This is the contribution towards saving the
fuel and time.
still open challenges. Parking by human or electro-mechanical system is
still an open issue for the efficient, time and cost-effective working.
3. Proposed Work: A case study at MUJ
Table 1 - Brief Review of Related Literature.
Nimble et al., RFID assigned to a car and electro-mechanical In this manuscript, authors propose the “Machine Learning and IoT based
2016 system to transport a car from main gate to the Real Time Parking System”. The authors explain the system in the
parking slot. Predefined rules to take CAR from following five Modules.
entrance to the parking slot. Limitations of this
work: Availability of parking is confirmed at the
main gate so the information for the parking space
3.1. Analysis of Current Status
is not available in advance to the car driver/owner.
Car is taken to the parking slot from main gate using In present scenario, security gate is operated manually. Entry of all
mechanical structure, so it is costly and not reliable. employees, students and visitors is maintained using manual entry on paper.
Shree, 2017 RFID based solution to provide parking status at the Entry register is available at security gate. There are three parking spaces
entry point. namely P1, P2 and P3 as shown in Fig. 1. Table 2 shows the number of
slots for four wheelers in column 2 and for two wheelers in column 3. All
Al-Kharusi & Image based parking using video sensor techniques
Al-Bahadly, to capture the image at the parking lot and provide the three spaces have cemented flooring. P1 is divided into reserved as well
2014 information based on the image taken. as unreserved parking but P2 is unreserved parking space for MUJ
Karthik et al., It is based on image processing. Painting a brown Employees. Both P1 and P2 are covered with solar panel. These have
2017 colored circle in the parking slot to identify whether margin markings for car parking. The devices required for establishing
parking slot is vacant if the image taken has the smart parking system such as camera, sensors and LEDs can be installed on
circle else it is occupied. solar panel support structure. P3 is an open space. There is no infrastructure
Gandhi et al., IoT based car parking management system is for installing the devices such as cameras and display panel. There are no
2016 presented in the paper which consists of i. RFID to markings for bike parking in P1, P2, P3.
read car details, ii. IT sensor to know the presence
of car in parking slot, iii. IoT to manage database
and access details remotely. In addition to the
parking, theft management is also proposed by
sending the information to the police station.
Lotlikar et al., Cloud based smart parking management system in
2016 presented in the paper.
The use of technology related drawbacks such as
difficulty in sensing accurate parking availability,
inefficient user authentication techniques and
centralized management of the database are
highlighted in the paper. Fig. 1 - Parking Spaces in MUJ.

Abhirup In “IoT based Smart Parking System”, a mobile

Table 2 - Number of Parking Slots.
Khanna, Rishi application is presented to book the free parking
Anand(2016) slot in a parking. Parking 4Wheeler 2Wheeler
Barriga et al., Smart Parking: A Literature Review from the P1 84 144
2019 Technological Perspective. The number of P2 46 119
publications in IEEE and ACM digital library in
different years is resented. A review of the types of

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3.2. Devices and Installation
The proposed parking system makes an effective use of Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID), digital display panel, display counters,
magnetometer and Passive Infra-Red (PIR) sensors, camera and raspberry
pie.
RFID Scanners and Tags: RFID gathers information from an RFID tag
using radio waves. Thus, capable of tracking individual objects. RFID is
similar to bar codes except it does not require line of sight for scanning and
gathering information. The RFID scanner and tag must lie in a distance
range from 3 to 300 feet. RFID will be Installed at the security gate. This
ensures the automated gate operation. There is no requirement for physical
gate barriers, as RFID records the identity of person as well as car. This is
useful in tracking the vehicle parked and improves the security in optimum
cost.
Magnetometer: A magnetometer measures the direction, strength and
relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. In proposed
system, authors use Hall magnetometers. These senses the changing
magnetic fields at close proximities and toggle an output. When the
magnetic flux density around the sensor exceeds a certain pre-set threshold,
the sensor activates and generates an output voltage, Hall Voltage. The
magnetometer monitors the entry and exit movements of vehicles. The
authors fix two magnetometers namely M1 and M2. Detection of vehicle
movement by M1 before M2 indicates the entry of a vehicle. This indication
is used to decrease the number of vacant parking slots for display counter.
The reverse scenario indicates the exit of a vehicle from the parking space.
It increases the number of available parking slots for display counter. one
tracks the entry, and another tracks the exit of a vehicle.
HD Vision Cameras: The HD Vision cameras captures an object in
parking slot, outside parking slot and in driving lane. It sends the captured
image to Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi executes an algorithm for object
detection, correct and wrong parking. Now it updates the result to
administrator panel, digital display and counters.
PIR Sensors: PIR sensors senses the motion in a range of 10 meters. In
this system, it detects movement of a vehicle in the parking lane and triggers
the camera. This ensures that camera is on only when vehicle is moving
inside or exiting a parking slot. It saves the power.
Raspberry Pi 3: Raspberry Pi 3 provides a flexibility of wireless
communication with each other, camera, magnetometer and PIR sensors. In
the proposed system, a set of 6 Raspberry Pi 3 will communicate to receive
inputs from RFID, sensors and cameras. Raspberry Pi performs parallel
processing for real time object detection and tacking using the algorithm
for image processing. Simultaneously, these send outputs to display
channels such as digital display panel, counters and administrative panel to
show the real time status of each parking slot.
Digital Display Panel: A panel will be installed at the gate to display the
status of all parking slots as occupied or vacant. It displays the direction,
number of available and occupied slots in a parking space. By observing
the panel, a suitable parking slot.
Display Counters: A display counter is to be installed at entry of each
parking space. It displays the real time information about availability of
number of slots in a parking space at an instant of time. It prevents the
hassle of returning from a parking space in case no vacant slot is available
by giving information well in advance.
GUI based Administrative Panel: This is the control panel of the system.
It provides a visual view to all parking spaces as shown in Fig. 2. The
administrator has authority to change the status of a parking slot, as
reserved/un-reserved/occupied/available/not working, as per real time
requirement. The panel provides a troubleshooting mechanism in case one
or more components are not working.
Fig. 2 - Administrator Screen.
Mechanism: The system completes its mechanism in three modules:
Parking, un-parking and database handling.
3.3. Parking and Un-Parking Mechanisms
Mechanisms of parking and un-parking of a vehicle in the proposed system
is demonstrated in Fig. 3. At the entry gate visitors, parents and students
receives a unique temporary RFID tag for their vehicles. These tags can be
disposable or re-usable as per requirement. MUJ employees get a
permanent RFID tag. The permanent tags are categorized into two
categories: permanent for higher administrative authorities and temporary
for faculty and staff members. A RFID reader installed at the security gate
gathers information from the issued tag. As soon as the tag is recognized as
a permanent or temporary, the camera fixed at the entry gate detects the
vehicle number, type, color and name and details of
employee/visitor/student. This become feasible because a unique RFID tag
is issued to each visitor/employee/student. The same is updated in the
global database, local database and administrator panel. As the vehicle
approaches to a particular parking space, two magnetometers detect its
movement. It sends the information to local database for real time updating
the counter and global database for updating the administrative panel via

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Raspberry Pi 3. Now, one camera installed at the road to parking lane. This
captures vehicle moving towards or away from parking space. It sends these
images to Raspberry Pi 3 for processing and helps in handling the traffic
congestion. It notifies the administrator and send alert to concerned driver
in case any vehicle stops on the road for more than a pre-set threshold time.
On entry of a vehicle in desired and available lane, the PIR sensor does
the detection and triggers the camera installed to observe parking slot. The
camera compares the virtual margin set with the dimensions of a parked
vehicle for detection of wrong parking in a parking slot. The wrong parking
is updated in the global database via Raspberry Pi 3. LEDs for wrong
parking glow as an indicator. The same is also notified to admin as well as
to the driver of that vehicle by voice message. The processing for a
particular slot stops when a vehicle is parked correctly inside it.
Un-Parking Mechanism starts when vehicle exits from a parking slot
and ends when it leaves the security gate. It follows the reverse mechanism
to that of parking mechanism.
Fig. 3 - Mechanism of Parking and Un-parking of a Vehicle.
3.4. Database Handling
Database handling in the proposed system is depicted in Fig. 4. The system
maintains a global database on cloud. It maintains a local database as a
segment of global database. This segment deals only with updating the
counters installed at entry of each parking space. The global database
establishes bidirectional communication with all Internet of Things (IoT)
devices such as RFID, Magnetometer, PIR sensors and Raspberry Pis.
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Fig. 4 - Database Handling.
4. Discussion
In an automated car parking, a car is left at the entrance and is further
transported inside the building and parking slots using electro-mechanical
structure. The car is retrieved by the electro-mechanical structure and
placed at the exit for the owner to drive away. This type of systems occupies
more space and very expensive as compared to the traditional parking
where driving is managed manually. Problems of traditional parking are (i)
management of parking slots such as assignment of parking as reserved,
unreserved, working, not working, (ii) Information on the availability of
parking is not known to the driver at the time of scheduling his/her travel,
(iii) Guiding directions to the parking slots (iv) Improper parking e.g.
parking inside the slot, leaving the vehicle in passage, parking two wheeler
in car parking slot, (v) real time information management and distribution
using formalized and computational manner.
The above listed problems are analyzed and solved in an integrated
manner by the proposed model for parking and un-parking where driving is
done manually by the driver/owner, direction to the parking slot is provided
using displays and information of parking is provided by the android/web
application to the remotely connected vehicle. The android/web application
is under development stages so not shown in the paper. The required
information to the display panels and android application is captured by
sensors placed in the parking site and managed by IoT system as presented
in the paper.
Moreover, the car parking systems presented in the literature need 24
hrs/7days electricity for the efficient working whereas the work presented
in this paper does not require 24 hrs/7days electricity for the working.
Sensor (load or IR sensor) activates the system the vehicle movements are
sensed in the parking space and then the system works to set the improper
parking and other issues if any e.g. move out the vehicle from the slot and
then the system goes to sleep. Load sensor works in the pressure when the
car moves in/out the parking slot. The load sensor sends the triggering
signals to the system to activate. IT sensor are used in the early
implementation and also for the demonstration in the paper. These sensors
can work on battery of coin cell or A4 type.
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 3rd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INNOVATIVE COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATION
(ICICC-2020)
The proposed system makes an efficient use of IoT, cloud as a platform,
machine learning algorithms such as yolo, for object detection and image
processing and hence for developing smart parking system. It is a revolution
in traditional parking. It provides an automatic, secure and authorized
parking system with minimum human intervention and power
consumption. It allows real time observation for number of slots, in-time
and out-time of a parked vehicle. However, the system is advantageous in
the current scenario but reliability of IoT devices is still a challenge. Harsh
weather may damage one or more components of the system.
5. Conclusion
The proposed semi-automatic parking system where sensors are used to
detect a moving car and availability of parking slot. Car information and
availability of parking slots are shared to server for remote access. Display
panels to display the availability of parking slots in a specified parking
space and also to guide the directions to the parking slot. Car is driven
manually by car driver/owner in contrast to the automated parking system
(Nimble et al., 2016; Shree, 2017).
There is a convergence of multiple technologies in the model such as
real-time analytics, commodity sensors, embedded systems, smart object
detection frameworks and so on. Application of the IoT extends to all
aspects of transportation systems. Dynamic interaction between the
components of a transport system enables smart parking, electronic RFID
tag collection systems, logistic management, vehicle control, safety and
traffic assistance.
It uses Internet of Things (IoT) in order to automate existing parking
systems in the real world.
Future Work: The developed android/web application can also be
clubbed to Google Map and identify GPS location of the vehicle and
parking slot. This information can be used to show the direction to the
parking slot in the android application itself and/or Google Map.
∗ CORRESPONDING AUTHOR. E-MAIL ADDRESS:
geetachhikara@gmail.com (GEETA RANI)
Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563377
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