Intelligent Parking Lot System: License Plate Recognition, Vehicle Guidance, and Device Control Subsystems

[[abstract]]This study introduces a new parking lot management system called the Intelligent Parking Lot System (IPLS), which combines sensing, image processing, computer vision, controlling, communicating, networking, and advanced management technologies to ensure the smooth day-to-day operations of a parking lot. Using the Intelligent Parking Lot System, parking lot managers will be able to better manage and monitor their parking lot, as well as offer customers a safer and a more customer-focused environment. The Intelligent Parking Lot System can be divided into seven sub-systems: a License Plate Recognition System (LPRS), Vehicle Guidance System (VGS), Security Surveillance System (SSS), Device Control System (DCS), Payment and Inquiry System (PIS), Network System (NS) and Central Management System (CMS). When a vehicle enters this parking lot, it is detected by the LPRS, which also takes a photo of the vehicle and records its entrance time. The Guidance System then leads the car to the most conveniently located vacant parking space through the direction indicators. After the car has been parked, the parking space will be updated in the system with its time stamp, the vehicle’s license plate number and another photo. Later on, when the owner wants to retrieve the vehicle, he or she can identify it in the system using information such as license plate number, parking space number, approximate entrance time or a photo of the car. After the customer has completed the payment process, the License Plate Recognition System then notifies the exit gate of the impending arrival of that particular vehicle, allowing the exit gate to successfully determine whether a particular vehicle should be allowed out or not. Furthermore, sensors inside the parking lot are set up to measure temperature, water levels, smoke, and carbon dioxide concentration. If an abnormal state is detected, the automatic control system will be able to initiate contingency measures such as fire extinguishers, electric exhausts, pumping motors, fireproof and waterproof gates, as well as the alarm system. If necessary, the Network System will be able to inform the police, notify car owners to retrieve their vehicles, and ensure the general safety of the vehicles and the people inside the parking lot. This research, in addition to presenting a complete parking lot system and an accompanying theoretical framework, also introduces some operational technologies and algorithms, which are listed below. • License Plate Recognition algorithms can be used to identify vehicles. • Development algorithms can be used to determine how to monitor the entire parking lot by using the least number of cameras. • Car guidance algorithms can be used to lead the car to the most conveniently located parking space in a quick and efficient manner. • Safety monitoring algorithms can be used to detect accidents and to monitor public safety. Moreover, this study also explores developments in sensor controlling, automatic toll charging, Internet communication, and software for the central management system. A set of security delivery modes was also designed for data and information delivery among the sub-systems, with a focus on preventing unauthorized system intrusions, and also to facilitate an efficient information management system. We also tried to introduce the frameworks of the time-consuming algorithms and software mentioned above, into the hardware of the system. FPGA(Field Programmable Gate Array) was carried out to shorten the calculation time through the use of hardware parallel processing. Some Single-Chip micro-processors were also used to sense and control the various electric circuits of the parking lot system.