Development of agent-based CPS for smart parking systems

The increase volume of vehicles circulating in large cities and the limited space for parking are factors that motivate the adoption of systems capable of dealing with such problems. In this context, smart parking systems are suitable solutions to avoid the traffic congestion, the air pollution and the long search to find a free parking spot. The inclusion of emergent ICT technologies and artificial intelligence techniques, and particularly using multi-agent systems, combined under the scope of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), ensure flexibility, modularity, adaptability and the decentralization of intelligence through autonomous, cooperative and proactive entities. Such smart parking systems can be easily adapted to any type of vehicle to be parked and scalable in terms of the number of parking spots and drivers/vehicles. A fundamental issue in these agent-based CPS parking systems is the interconnection between the cyber and physical counterparts, i.e. between the software agents and the physical asset controllers to access the parking spots. This paper focuses on developing an agent-based CPS for a smart parking system and particularly addressing how the software agents are interconnected with the physical asset controllers using proper Internet of Things technologies. The proposed approach was implemented in two distinct parking systems, one for bicycles and another for cars, showing an efficient, modular, adaptable and scalable operation.