Performance Analysis of Proximity and Light Sensors for Smart Parking

The rapid increase in vehicle population in recent years have given rise to a number of global problems such as air pollution, blockage of roads, waste of fuel and time. These issues exist due to the congestion caused by vehicles while finding the parking slot especially in metropolitan cities. Even today, many of the existing parking systems provide a passive information to the drivers regarding the availability of parking slots. Currently, the sensors deployed for detecting the vehicle presence in parking facilities are not reliable and are expensive. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis on crucial aspects for designing a smart parking system such as sensor selection and optimal position for sensor deployment for accurate detection. Initially, two most common sensor, Light Dependable Resistor (LDR) sensor that works on shadow detection principal and Infra-Red (IR) sensor which works on object detection mechanism are used. The performance analysis of the accuracy for detection of vacant parking slots and vehicle detection under different conditions is presented. It is concluded that IR sensor outperforms LDR sensor in terms of it's accuracy in detecting the vacant parking slots and vehicle detection in different environmental factors. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.