CPCS (Fall 2015), Merced College A Smart Parking Lot Dulce Meza-Flores Ashley Arredondo

Transcription

1 CPCS (Fall 2015), Merced College A Smart Parking Lot Dulce Meza-Flores Ashley Arredondo

2 Summary This report presents the design and building process for a smart parking lot that tells the driver how many spots it has available. The actual construction of the parking lot was considered an important key factor in order to fully present the functionality and purpose of the tasks carried out by the Arduino Uno. The Arduino Uno is the brain of the parking lot and is responsible for using the input given by photoresistors to carry out certain functions as outputs involving servo motors and a Liquid Crystal Display.

3 Table of Contents Summary..ii 1.0 Introduction Building Process The parts The Parking lot Building the Circuit Wiring the Parking Lot The Schematic diagram The Software The Setup The Entrance loop The Exit Loop Parking lot Full loop Exit Loop for When Lot is Full Conclusions and Recommendations References....13

4 1.0 Introduction The purpose of this project is to construct a parking lot software and hardware that makes finding available parking lot spots easier for the driver. A model parking lot is to be constructed and the electronic and hardware components necessary to demonstrate the functionality of the software will be placed accordingly on the lot. The software will know how many spots the lot holds and it will then be actively sensing if any cars pass through the entrance(subtracts parking spaces) and the exit(adds parking spaces) through the implemented hardware. At the entrance and exit a gate will regulate the flow of traffic. A message displaying Parking Lot Full!! is also an essential feature to this project given it helps a driver not waste time seeking an available space. The project revolves around the use of Arduino Uno software and hardware components. 2.0 Building Process 2.1 The Parts In order to successfully carry out the functionality of the parking lot, there was a need for small electrical components that all relied on the Arduino Uno board. These parts included two photoresistors, one potentiometer, one liquid crystal display, two 10k resistors, one 220 ohm resistor, an Arduino Uno, two breadboards, and two small servo motors(pictures from Google Images). Fig k resistor Fig Breadboard Fig Servo Motor Fig ohm resistor Fig Arduino Uno Fig Photoresistor Fig Potentiometer Fig LCD

5 2.2 The Parking lot The construction of the parking lot involved poster board paper and construction paper given these were the most accessible and inexpensive materials. Toy cars were also used. The electrical components of the parking lot and the Arduino Uno were placed inside a box that stands as base for the parking lot as depicted below. The construction of the parking lot was not difficult at all. A picture of the finished lot can be seen below. Fig The Completed parking lot

6 3.0 Building the Circuit 3.1 Wring the Parking Lot In order to sense cars entering and exiting the parking lot two photoresistors are used at both the entrance and exit. A photoresistor is mounted on the poster board and placed before the gate, it registers the light in the room and when a car passes over the photoresistor it senses the absence of light as a car. Holes are also made for the servo motors on the poster board and these act as gates. As the parking lot has both an entrance and an exit a sensor and gate were required for both, a total of two photoresistors as well as two small servo motors used. Fig The mounted Servo motor (gate) Fig The placement of the photoresistor in the parking lot A Liquid Crystal Display is also mounted to the breadboard and set in the base of the parking lot. The LCD outputs the number of available spots in the parking lot, allowing divers to check whether any available parking spaces are open or if the lot is full. Fig The mounted LCD display placed in the base of the Parking Lot The electrical components connected to the Arduino Uno were placed inside a box under the parking lot as seen in Fig This design allowed the photoresistors and the servo motors to be comfortably mounted onto the parking lot(poster board).

7 Fig The Arduino Uno and all the electrical components that were placed inside the box (base of the parking lot)

8 3.2 The Schematic diagram Fig Depicted above(fig ) is the schematic diagram that clearly demonstrates the implementation of all the components from 2.1 The parts. The middle resistor is depicted as a 10 k; however, it is a 220 ohm resistor. All the wires and their corresponding connections are also clearly visible. The hardware of the project can greatly be appreciated in the image above.

9 4.0 The Software The code was written using the Arduino software and consists of a setup loop and a main loop. Within the main loop there are 4 if loops, one for the entrance, exit, to check if the lot is full, and an additional exit loop for when the lot is full. Each of the if loops, excluding the lot full loop, contain two for loops to control the servos. 4.1 The Setup Two libraries are implemented in our body of code, a servo library and the Liquid crystal library. Outside the setup and main loop variables for the parking spaces and gates are initialized as well as the pins connected to the LCD display (pins 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12). In the setup loop the LCD is set to display the amount of available spots in the lot. The servos for the entrance and exit are set to read input coming from pin 5 and 6 respectively. In the Main Loop the photoresistors for the entrance and exit are are initialized and read the input from the pins A0 and A1 from the arduino board.

10 Fig The Setup

11 4.2 Entrance Loop The if statement in the entrance loop checks the reading coming from sensor and checks if there are any remaining spots. If the lot is not full a spot is subtracted from the count and the LCD is set to display the new number of spaces in the lot. After 1000 milliseconds the first for loop executes. The for loop opens the gate by rotating the servo by 90 degrees from its position by adding increments of one degree. The next for loop closes the gate by rotating the servo by one degree in the opposite direction. Figure The Entrance Loop 4.3 Exit Loop The exit checks the reading coming from sensor and checks if the lot is not empty. The sensitivity for the photoresistor placed at the entrance is set to 300. If the lot is not full a spot is added from the count and the LCD is set to display the new number of spaces in the lot. The for loops for the gates in the exit loop is the same as that for the entrance, each rotates the servo by 90 degrees first counter clockwise to the open position and then clockwise backed to the closed position.

12 Figure The Exit Loop 4.4 Parking Lot full Loop This if loop simply checks whether the lot is full and if no spaces remain the LCD outputs a Parking Lot Full!! message. Figure The Lot Full Loop 4.5 Exit Loop for When the Lot is Full This loop is essentially the same as the exit loop(reading the input from the sensor) except it is specifically for the instance of the lot being full. The for loops for the gates in the remains the same as those for both the entrance and exit. We had to implement two separate Loops

13 for the exit: one for when spots remain and an additional one for when the lot was full. These loops was necessary for when the lot was full because the gate was not letting cars out of the lot when no spaces were left and the LCD was displaying more spots than were available. Figure The Exit Loop For the Instance of the Lot Being Full

14 5.0 Conclusions and Recommendations Overall, the entire process was a great experience. The building of the hardware, the actual parking lot and the software helped us realize that we are capable of creating intangible ideas into tangible products. We became more aware of the possibilities one can imagine and implement using an Arduino Uno and more appreciative of the Arduino Uno software and hardware. This project helped us enter a mindset that required we seek ideas to better the world and make daily activities easier--it is a mindset we would not mind entering again and did enjoy. However, we did find many room for additional improvements that could be made to the project such as having color changing LEDs above parking spaces (Fig ) a second LCD display in the lot to guide drivers to available spots(fig ), in addition to adding lights to indicate whether particular spaces are available would be helpful for drivers as they would be able to see if a section is full before spending unnecessary time driving through a lane. This could be implemented using red and green LEDs above a spot and a sensor below(pictures of these ideas are depicted below and were retrieved from Google Images). Fig Parking structure with color changing lights Fig

15 Fig

16 6.0 References Fitzgerald, Scott, ed. Arduino Projects Book. 2nd ed. Torino, Italy: Arduino LLC, Print.