Asset Tracking

Case Study: Parking Lot Automation

Parking in a crowded garage can be a tremendous hassle. According to various studies, an average cruising for parking time in urban public parking area varies from 3.5 to 12 minutes with a distance ranging from half a mile to over a mile. It may not seem like much, but with few hundreds square meters of parking space, and a turnover rate of 10-15 cars per space every day, even a small amount of cruising time per car adds up to a lot of traffic and air pollution. A Paris-based innovative system integrator singled out this application area as prime for automation, turning to the ZigBee wireless sensor standard to overcome the frustrating challenges of underground parking.

In seeking a ZigBee module to automate the parking process, two characteristics were of key importance to the system integrator: power consumption and size. Only the ZigBit modules from MeshNetics matched the system integrator’s expectations with their tiny footprint of less than a half square inch and low power consumption. Thanks to its embedded mesh networking stack software, the ZigBit module-based sensor devices also form self-organizing, self-healing networks, enabling fast, seamless implementation.

Vehicle Detection Modules (VDMs) were mounted next to the garage’s parking spaces. Each VDM was powered by 9V battery, allowing for 4 years of autonomous operation. A ZigBit 802.15.4/ZigBee module was placed inside every VDM, enabling it to communicate with other VDMs and form a ZigBee network. With ZigBee, a system was now in place to collect data in real-time about the current number of available spots, the parking lot filling trend, and average turnover rates for individual spaces and the parking lot as a whole. Compact displays served to communicate this useful information to a driver, such as a number of available parking spaces and the number of the closest free spot. As a direct result of the implementation of the ZigBee-based system, the average cruising distance was reduced by 30%, and time to find a free space and park was reduced by 25%. That led to increased vehicle turnover, positive publicity and a better occupancy rate, which noticeably added to the parking lot operator’s bottom line. And that’s not to mention that the drivers could now save gas, save time, and avoid unnecessary parking garage stress.