Parking Administration Systems (P.A.S)
Product Description
Kenneth Dixon
Old Dominion University
2 Parking Administration Systems
Product Description
2.1 Key Product Features and
Capabilities
2.3 Target market/Customer Base
3 Parking Administration Systems
Product Prototype Description
3.1 Prototype Functional Objectives
4 Prototype Demonstration Description
1
Introduction
This paper provides information about the Parking Administration Systems (P.A.S.). P.A.S. is a system consisting of hardware and software components that allow parking administrators of large businesses and colleges to proactively monitor their parking lots by the use of decals containing RFID - a radio frequency identification chip that contains a unique numeric identifier. Some business and college parking services currently lack an efficient online system for decal management as well as lot volume indication and prediction. P.A.S. will be capable of capturing and processing garage usage patterns of client-customers throughout each year. P.A.S. will provide dynamic information to the clients customers. The client-customer will be able to find available parking spots easier due to visible indicators signifying whether a lot is full, and what low-capacity lots are available. P.A.S. will have a user friendly web-interface with administrative and client-customer capabilities.
P.A.S. will be designed and developed as an initial prototype. The prototype will demonstrate the functionality of the overall system by utilizing computer components and customizable software. Each characteristic of the prototype will be broken down and explained in detail further in this document. All components that make up the overall design of P.A.S. will be mainly simulated, which will reduce the expenses associated with the design and development of the prototype, and simplifies the component interactions.
2
Parking Administration Systems Product Description
P.A.S. is a software and hardware system consisting of various technological components that will be used to monitor various parking facilities. The use of a database consisting of client-customer vehicle information will be a major element of the system. The software controlling the system will collect information on the usage of various parking garages or lots to generate an historical data log for client-customers and the system administrators. The proceeding sections will further explain the features of P.A.S. and its capabilities, its major components, and the target market of this system.
2.1
Key Product Features and
Capabilities
The P.A.S. system allows parking administrators to monitor the inflow of parking garages and lots by the use of RFID technology. The system will determine, by the use of an RFID scanner, whether vehicles entering the garage or lot are valid or invalid. Each vehicle entering a garage will be required to have a decal containing an active RFID chip. The system will keep track of the capacity level of each garage or lot. When a garage or lot reaches a certain capacity, a display board outside each entrance will indicate that the garage or lot is full. The display board will indicate whether other lots or garages in the area have available parking or not.
The system will use information about the different capacity levels of each garage or lot throughout each day to determine patterns. The information collected will provide parking administrators more insight of the usage of particular garages or lots to determine whether future development of additional lot space should occur in a particular area. End-users, such as client-customers, will be able to view the historical patterns using a web-interface to determine what garages or lots to avoid due to their capacity levels consistently being high. The end-users will also be able to renew their decals online via the web-interface.
The unique and innovative feature of P.A.S. is the ability to identify historical parking patterns of the client-customers. The patterns identified during different points of a year will help client-customers find available parking spaces in certain areas of a business or college campus. The historical pattern aspect of P.A.S. is unique and innovative because no other identified company providing a parking administration system to businesses or colleges has this feature.
The P.A.S. system will allow the parking administration to more accurately catch parking violators. Parking administrators will know what parking garages or lots have violators parked in them. The personnel for a parking administration will be more productive in catching parking violators. More tickets can be issued to parking violators, which will increase the fines collected by the parking administration office.
The client-customers will have a less stressful experience in renewing their decals. The ability to renew decals online will save the client-customers valuable time. The renewal of decals will save the parking administration office money in generating new decals. Only new client-customers would need to purchase a new decal at the parking administration office. The number of new client-customers would be significantly lower than the number of decals renewed.
2.2
Major Components
Figure
1. P.A.S. major functional component diagram.
P.A.S. system will be constructed using available current technology. Each major component that makes up P.A.S. will be identified and described below. Figure 1 illustrates how each component will be integrated into P.A.S..
Ψ RFID technology P.A.S. will use RFID scanners and decals containing RFID chips. The system will scan the RFID chip in the vehicle as it drives underneath the scanner to determine if the vehicle is valid or invalid. The unique id extracted from an RFID chip will be matched against a database containing valid registered vehicles. Vehicles will be considered invalid if they do not have a valid decal containing an active RFID chip, or if no chip is scanned. The P.A.S. administrators will be notified if an invalid vehicle has parked in a controlled parking garage or lot. RFID scanners are limited in that it cannot accurately read through metal to detect RFID chips. Decals containing embedded RFID chips will need to be visibly displayed on a visor or review-mirror in a vehicle, which will be directly next to glass. RFID scanners can read through glass without any difficulty.
Ψ Car Counter System P.A.S. will have a system for counting cars. This system will detect vehicles as they are driven over a sensor. The counter system will pass each updated count to a local computer system within the parking garage or lot to update the capacity level of the garage or lot. Both the entrance and exit of the parking garage or lot will have a car counter system.
Ψ Customizable Software The software controlling the P.A.S. system will be fully customizable. Parking garages or lots and client-customer information can be added, deleted, and edited as needed. Component errors within a garage will be easily detected. Dynamic parking alerts will be available for the system administrators to detect invalid vehicles. The ability for RFID scanning to be turned on or off will be controlled through the software for all parking garages or lots.
Ψ Full-Display Indicator Boards Display indicator boards will be located in front of all entrances to parking garages and lots. The indicator board will be used to inform approaching vehicles of the garage or lot capacity level. The indicator board will display a color indicating the capacity level, similar to a stop light. Alternate parking garages or lots will be listed on the indicator board along with their capacity levels so drivers will know of other places to park.
· The color codes for the indicator board are as follows:
o red full
o yellow few spots left
o green plenty of parking available
Ψ Databases P.A.S. will have two databases.
1) The first database will consist of vehicle information for each of the registered client-customers. Each database entry will have information about each client-customer. The information would consist of a RFID tag, a Unique Identification Number (student/employee id), client-customer name and address, class employee or student, salary (employee only), tag expiration date, and type day, evening, or resident. Each RFID tag will have associated vehicle information consisting of a license plate number, the make, model and year.
2) The second database will be used to store historical data collected as the system monitors each parking garage and lot capacity.
Ψ Remote Computer Systems Each parking garage and lot will house a computer system connected directly to the RFID scanner, counter system, and display board. The computer will be networked to a computer server or main system to communicate with each database. A signal indicating an invalid car has parked in a parking garage or lot will be sent to the main server.
Ψ Main Server The parking administration office will house the main server. The main server is a computer system that is networked with all the remote computer systems. The main server will be extracting parking garage and lot capacity information from each remote computer system and storing it in the database containing historical data. Each signal received from a remote computer system indicating an invalid vehicle parking in a parking garage or lot will be recorded. The recorded violator information will be used to send parking personnel out to specific parking garages or lots to issue tickets. The main server will also be providing online information for client-customers.
Ψ Online Decal Renewals Registered decals can easily be renewed online to reduce congestion in the parking administration office. Decal renewals will save the parking administration money in generating new decals for all client-customers. Only new client-customers will need to purchase a new parking decal.
Ψ Online Historical Data Parking garage and lot capacity information will be provided online for client-customers. Client-customers can more easily select parking garages or lots that have less congestion due to the historical data collected.
Ψ Web-interface A web page that allows existing parking decals to be renewed. Historical patterns will also be available to help locate parking garages or lots that have lower capacity levels.
2.3
Target market/Customer Base
The target market for P.A.S. consists of any business or college that has a decal controlled parking system. P.A.S. will provide this market a more innovative product that can do more than monitor a parking garage or lot. The historical pattern information can be used for multiple purposes.
The historical data element of P.A.S. will provide the parking administration office and their client-customers with a pattern of parking garage and lot usage. The historical pattern will enable the client-customers to make more efficient choices in selecting a parking garage or lot. Client-customers will be able to view parking garage and lot information via the web-interface for P.A.S.. The parking administration office will be able to use the pattern information to determine if future expansions are needed in certain areas to accommodate their client-customer parking needs.
3
Parking Administration Systems
Product Prototype Description
The P.A.S. prototype will be a software system simulating a parking garage. Each technological component illustrated in Figure 1 of section 2.2 will be simulated. The use of a generic database consisting of client-customer vehicle information will be a major element of the system. The software simulating the system will collect information on the usage of the simulated parking garage. The collected information will be stored in an historical data log. The proceeding sections will further explain the functional objectives of the P.A.S. prototype, its architecture, innovative feature, and corresponding risks and challenges.
3.1
Prototype Functional Objectives
The P.A.S. prototype will demonstrate the functionality of the system. The main objective of the prototype is to simulate the functionality of a real parking garage utilizing the P.A.S. system. The prototype will also focus on the following objectives:
· Simulate cars entering and exiting a parking garage.
· Show how the garage capacity is handled.
· Simulate the scan process of an RFID tag.
· Show how new and deleted client-customer entries into the database are handled by the system. (Essentially the same as active/inactive/expired tags)
· Show how the web-interface interacts with the system.
· Show how historical data is used.
· Show how power failures are handled.
· Show how RFID can be turned on or off.
· Show how network downtime is handled.
Each of the objectives above are essential in showing how different areas of the P.A.S. prototype will work together. The flow of information will be visible to the audience in a prototype demonstration. The effects of a power or network failure will be shown, and how the system recovers from such occurrences. Overall, these objectives will provide an audience with a more elegant view into how P.A.S. is used.
3.2
Prototype Architecture
The diagram in Figure 2 below shows the functional components that will be demonstrated in the P.A.S. prototype. Some components will be simulated and others will be using actual hardware. A brief description of each element involved in the prototype is described below.
Figure
2. P.A.S. prototype major functional
component diagram.
Ψ RFID technology The RFID tags and scanner will be simulated using software. The software will create a unique random number to represent the RFID tag id. The RFID tag id will be checked against a database to see if it is valid or invalid, which will simulate the RFID scanning process.
Ψ Car Counter System The counter will be simulated through software. Car entities will be created dynamically in the software. Each car entity will act as if it is passing over a car counter sensor by using a flag a method of determining if something is true or false. If the flag is set to true, the car counter is incremented or decremented based on whether the car is passing over the entrance or exit car counter sensor. The flag is set to false when no car is tripping the car counter sensor.
Ψ Customizable Software The software controlling the P.A.S. prototype will be fully customizable. Additional parking garages and client-customer information can be added, deleted, and edited as needed. Component errors within a garage will be easily identified. Dynamic parking alerts will be displayed in the simulation of the P.A.S. prototype to detect invalid car entities. The ability for RFID scanning to be turned on or off will be controlled through the software for all parking garages.
Ψ Full-Display Indicator Boards The display board will be shown on a computer screen to indicate the capacity of the lot. The display will not use color indicators. A numeric percent will be used to represent the capacity level.
Ψ Databases P.A.S. will have two databases.
1) The first database will consist of vehicle information for each of the generic client-customers. Each database entry will have information about each client-customer. The information would consist of an RFID tag, a Unique Identification Number (student/employee id), client-customer name and address, class employee or student, salary (employee only), tag expiration date, and type day, evening, or resident. Each RFID tag will have associated vehicle information consisting of a license plate number, the make, model and year.
2) The second database will be used to store historical data collected as the system monitors each parking garage and lot capacity.
Ψ Remote Computer Systems The remote computer system will be represented by using a laptop. The laptop will be networked with another laptop representing the main server. Alternate garages added to the simulated P.A.S. prototype will be added in the laptop containing other parking garage setups.
Ψ Main Server The main server will be represented by using a laptop. The main server will be connected to generic databases housed on a Computer Science Department Unix machine via a network connection. The web-interface will also be controlled by the main server. Historical data collected from the remote computer system will be uploaded into a database containing historical data. Garage capacity information, client-customer information, and invalid signals will be retrieved from the remote computer system. Client-customer and garage information can be added, edited, or deleted.
Ψ Online Decal Renewals The web-interface will allow existing decals to be renewed.
Ψ Online Historical Data Parking garage and lot capacity information will be provided online via the web-interface. Client-customers can more easily select parking garages or lots that have less congestion due to the historical data collected.
Ψ Web-interface A web page that allows existing decals to be renewed. Historical patterns will also be available to help locate parking garages or lots that have lower capacity levels. Any other necessary information can be added to inform client-customers of various things, if needed.
3.3
Innovative features
The innovative feature of the P.A.S. prototype is the ability to identify historical parking patterns of the dynamic car entities. The patterns identified during the duration of the P.A.S. prototype simulation will provide an overview of what client-customers of the P.A.S. system can use to find available parking spaces in certain areas. The historical pattern aspect of the P.A.S. prototype is unique and innovative because no other identified company providing a parking administration system has this feature.
3.4
Challenges and Risks
The P.A.S. prototype has associated challenges and risks. The following list identifies all the challenges and risks that can be forecasted with the development and use of the P.A.S. prototype. Additional challenges and risks will more likely be identified as the P.A.S. prototype is constructed.
1. Network connectivity between laptops and the Computer Science Department Unix machines goes down.
2. Database not working correctly (becomes corrupt) .
3. Power failures of the system.
4. Hardware failures of the system.
5. Cars entering or exiting a parking garage at multiple entrances.
6. Cars continuing to enter a parking garage even though the capacity level indicates the garage is full.
7. Possible time restraints to complete the P.A.S. prototype.
4
Prototype Demonstration Description
The P.A.S. prototype will be demonstrated in a Computer Science Department conference room consisting of multiple computers and various display options. This environment will provide enough hardware resources to illustrate the simulation of the P.A.S. system. The use of multiple displays of either projected images on a screen or LCD units flat panel televisions, the viewers will be able to see different aspects of the P.A.S. prototype in action.
The underlying layer of the P.A.S. prototype will be primarily a software program constructed by the P.A.S. development team. The software will simulate the actual parking garage operations, and will be run on a laptop to represent a remote computer. Car entities will be randomly created containing a randomly generated RFID tag number. A car will proceed into a garage entrance. More than one entrance and exit will exist in the software model of the garage. A flag will be set to false when no car is tripping the car counter sensor. If a car attempts to enter a garage, the car counter flag in the software is set to true. The car RFID tag number will be read and compared with the database housing vehicles registered with the P.A.S. system. If the car is valid, nothing occurs. If the car is invalid, a prompt will appear on the display for the parking garage. The prompt will state that a vehicle has entered garage X. The prompts will be recorded. A car counter number will increment as new cars enter the system. Cars exiting the P.A.S. garage will decrement the car counter when the flag is set to true for each exit. The simulated garage will have a preset number of parking spaces. The capacity level of the garage will be kept track of as the software program executes.
The databases used in the P.A.S. prototype will be fabricated. Generic information will be entered into the main database for vehicle identification. The vehicle database will be used to compare scanned RFID tag numbers with entries in this database. The database will be housed on a Computer Science Department Unix machine.
The second database will contain capacity levels of the garage(s) simulated. The capacity levels will only be captured at discrete time events, which will be predetermined. The discrete time events can be set to a time interval of either minutes or hours. The capacity levels will primarily be used for detecting patterns. This will be referred to as historical patterns. The main server will communicate with this database to provide information to the end-user of which garage(s) have the lowest capacity levels at certain times of each day. The database will be housed on a Computer Science Department Unix machine.
Each of the databases will be visible to the audience during the P.A.S. presentation. The audience will be able to see how information is added, edited, or deleted from the vehicle information database. As the simulation is executing cars entering and exiting the system, the audience will also see how historical database stores its information.
The main server of the P.A.S. prototype will also be a laptop computer. This computer will be connected via a network with the remote computer, the other laptop used in the P.A.S. prototype. The main server will also house the web-interface for the P.A.S. prototype. Each of the databases will be networked to this machine. The historical pattern detection of P.A.S. will be performed on this machine. Information will be extracted from the historical database to show any parking patterns. Parking administrative functionality will reside on the main server.
The main server is basically the traffic cop of the simulated P.A.S. system. Information will be coming and going to various locations within the system. The main server just tells the information where to go. During the P.A.S. demonstration, the audience will be able to see information flowing throughout the system as it goes from one machine to another.
The web-interface of the P.A.S. prototype will consist of historical pattern information and online decal renewal. The historical patterns will provide the end-user information about different parking garages and their capacities at different points of a day. The web-interface will be pulling this information from the main server. Decal renewal procedure will also be available on the web-interface. The P.A.S. demonstration will show how these features work visually.
Throughout the P.A.S. demonstration, various events will occur to show how the P.A.S. system handles them. Such events will include power failures, network failures, and hardware crashes. This portion of the P.A.S. prototype demonstration will show how the system is virtually solid.