An Intelligent Car Park Management System : Hierarchical Placement Algorithm Based on Nearest Location

Abstract

Finding a parking spot can become quite stressful especially for the cases where the final destination of the journey is not well known and the parking region is rather complicated with large numbers of spots. Identification of a suitable parking spot can also be considered as an expensive process since it often causes an increase of vehicle traffic which in turn causes a consequent increase of pollution. In this paper, we present a hierarchical approach that helps users to reach a free parking spot easily, in a small area or a city. This solution introduces an approach which makes searching process in car parking applications efficient in terms of time and energy. It introduces two levels of hierarchy to make placement process more efficient. In the first level, algorithm only checks for the nearest car park. At the second level, algorithm focuses on the car park that is the nearest and checks the nearest parking spot in that car park. Using this hierarchical approach, search for an empty spot becomes more time efficient. Simulation results are presented in this study to show the efficiency of the proposed hierarchical approach. Both hierarchical and non-hierarchical approaches are employed for the same scenario in order to show the effectiveness of the new approach. According to simulation results, hierarchical approach is more efficient in terms of search time and energy. Briefly, we investigate how hierarchical approach affects the search algorithms used for car parking applications.