Simulation of a PLC-based Car parking system

Abstract

Parking is an integral component of the transport system. It plays a crucial role in the management of traffic and congestion. On-street parking constitutes one major problem that makes traffic situation chaotic in Nigeria cities. Most roads in Nigeria cities are narrow and lack pedestrian lanes. As we all know, vehicles are used extensively for transportation. It is also important to have easy and effective system for maintaining the vehicles cleanliness as well which necessitate this simulation experiment. The simulation experiment involves the use of LADDER SIMULATOR which allows the Programmable Computer to simulate a Programmable Logic Controller such that Ladder Logic PLC programs can be developed in a simple ‘Drag and Drop’ manner. The system entails the use of several proximity sensors and components like Timers (On-Delay), Counters (Count-Up and Count-Down), LEDs to control the process of cars moving in to the car park with the proper arrangement of cars entering the car park and the exit of the cars. The sensors transfer the outputs to the PLC (programmable logic controller). This type of setup is an Advanced Parking System (APS) which acquire information any about available parking spaces, process the information and then present it to drivers by means of variable message signs using LADSIM simulation technique. The problem of car parking space is enormous which made this work relevant due to insufficient parking spaces and lack of skilled security men. There is a worldwide and global shift towards the automatic car parking system to calculate accurate space available for car and for revenue collection as parking fees. Opinion statistical analysis sample test with KMO and Bartlett's validity test conducted among fifty students revealed a strong positive significant (0.759) in support of the use of automated car parking system in Nigeria. The significant of this new scheme is that it provides an improvement and reliability in the present car parking system and this system can be implemented easily because it is very economical, dependable and cheap. Keywords— Sensors, PLC (programmable logic controller), Car parking; LADSIM; Ladder Logic.