Fillable Printable Sample Project Template
Fillable Printable Sample Project Template
Sample Project Template
SAMPLE Project Template
(not to be reproduced)
1. Project Description
Motivation -- Studies have estimated that on a daily basis 30% of traffic in the downtown area of major
cities is due to cruising for parking spots. In addition to aggravation and the waste of time and fuel for
drivers looking for parking, this also contributes to additional waste of time and fuel for other drivers as
a result of traffic congestion. For example, it has been reported that over one year in a small Los Angeles
business district, cars cruising for parking created the equivalent of 38 trips around the world, burning
47,000 gallons of gasoline and producing 730 tons of carbon dioxide.
Industry state of the art and needs -- Over the past two decades, so-called Parking Guidance and
Information (PGI) systems have been developed for better parking management. PGI systems present
drivers with dynamic information on parking within controlled areas and direct them to vacant parking
spots. Parking information may be displayed on variable-message signs at major roads, streets, and
intersections, or it may be disseminated through the Internet and through portable devices (e.g.,
smartphones). However, we notice that PGI systems have several shortcomings: (i) Drivers may not
actually find vacant parking spots by merely following guidance. More drivers go toward the same
available parking spots and it is possible that none is free by the time some drivers arrive. (ii) Worse, by
guiding many drivers to an area with one or very few vacant spots, a PGI system often creates additional
traffic congestion instead of alleviating it. (iii) Even if a driver is successfully guided to a parking spot, a
PGI system encourages finding any parking spot at the expense of missing a better spot. (iv) From the
point of view of parking operators (especially cities), parking space utilization becomes imbalanced.
Our new “Smart Parking” system -- We propose a new “smart parking” system which receives a driver’s
parking request and allocates best parking space for him. In contrast with PGI systems, our system
changes from “driver parking searching” to “system allocation”. The system runs as follows.
Drivers who are looking for parking send a request to a Driver Request Processing Center (DRPC). This
may be done by entering a specific destination address in a standard on-board vehicle navigation system
or through a smartphone. A request is accompanied by two driver-defined requirements: an upper
bound on parking cost and an upper bound on the walking distance between a parking spot and the
driver's actual destination. This information may be part of “preference” settings that the driver has
already input or they can be adjusted for each request. The request contains basic information such as
license number, current location, etc.
The Smart Parking Allocation Center (SPAC) collects all driver requests in the DPRC over a certain time
window and makes an overall allocation at decision points in time seeking to optimize a combination of
driver-specific and system-wide objectives. This is accomplished through an optimization engine based
on an algorithm we have developed. An assigned parking space is sent back to each driver via the DRPC.
If a driver is satisfied with the assignment, he has the choice to reserve that spot. Once a reservation is
made, the driver may still obtain a better parking space (with a guarantee that it can never be
worse than the current one) before the current one is reached. This is accomplished through
capabilities built into the optimization.
The Parking Resource Management Center (PRMC) then updates the corresponding parking spot from
vacant to reserved, and provides the guarantee that other drivers have no permission to take that
spot. If a driver is not satisfied with the assignment (either because of limited parking spots or his own
overly restrictive parking requirements) or fails to accept it for any other reason, he has to wait until the
next decision point (typically, a minute) and may change his cost or walking-distance
requirements to increase the chance to be allocated if the parking system is highly utilized (it is of
course possible that no parking space is ever assigned to a driver). While the driver is en route to the
reserved spot, the system charges an additional fee on a per-minute basis.
Innovative elements -- We highlight the innovative elements of our “smart parking” system relative to
the state of the art: (i) The system automatically finds the best parking spot available at the time of a
request. This frees drivers from the burden of selecting a spot. (ii) While the driver is en route, the
system continuously seeks to upgrade the assigned parking space based on the latest data collected
from parking spaces; the driver is guaranteed never to be re-assigned to a worse parking space. (iii)
The parking space assigned to (and approved by) a driver is reserved for that driver. (iv) The system
ensures that parking spaces are allocated in a fair manner (e.g., a parking spot will never be assigned to
a driver who is far away from it when there is another driver who is much closer for whom this spot is
optimal).
2. Team member and audience
Team member – We have a four-person team. Details are as
follows.
Name
Tel
Email
major
Year
Institution
Project Audience – Junior or Senior College students, Graduate students
3. Project Implementation Details
The implementation of this “smart parking” system relies on four requirements: (i) The SPAC has to
know the status of all parking spots and the location of all vehicles issuing requests. (ii) Effective wireless
communication between vehicles and an allocation center. This is achievable through existing wireless
networks. (iii) Solve an optimization problem to obtain best allocation results. (iv) The SPAC must be
able to implement a reservation that guarantees a specific parking spot to a driver. The implementation
details for each of these three requirements are described in the following table.
Tasks
Activity
Require
Material
time
(hrs)
Major Skills
Parking Status
Detection (i)
1.Deploy sensors at each parking spot
2.Store parking data in a database
Magnetic
Sensor,
Gateway,
computer server
100
C
programming,
database skills
Vehicle
Localization (i)
Using GPS data in a smartphone to
localize real-time vehicle position
Smartphone
20
Smartphone
app.
development
Driver Interface
(ii)
Build a smart phone app. or a website
where drivers can send parking
request and make reservation
Smartphone
40
Smartphone
app.
development,
web
development
System Interface
(ii)
Build a web based interface where
the system operator can manage
parking resources and drivers’
request history
Computer
server
40
Web
development
Solve
Optimization
Problem (iii)
Formulate the parking allocation
problem as an optimization problem
and solve it with commercial tools
CPLEX
(software)
40
Linear
programming
Reservation
Guarantee (iv)
Use light indictor to show parking
spot status, which prevents drivers
from taking the spot without
reservation
LED lights,
wireless motes
40
Embedded
system
programming
System Analysis
Compare our system performance
with PGI systems (revenues, cost,
ratios, etc)
Analysis tools
(software)
20
Economic
basis,
quantitative
analysis
Market Analysis
investment cost, easy of user
adoption, market size and revenues
for implementation
Analysis tools
(software)
20
Marketing
The total estimated development time is around 320 hours, which can be finished within one semester.
