Technical Field
[0001] Embodiments of this disclosure generally relate to an IoT technology, and more particularly, to a smart parking system and a method for identifying the occupancy of parking slot of a parking environment using a Bluetooth mesh (BLE) architecture and minimizing a driving time to reach the parking slot using the shortest path.
Description of the Related Art
As the living standards of people improve, more users have had to have an automobile of themselves, but the contradiction of the aspect such as lot of vehicle pass-through in society, parking of automobile pollution, monitoring.
With the improvement of people's living standards, major small and medium-sized cities' car ownership constantly increases, and therefore, Hen Duocheng City has built a Large Underground Parking Space. Currently, most underground garage administrative skills fall behind, and lack wisdom, networking, and Informationization Advanced management technology. On the one hand, the parking stall utilization rate is low, and car owner's road Traffic Volume caused by searching a parking space causes traffic harm. On the other hand, since underground parking space is larger, that causes difficulty in finding the parking space, and also includes waste of energy and time.
All kinds of garage navigation systems in the existing market need to additionally increase the base station to realize the positioning of the vehicle, but the base station Entire parking lot cannot be realized and be covered all around, cause the position that the base station is not covered with that cannot carry out automobile navigation.
In the existing solutions, when storing cycle enters the parking slot, a user needs to find voluntarily the parking slot of free time, and is stopped by a vehicle into an idle parking slot. But, increase due to vehicles, in population and vehicle compact district, in a parking slot, the parked vehicle often compares many, the user generally can only select according to the general idle parking slot quantity in each region of prompting above the parking slot. The process of whole parking is more numerous and diverse, which can waste a lot of time and effort.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a smart parking system and a method for finding a parking slot in a parking environment.
SUMMARY
In view of the foregoing, an embodiment herein provides a system for identifying an occupancy of at least one parking slot in a parking environment and minimizing a driving time to reach the at least one parking slot using a shortest path. The system includes one or more occupancy sensors configured to sense an occupancy condition of the at least one parking slot in the parking environment. The one or more occupancy sensors is placed in the at least one parking slot. The occupancy condition is defined as the at least one parking slot being unoccupied such that the one or more occupancy sensors do not send any signal to a server for a certain time. The system includes one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags configured to generate Bluetooth signals when the occupancy of the at least one parking slot is sensed by the one or more occupancy sensors. Each Bluetooth signal mesh tag is electrically connected to corresponding occupancy sensor of corresponding parking slot. The system includes one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array including one or more receiver antennas positioned at a known location that receives the Bluetooth signals from the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags. The one or more receiver antennas send the received Bluetooth signals to the server. The one or more receiver antennas are communicatively connected to the server. The system includes a camera that is placed at an entry of the parking environment configured to capture at least one image of the vehicle that is entering the parking environment. The server includes a memory that stores a set of instructions, which when executed by the server performs: (i) receiving the Bluetooth signals from the one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array and the at least one image of the vehicle that is entering in the parking environment, (ii) processing (a) the at least one image of the vehicle that is received from the camera to obtain an image data using an optical character recognition method, (b) analyzing, using an AoA estimation model, the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals based on received signal strength indicator information (RSSI) in conjunction with known positions of the plurality of angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array to determine a location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition; (iii) allotting a unique identification number to the vehicle using the image data that is processed; (iv) assigning the vehicle with the unique identification number to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition that is determined; and (v) generating a shortest path to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition by calculating the shortest path between the entry of the parking environment and the location of assigned parking slot by (a) determining consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals that are obtained between the entry of the parking environment, and the location of the assigned parking slot, (b) determining one or more paths between the entry and the assigned parking slot using the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals, the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals are used to calculate the location, (c) determining a number of Bluetooth signals in each determined path, and (d) generating the shortest path among the one or more paths for which the number of Bluetooth signals is least, thereby minimizing the driving time to reach the at least one parking slot using the shortest path, thereby reducing carbon emissions of the vehicle.
In some embodiments, the processor is configured to enable a display unit to display a number of the assigned parking slot and a floor of the assigned parking slot, In some embodiments, the processor is configured to enable a display unit to display the shortest path between the entry and the assigned parking slot to the user based on the unique identification number.
In some embodiments, the processor is configured to retrieve an entry time and a time when the vehicle is in the assigned parking slot by processing the occupancy condition from the one or more occupancy sensors and to process an enabling time of the one or more LEDs in the parking environment.
In some embodiments, the parking environment includes one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to indicate the occupancy condition of the at least one parking slot, The one or more LEDs include at least one of a red LED, a blue LED, a green LED, the blue LED indicates that the at least one parking slot is reserved, the red LED indicates that the at least one parking slot is not reserved, the green LED indicates that the at least one parking slot is available for occupancy.
In some embodiments, the Bluetooth signals are communicated over a Bluetooth mesh network. The Bluetooth signals are generated by activating the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags through a digital signal sent by one or more comparators. The digital signal is generated when a short circuit is caused in the one or more occupancy sensors on detecting the occupancy of the corresponding parking slot. Each comparator is electrically connected to corresponding Bluetooth signal mesh tag of the corresponding parking slot.
In some embodiments, the processor is configured to guide a direction to the assigned parking slot to the user using one or more path LEDs that are placed along one or more paths in the parking environment by switching on a power of the one or more path LEDs automatically in the at least one parking slot when the user enters the shortest path.
In some embodiments, the image data includes at least one license plate number, vehicle type, or time of arrival of the vehicle to the parking environment. In some embodiments, a first receiver antenna sends a first Bluetooth signal and a second receiver antenna sends a second Bluetooth signal.
In some embodiments, the processor is configured to determine the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition by, (i) determining the angle of arrival of the Blue tooth signals, the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals is measured by calculating a phase difference between the first Bluetooth signal from the first receiver antenna and the second Bluetooth signal from the second receiver antenna, a phase of a Bluetooth signal is determined by sampling IQ components of the Bluetooth signal, and (ii) obtaining received signal strength indicator (RSSI) information of the Bluetooth signals received at the plurality of angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array.
In some embodiments, the AoA estimation model estimates the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals, the AoA estimation model is trained by (i) sampling N1 set of angle of arrival measurement values under a controlled environment and sampling N2 set of the angle of arrival measurement values under the controlled environment, (ii) performing a proximal policy optimization training on sampled N1 set of angle of arrival measurement values, and sampled N2 set of angle of arrival measurement values by correcting the obtained angle of arrival measurement values after testing the angle of arrival measurement values based on the proximal policy optimization. In some embodiments, the AoA estimation model is trained using RSSI information of the Bluetooth signals
In one aspect, a method for identifying an occupancy of at least one parking slot in a parking environment and minimizing a driving time to reach the at least one parking slot using a shortest path is provided. The method includes sensing, using one or more occupancy sensors, an occupancy condition of the at least one parking slot in the parking environment. The one or more occupancy sensors is placed at the at least one parking slot. The occupancy condition is defined as the at least one parking slot being unoccupied such that the plurality of occupancy sensors do not send any signal to a server for a certain time. The method includes generating, using one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags, Bluetooth signals when the occupancy of the at least one parking slot is sensed by the plurality of occupancy sensors. The one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags is electrically connected to the one or more occupancy sensors of the at least one parking slot. The method includes receiving by one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array including one or more receiver antennas positioned at a known location, the Bluetooth signals from the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags. The one or more receiver antennas send the received Bluetooth signals to the server. The one or more receiver antennas are communicatively connected to the server. The method includes capturing, by a camera that is placed at an entry of the parking environment, at least one image of the vehicle that is entering the parking environment. The method includes processing (i) the at least one image of the vehicle that is received from the camera to obtain an image data using an optical character recognition method, (ii) analyzing, using an AoA estimation model, the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals based on received signal strength indicator information (RSSI) information in conjunction with known positions of the plurality of angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array to determine a location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition. The method includes allotting a unique identification number to the vehicle using the image data that is processed. The method includes assigning the vehicle with the unique identification number to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition that is determined.
The method includes generating a shortest path to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition by calculating the shortest path between the entry of the parking environment and the location of assigned parking slot by (i) determining consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals that are obtained between the entry of the parking environment, and the location of the assigned parking slot, (ii) determining a plurality of paths between the entry and the assigned parking slot using the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals, the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals are used to calculate the location, (iii) determining a number of Bluetooth signals in each determined path, and (iv) generating the shortest path among the plurality of paths for which the number of Bluetooth signals is least, minimizing the driving time to reach the at least one parking slot using the shortest path, thereby reducing carbon emissions of the vehicle.
The system and method for implementing occupancy sensing-based detection, mitigation, and parking slot management in a high-value parking environment over Bluetooth Mesh. The system and method provide real-time alerts for slot allocation with visual guidance in the parking environment. The system and method detect CO and CO2 concentration in the parking slot and gives alarms when CO and CO2 concentration are too high. The system improves performance by reducing carbon emissions and user experience.
These and other aspects of the embodiments herein will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following descriptions, while indicating preferred embodiments and numerous specific details thereof, are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the embodiments herein without departing from the spirit thereof, and the embodiments herein include all such modifications.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for identifying an occupancy of at least one parking slot in a parking environment and minimizing a driving time to reach the at least one parking slot using a shortest path according to some embodiments herein;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the server of FIG. 1 according to some embodiments herein;
FIG. 3 illustrates a Bluetooth mesh architecture that supports signal propagation from a center of the parking environment to the server of FIG.1 according to some embodiments herein;
FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary arrangement of an occupancy sensor with a Bluetooth signal mesh tag, and a comparator of FIG.1 according to some embodiments herein;
FIGS. 5A and 5B are flow diagrams that illustrate a method for identifying an occupancy of at least one parking slot in a parking environment and minimizing a driving time to reach the at least one parking slot using a shortest path according to some embodiments herein; and
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a computer architecture in accordance with the embodiments herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
As mentioned, there remains a need for a system and method for identifying an occupancy of a parking slot in a parking environment. and minimizing a driving time to reach the parking slot using a shortest path. The embodiments herein achieve this by proposing a system and method that identifies an occupancy of parking slot of a parking environment and minimizes a driving time to reach the parking slot using a shortest path based on an angle of arrival and angle of departure feature of Bluetooth technology. Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIGS. 1 through 6, where similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the figures, there are shown preferred embodiments.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system 100 for identifying an occupancy of at least one parking slot 102A of a parking environment 112 and minimizing a driving time to reach the at least one parking slot 102A using a shortest path according to some embodiments herein. The system 100 includes parking slots 102A-N in the parking environment 112, one or more occupancy sensors 104A-N, one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N, the warehouse 108, one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array 110A-N, a server 114, and a user device 118 associated with a user 120. The parking slots 102A-N may contain a space to park a vehicle 122 in the parking environment 112. In some embodiments, the parking environment 112 includes at least one of but is not limited to housing communities, hospitals, shopping malls, theaters, airports, bus stations, railway stations, etc. The user device 118 includes at least one of but is not limited to a mobile phone, computer, or tablet phone.
The one or more occupancy sensors 104A-N are configured to sense an occupancy condition of any of parking slots 102A-N in the parking environment 112. The one or more occupancy sensors 104A-N are positioned at each parking slot for sensing the occupancy condition of the parking slot. The one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N are configured to generate Bluetooth signals when the occupancy condition is sensed by the one or more occupancy sensors 104A-N. Each Bluetooth signal mesh tag is electrically connected to the corresponding occupancy sensor of the corresponding parking slot. The Bluetooth signals are communicated over a Bluetooth mesh network and the Bluetooth signals are obtained as a narrow band tone. The mesh network includes nodes such as the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N that are connected directly, dynamically, and non-hierarchically to as many other nodes. The nodes co-operate with each other by exchanging data. The mesh network is a Bluetooth low-energy mesh network based on Bluetooth technology. The connectivity over the Bluetooth mesh network creates a cluster of parking slots for better visibility of inventory. The mesh architecture supports signal propagation from the center of the parking environment 112 and communicated to the server 114 through a network 116. The network 116 may be a wired or a wireless network. The network 116 may be a combination of a wired network and a wireless network. The network 116 may be the Internet.
The mesh architecture creates a digital twin of assets (i.e.) parking slots 102A-N, that helps to identify the exact location of vacant parking slots 102A-N in the parking environment 112. The Bluetooth signals are generated by activating the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N through a digital signal sent by one or more comparators. The digital signal is generated when a short circuit is caused in the one or more occupancy sensors 104A-N on detecting the occupancy condition. The occupancy condition is defined as the at least one parking slot being unoccupied such that the one or more occupancy sensors do not send any signal to the server 114 for a certain time. In some embodiments, the server 114 identifies the occupancy condition of the parking slot by filtering some parking slots for which the corresponding occupancy sensor sends a signal to the server from the total number of parking slots.
Each comparator is electrically connected to the corresponding Bluetooth signal mesh tag of the corresponding parking slot. The one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array 110A-N includes one or more receiver antennas positioned at a known location that receives the Bluetooth signals from the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N. The one or more receiver antennas send the received Bluetooth signals to the server 114. A first receiver antenna sends a first Bluetooth signal and a second receiver antenna sends a second Bluetooth signal. The one or more receiver antennas are communicatively connected to the server 114.
The system 100 includes a camera 126 that is placed at an entry 124 of the parking environment 112. The camera 126 is configured to capture at least one image of the vehicle 122 that is entering the parking environment 112.
The server 114 includes a memory that stores a set of instructions, which when executed by the server 114. The server 114 is configured to obtain the Bluetooth signals from the one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array 110A-N. The server 114 is configured to obtain the at least one image of the vehicle 122 that is entering the parking environment 112 from the camera 126. The server 114 is configured to process the at least one image of the vehicle 122 to obtain an image data using an optical character recognition method. The optical character recognition method is used to detect and reads a text in the at least one image. The image data includes at least one license plate number, vehicle type, or time of arrival of the vehicle to the parking environment 112.
The server 114 is configured to determine an angle of arrival of the Blue tooth signals. The angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals is measured by calculating a phase difference between the first Bluetooth signal from the first receiver antenna and the second Bluetooth signal from the second receiver antenna. A phase of a Bluetooth signal is determined by sampling IQ components of the Bluetooth signal. The server 114 is configured to obtain received signal strength indicator (RSSI) information of the Bluetooth signals received at the one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array. The server 114 is configured to analyze the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals based on the RSSI information in conjunction with the known positions of the one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array 110A-N to determine the location of parking slots 102A-N with the occupancy condition. The server 114 is configured to communicate the location of the parking slot 102A-N with leakage to a user by generating an alert. The server 114 may be a cloud server. The location of the parking slots 102A-N with occupancy is determined using the angle of arrival (AoA) and angle of departure (AoD) feature of Bluetooth technology. The AoA determines the direction of propagation of the incident signal on the antenna array 110A-N. The AoA is calculated by measuring the path length difference at individual elements of the antenna array based on the incident light. In some embodiments, a gateway obtains an actual heading angle/pitch angle of the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N. According to the determined tag height, the gateway calculates and obtains a unique spatial absolute coordinate of the incident signal. The server 114 allots a unique identification number to the vehicle 122 using the image data that is processed. In some embodiments, the server 114 assigns the unique ID to each vehicle.
In some embodiments, the unique ID is a combination of the beacon ID before the gate (e.g. A), license plate number, and timestamp. In some example embodiments, the unique ID is AHR21BP73311623726652.
The server 114 assigns the vehicle 122 with the unique identification number to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition that is determined. The server 114 generates a shortest path to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition by calculating the shortest path between the entry of the parking environment 102 and the location of the assigned parking slot. The server 114 determines consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals that are obtained between the entry 124 of the parking environment 112, and the location of the assigned parking slot. The server 114 determines a plurality of paths between the entry 124 and the assigned parking slot using the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals. The consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals are used to calculate the location. The server 114 determines a number of Bluetooth signals in each determined path. The server 114 generates the shortest path among the plurality paths for which the number of Bluetooth signals is least, thereby minimizing the driving time of the user 120 to reduce the carbon emissions of the vehicle 122 caused by an idle driving in the parking environment 112.
An AoA estimation model estimates the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals. The AoA estimation model is trained by sampling the N1 set of AoA measurement values under a controlled environment and sampling the N2 set of AoA measurement values under the controlled environment. A proximal policy optimization training is performed on the sampled set of AoA measurement values. The measurement value is tested based on the proximal policy optimization training to correct the obtained AoA measurement data and the obtained AoA location. The measurement error ?i of AoA measurement data obeys the Gaussian distribution. The joint probability distribution of measurement errors can be defined as:
p=1/((2p)^(N/2) d1… dN) exp?(-1/2 ?_(i=1)^n¦?"?" i?^2/(di^2 )) d?1...?N, where di is the standard deviation of the measurement error.
The AOA estimation model is also trained using RSSI information of the Bluetooth signals. The proximity of the Bluetooth signals between the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags and the one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array can be calculated using Measured Power. Measured Power is a factory-calibrated, read-only constant that indicates what’s the expected RSSI at a distance of 1 meter to the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N. Combined with RSSI, it allows estimating the distance between the one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array 110A-N and the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N. The RSSI Vs Distance matrix gives a location estimation of plus/minus one feet. The distance between the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N and the one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array 110A-N can be obtained using the formula, Distance = 10 ^ ((Measured Power -RSSI)/(10 * N)). Here, N is a constant that depends on the Environmental factor. The Range may be 2–4, with low to high strength. The AoA estimation model is trained using RSSI (received signal strength indicator) information of the Bluetooth signals. The AoA estimation model is trained using real-time distance data to improve the accuracy of estimation. The location of parking slots 102A-N with occupancy is determined based on the AoA location and communicated as an alert with the location of parking slot 102A-N within warehouse 108 to the user device 118 associated with the user 116. The occupancy and location data may be used for performing predictive analysis which can save overall cost for mitigating occupancy condition of parking slots in the parking environment 112. The system 100 includes the processor to control and tune the brightness of the LEDs in the parking slot to give direction to the user 120.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the server 114 of FIG. 1 according to some embodiments herein. The server 114 includes a database 202, a Bluetooth signal and image receiving module 204, an Angle of arrival determination module 206, an received signal strength indicator (RSSI) information receiving module 208, a location of occupancy determination module 210, an unique identification number allotting module 212, a vehicle assigning module 214, and a shortest path generating module 216. The Bluetooth signal and image receiving module 204 receives the Bluetooth signals from the one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array 110A-N, and an image of the vehicle 122 at an entry 124 of the parking environment 122 using a camera 126. The Angle of arrival determination module 206 determines the angle of arrival of the Blue tooth signals. The angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals is measured by calculating a phase difference between the first Bluetooth signal from the first receiver antenna and the second Bluetooth signal from the second receiver antenna. A phase of a Bluetooth signal is determined by sampling IQ components of the Bluetooth signal. The image data determining module 206A determines an image data using an optical character recognition method. The RSSI information receiving module 208 obtains the RSSI information of the Bluetooth signals received at the one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array 110A-N. The location determination module 210 analyzes the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals based on the RSSI information in conjunction with the known positions of the one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array 110A-N to determine the location of parking slots 102A-N with the occupancy. The server 114 may include a communication module that communicates the location of parking slots 102A-N with occupancy as an alert to the user 120. The unique identification number allotting module 212 allots a unique identification number to the vehicle (122) using the image data that is processed. The vehicle assigning module 214 assigns the vehicle 122 with the unique identification number to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition that is determined. The shortest path generating module 216 generates a shortest path to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition by calculating the shortest path between the entry of the parking environment 112 and the location of assigned parking slot. The shortest path generating module 216 determines consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals that are obtained between the entry 124 of the parking environment 112, and the location of the assigned parking slot. The shortest path generating module 216 determines a plurality of paths between the entry 124 and the assigned parking slot using the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals. The shortest path generating module 216 determines a number of Bluetooth signals in each determined path. The shortest path generating module 216 generates the shortest path among the plurality paths for which the number of Bluetooth signals is least, thereby minimizing the driving time of the user 120 to reduce the carbon emissions of the vehicle 122 caused by an idle driving in the parking environment 112.
FIG. 3 illustrates a Bluetooth mesh architecture 300 that supports signal propagation from the center of parking environment 112 to the server 114 of FIG.1 according to some embodiments herein. The Bluetooth mesh architecture 300 includes the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N that is attached to the parking slots 102A-N. The one or more occupancy sensors 104A-N are positioned at the parking slots 102A-N to capture the occupancy information by sensing the occupancy of the parking slot and communicating to the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N. The Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N form a mesh network. The nodes of the mesh network include Bluetooth signal mesh tags 106A-N that are connected directly, dynamically, and non-hierarchically to as many other nodes. The nodes co-operate with each other by exchanging data. The mesh network is a Bluetooth low-energy mesh network based on Bluetooth technology. The connectivity over the Bluetooth signal mesh network creates a cluster of parking slots for better visibility of inventory. The Bluetooth mesh architecture 300 supports signal propagation from the center of the parking environment 112. The Bluetooth signals are communicated over the Bluetooth signal mesh network 300 to the server 114 through the network 116.
FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary arrangement of an occupancy sensor 104A with a Bluetooth signal mesh tag 106A, and a comparator 404 of FIG.1 according to some embodiments herein. The exemplary arrangement includes a detection panel 402 that is electrically connected with the comparator 404 and the Bluetooth signal mesh tag 106A. The motion of the vehicle is detected by the detection panel 402 of the occupancy sensor 104A. The occupancy sensor 104A captures the occupancy information by sensing the motion of the vehicle and communicates to Bluetooth signal mesh tag 106A attached to the corresponding parking slot 102A through the comparator 404. The comparator 404 includes two analog input terminals and one binary digital output. A Bluetooth signal is generated by activating the Bluetooth signal mesh tag 406 through the digital signal sent by the comparator 404. The digital signal is generated when a short circuit is caused in the occupancy sensor 104A on detecting the occupancy condition using the detection panel 402.
FIGS. 5A and 5B are flow diagrams that illustrate a method for identifying an occupancy of at least one parking slot in a parking environment and minimizing a driving time to reach the at least one parking slot using a shortest path according to some embodiments herein. At step 502, the method 500 includes sensing, using one or more occupancy sensors, an occupancy condition of the at least one parking slot in the parking environment. The one or more occupancy sensors is placed at corresponding parking slot. The occupancy condition is defined as the at least one parking slot being unoccupied such that the plurality of occupancy sensors do not send any signal to a server for a certain time. At step 504, the method 500 includes generating, using one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags, Bluetooth signals when the occupancy of the at least one parking slot is sensed by the plurality of occupancy sensors. The one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags is electrically connected to the one or more occupancy sensors of the at least one parking slot. At step 506, the method 500 includes receiving by one or more angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array including one or more receiver antennas positioned at a known location, the Bluetooth signals from the one or more Bluetooth signal mesh tags. The one or more receiver antennas send the received Bluetooth signals to the server. The one or more receiver antennas are communicatively connected to the server. At step 508, the method 500 includes capturing, by a camera that is placed at an entry 124 of the parking environment 112, at least one image of the vehicle that is entering in the parking environment. At step 510, the method 500 includes processing (i) the at least one image of the vehicle that is received from the camera to obtain an image data using an optical character recognition method, (ii) analyzing, using an AoA estimation model, the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals based on received signal strength indicator information (RSSI) information in conjunction with known positions of the plurality of angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array to determine a location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition. At step 512, the method 500 includes allotting a unique identification number to the vehicle using the image data that is processed. At step 514, the method 500 includes assigning the vehicle with the unique identification number to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition that is determined.
At step 516, the method 500 includes generating a shortest path to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition by calculating the shortest path between the entry of the parking environment and the location of assigned parking slot by (i) determining consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals that are obtained between the entry of the parking environment, and the location of the assigned parking slot, (ii) determining a plurality of paths between the entry and the assigned parking slot using the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals, the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals are used to calculate the location, (iii) determining a number of Bluetooth signals in each determined path, and (iv) generating the shortest path among the plurality of paths for which the number of Bluetooth signals is least, minimizing the driving time to reach the parking slot using the shortest path, thereby reducing carbon emissions of the vehicle.
In some embodiments, the processor uploads and stores the processed data in a cloud server using the network 116.
In an exemplary embodiment, the user 120 books the parking slot through a mobile application in the user device 118. The user device 118 may include the mobile application that is connected through a cloud server. The user 120 may check the availability of the parking slot using the user device 110. The user may access and book the parking slot in the parking environment 102 through the mobile application. In some embodiments, the user 120 finds the availability of parking slot in the parking environment 102 before reaching the parking environment 102 to control carbon emission caused by idle speed driving in the parking environment, thereby saving fuel of the vehicle, saving time of the user and avoid traffic and rush.
In some embodiments, the server 114 collects the user behavior and predicts the users’ demands every single day. In some embodiments, the system can give suggestions that are related to parking spaces to users and provide discounts if users accept the suggestion based on the prediction.
The server 114 enables to power ON the one or more parking LEDs 106A-N in the parking slot when the user books the parking slot using the mobile application in the user device 110. The system 100 assigns the parking slot to minimize the driving time in the parking environment while parking or leaving, or minimize the distance between the parking space and the elevator based on user behavior, vehicle type, entry time, metadata of parking spaces (size, near wall or pillar, distance to entry or elevator, charging device).
The system 100 detects CO and CO2 concentration in the parking slot and gives alarms when CO and CO2 concentrations are too high. In some embodiments, the alarms are connected with one or more Bluetooth mesh tags 106A-N. The processor 122 minimizes CO and CO2 concentration by minimizing the driving time of the vehicle in the parking environment 102. In some embodiments, the system 100 collects the CO and CO2 concentration, and periodically trains an AI model to minimize carbon emission. In some embodiments, the system 100 improves the performance of reducing carbon emissions and user experience by retraining the AI model.
In some embodiments, the AI model is trained by providing the structure of the parking slot, the structure of the path in the parking environment, the shortest path to the one or more parking slots, and the alternate shortest path. In some embodiments, the structure of the parking slot includes length, breadth height, and width. In some embodiments, the structure of the parking environment 112 includes the position of the pillars, structure of the parking environment, distance between the one or more parking slots 102A-N, and the parking environment entrance. In some embodiments, the AI model detects the arrival position and departure position of the vehicle to calculate the shortest path.
The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification the scope of the invention.

I/We Claim:

1. A smart parking system (100) for identifying an occupancy of at least one parking slot (102A) of a parking environment (112) and minimizing a driving time to reach the at least one parking slot (102A) using a shortest path, thereby reducing carbon emissions of a vehicle (122), the system (100) comprises:
a plurality of occupancy sensors (104A-N) configured to sense an occupancy condition of the at least one parking slot (102A) in the parking environment (112), wherein the plurality of occupancy sensors (104A-N) is placed in the at least one parking slot (102A) , wherein the occupancy condition is defined as the at least one parking slot (102A) being unoccupied such that the plurality of occupancy sensors (104A-N) do not send any signal to a server (114) for a certain time;
a plurality of Bluetooth signal mesh tags (106A-N) configured to generate Bluetooth signals when the occupancy condition of the at least one parking slot (102A) is sensed by the plurality of occupancy sensors (104A-N), wherein the plurality of Bluetooth signal mesh tags (106A-N) is electrically connected to the plurality of occupancy sensors (104A-N) placed in the at least one parking slot (102A);
a plurality of angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array (110A-N) comprising a plurality of receiver antennas positioned at a known location receives the Bluetooth signals from the plurality of Bluetooth signal mesh tags (106A-N), wherein the plurality of receiver antennas sends the received Bluetooth signals to the server (114), wherein the plurality of receiver antennas are communicatively connected to the server (114);
a camera (126) that is placed at an entry (124) of the parking environment (112) configured to capture at least one image of the vehicle (122) that is entering the parking environment (112);
the server (114); and
a memory that stores a set of instructions, which when executed by the server (114), performs:
receiving the Bluetooth signals from the plurality of angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array (110A-N) and the at least one image of the vehicle (122) that is entering the parking environment (112);
processing (i) the at least one image of the vehicle (122) that is received from the camera (126) to obtain an image data using an optical character recognition method, (ii) analyzing, using an AoA estimation model, the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals based on received signal strength indicator information (RSSI) in conjunction with known positions of the plurality of angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array (110A-N) to determine a location of the at least one parking slot (102A) with the occupancy condition;
allotting a unique identification number to the vehicle (122) using the image data;
assigning the vehicle (122) with the unique identification number to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition that is determined; and
generating a shortest path to the location of the at least one parking slot (102A) with the occupancy condition by calculating the shortest path between the entry of the parking environment (102) and the location of assigned parking slot by (i) determining consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals that are obtained between the entry (124) of the parking environment (112), and the location of the assigned parking slot, (ii) determining a plurality of paths between the entry (124) and the assigned parking slot using the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals, wherein the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals are used to calculate the location, (iii) determining a number of Bluetooth signals in each determined path, and (iv) generating the shortest path among the plurality of paths for which the number of Bluetooth signals is least, thereby minimizing a driving time to reach the at least one parking slot (102A) using the shortest path, thereby reducing carbon emissions of the vehicle (112).

2. The smart parking system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to enable a display unit to display a number of the assigned parking slot and a floor of the assigned parking slot, wherein the processor is configured to enable the display unit to display the shortest path between the entry (124) and the assigned parking slot to the user (120) based on the unique identification number.

3. The smart parking system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to retrieve an entry time and a time when the vehicle is in the assigned parking slot by processing the occupancy condition from the plurality of occupancy sensors (102A-N) and to process an enabling time of the one or more LEDs (108A-N) in the parking environment (112).

4. The smart parking system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the parking environment (112) comprises one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs) (108A-N) to indicate the occupancy condition of the at least one parking slot, wherein the one or more LEDs (108A-N) comprises at least one of a red LED, a blue LED, a green LED, wherein the blue LED indicates that the at least one parking slot (102A) is reserved, the red LED indicates that the at least one parking slot (102A) is not reserved, the green LED indicates that the at least one parking slot (102A) is available for occupancy.

5. The smart parking system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the Bluetooth signals are communicated over a Bluetooth mesh network, wherein the Bluetooth signals are generated by activating the plurality of Bluetooth signal mesh tags (106A-N) through a digital signal sent by a plurality of comparators, wherein the digital signal is generated when a short circuit is caused in the plurality of occupancy sensors (104A-N) on detecting the occupancy of the corresponding parking slot, wherein the plurality of comparators is electrically connected to the plurality of Bluetooth signal mesh tags (106A-N) placed in the at least one parking slot (102A).

6. The smart parking system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to guide a direction to the assigned parking slot to the user (120) using a plurality of path LEDs (128A-N) that are placed along a plurality of paths in the parking environment (112) by switching on power of the plurality of path LEDs (128A-N) automatically in the at least one parking slot (102A) when the user enters the shortest path.

7. The smart parking system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the image data comprises at least one of a license plate number, a vehicle type, or a time of arrival of the vehicle to the parking environment (112).

8. The smart parking system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein a first receiver antenna sends a first Bluetooth signal and a second receiver antenna sends a second Bluetooth signal, wherein the processor is configured to determine the location of the at least one parking slot (102A) with the occupancy condition by,
determining the angle of arrival of the Blue tooth signals, wherein the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals is measured by calculating a phase difference between the first Bluetooth signal from the first receiver antenna and the second Bluetooth signal from the second receiver antenna, wherein a phase of a Bluetooth signal is determined by sampling IQ components of the Bluetooth signal; and
obtaining received signal strength indicator (RSSI) information of the Bluetooth signals received at the plurality of angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array (110A-N).

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the AoA estimation model estimates the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals, wherein the AoA estimation model is trained by (i) sampling N1 set of angle of arrival measurement values under a controlled environment and sampling N2 set of the angle of arrival measurement values under the controlled environment, (ii) performing a proximal policy optimization training on sampled N1 set of angle of arrival measurement values, and sampled N2 set of angle of arrival measurement values by correcting the obtained angle of arrival measurement values after testing the angle of arrival measurement values based on the proximal policy optimization, wherein the AoA estimation model is trained using RSSI information of the Bluetooth signals.

10. A method for identifying an occupancy of at least one parking slot (102A) of a parking environment (112) and minimizing a driving time to reach the at least one parking slot (102A) using a shortest path, thereby reducing carbon emissions of a vehicle (122), the method comprises,
sensing, using a plurality of occupancy sensors (104A-N), an occupancy condition of the at least one parking slot (102A) in the parking environment (112), wherein the plurality of occupancy sensors (104A-N) is placed in the at least one parking slot (102A), wherein the occupancy condition is defined as the at least one parking slot (102A) being unoccupied such that the plurality of occupancy sensors (104A-N) do not send any signal to a server (114) for a certain time;
generating, using a plurality of Bluetooth signal mesh tags (106A-N), Bluetooth signals when the occupancy condition of the at least one parking slot (102A) is sensed by the plurality of occupancy sensors (104A-N), wherein the plurality of Bluetooth signal mesh tags (106A-N) is electrically connected to the plurality of occupancy sensors (104A-N) placed in the at least one parking slot (102A);
receiving, by a plurality of angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array (110A-N) comprising a plurality of receiver antennas positioned at a known location, the Bluetooth signals from the plurality of Bluetooth signal mesh tags (106A-N), wherein the plurality of receiver antennas sends the received Bluetooth signals to the server (114), wherein the plurality of receiver antennas are communicatively connected to the server (114);
capturing, by a camera (126) that is placed at an entry (124) of the parking environment (112), at least one image of the vehicle (122) that is entering the parking environment (112);
processing (i) the at least one image of the vehicle (122) that is received from the camera (126) to obtain an image data using an optical character recognition method, (ii) analyzing, using an AoA estimation model, the angle of arrival of the Bluetooth signals based on RSSI (received signal strength indicator) information in conjunction with known positions of the plurality of angle of arrival (AoA) antenna array (110A-N) to determine a location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition;
allotting a unique identification number to the vehicle (122) using the image data;
assigning the vehicle (122) with the unique identification number to the location of the at least one parking slot (102A) with the occupancy condition that is determined; and
generating a shortest path to the location of the at least one parking slot with the occupancy condition by calculating the shortest path between the entry of the parking environment (112) and the location of assigned parking slot by (i) determining consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals that are obtained between the entry (124) of the parking environment (112), and the location of the assigned parking slot, (ii) determining a plurality of paths between the entry (124) and the assigned parking slot using the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals, wherein the consecutive adjacent Bluetooth signals are used to calculate the location, (iii) determining a number of Bluetooth signals in each determined path, and (iv) generating the shortest path among the plurality of paths for which the number of Bluetooth signals is least, minimizing the driving time to reach the at least one parking slot (102A) using the shortest path, thereby reducing carbon emissions of the vehicle (112).