ParkMeDaddy | Devpost

Inspiration

Parking at ERAU is frequently a hassle that makes it difficult to arrive on time to classes. Knowing when to leave in order to arrive on time no matter how many spots are available, would ease this situation. Besides applications to a college campus parking, airports and hospitals are also very applicable scenarios such as arriving at a flight on time or needing to get to the doctor's office quickly.

What it does

ParkMeDaddy is an app that uses a combination of real-time and historical parking data for selected locations to select the best parking lot based on the desired location and gives the user a time to leave. The system takes into account the predicted number of spots available in each lot, as well as the distance between each lot and the desired building to calculate the optimal parking lot.

Three main features are included once a location has been searched and a desired building/gate/entrance chosen: real-time data, appointment making, and historical trends of the found parking lots. With these selections, the user may choose the option of necessity whether they are already on site (real-time), the morning of (appointment) or simply scheduling future commutes (historical weekly trends).

Real-time parking data is provided by (simulated) sensors at the entry and exit points of each parking lot. The number of cars currently in each lot versus the overall capacity along with the percentage filled can be viewed by the user and easily compared.

With this application, parking can become more ergonomic for commuters and thus optimizing traffic flow. The limits are only bound by the ability to incorporate sensors on entry and exit points based on the policies of schools, airports, and hospitals.

How we built it

The main application was written in Java, using JavaFX GUI elements, which were designed for an eventual port to an Android phone.

Our simulated real-time parking sensor was constructed out of an Arduino and an acoustic sensor. Every time a car passes by the sensor, it is counted, and the number of cars that have passed by can later be retrieved by a MATLAB code.