Smart city application for assisted car parking in China

The number of cars in Beijing has grown quickly as urbanisation and modernisation have progressed. Today, the capital has over 5m registered vehicles and only 1.5m available parking spaces. Chinese ministries are launching major programmes focused upon achieving sustainable urban development. The Chinese smart city initiatives, driven by national and local governments, are intended to improve efficiency of cities and aim to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability through the systematic integration of ICT solutions into their planning, design, operations and management.

GreenPeak Technologies and Dusun Electron have launched a Smart Parking application for smart phones that guides car drivers to an available parking space. Based on individually selected criteria such as the walking distance to the destination from the parking space and the parking tariff selected, the application guides the user to the nearest available parking space in just a few clicks. Inside the parking lot, every parking space is equipped with a wireless sensor that detects if the parking space is empty and reflects availability in floor and row signage on car guidance displays. GreenPeak Technologies has developed the sensor technology, the radio chip and the networking technology. Building on this, Dusun Electron has developed the cloud infrastructure and Smart Parking application. The gateway sends the parking availability information to the cloud environment where the data is analysed for display in the mobile app and parking location signage.

GreenPeak’s solution provides the low cost communication system and easy to install software. One of the GreenPeak advantages is the long battery life of over 5 years for the wireless sensors. GreenPeak’s patented radio technology guarantees best range and optimal signal quality, even in concrete and steel parking lot structures.

The benefits for car park operators are significant: low cost installation due to absence of wiring, low cost maintenance due to long battery life, easy and reliable operation due to the self-learning algorithms in the sensors, and high detection reliability. Additionally, the system provides opportunities to further enhance the application with value added services to further optimise revenues. The first implementation of the system is developed for use in the smart city programme of the city of Wuxi, Jiangsu province.

“The smart car parking system is an integrated solution that combines gateways, sensors, cloud infrastructure and the smart parking application. A single gateway can connect up to 200 sensors, which is a cost effective solution as the price of our sensors start at $15 per unit and gateway at $25,” says Tiny CAO, Vice President, Dusun Electron. “The smart parking system is a very important cooperative project with GreenPeak. Based on the Dusun Electron smart parking system for big data analysis, we can provide practical and detailed comprehensive data for urban construction parking management to urban government, which includes usage rates for city parking areas, density of parked city vehicles, analysis of expected garage building requirements, etc.”

“A critical key to solving congestion problems is by better organising traffic. Streamlining the process for people to find parking spaces is essential for enhanced and controlled vehicle routing and reducing unnecessary traffic. This new system requires a small investment and provides a tremendous improvement,” comments Cees Links, Founder and CEO, GreenPeak Technologies. “Working with an experienced partner like Dusun Electron allows us to offer an effective total solution and a large improvement on the parking experience. Both companies are committed to ground breaking smart city innovations that will deliver efficient and stress-free parking.”