Hi! I have been assigned a project to track a vehicle's location within a multi storey carpark. I am unable to use GPS as the carpark has very thick walls. We rarely get any handphone signal in these car parks.
Basically, the driver can drive a vehicle from level 5, lot 2 and later on park it on another level and lot.
I need to be able to locate the vehicle in its latest position.
I hope someone can give me suggestions and guidance as I am new to RFID and arduino
Is this a theoretical (school) project, or do you have to build it?
The former is fairly easy - but you'll need a few RFID readers, and some software logic.
The latter will be quite expensive.
It is hard to see how you can do this with RFID.
How many bays are in the car park?
Are you going to have an rfid reader at each bay?
is it only one particular vehicle you want to track or are you trying to track every vehicle that enters?
How and where will the rfid be attached to the vehicle/s ?
Thank you for replying. It has to be built.
I think I have to have a reader at every lot.
I will need to locate armoured vehicles in a carpark that can hold up to 500 vehicles.
I managed to find ruggardised rfid tags online.
Driver will use vehicle for some drills and then park the vehicle in any available lot and leave. The technical crew has to locate the vehicle to do maintenance.
"armoured vehicle" suggests "military" to me.
Your customer isn't going to be happy about attaching devices which could make the targetting of their vehicles easier.
Depending on the layout of the car park, you may be able to infer the location by clever tracking as the vehicle moves through the facility.
Assuming they have to stay within certain paths.... defined by walls etc, you may be able to reduce the ratio of readers to bays by 50% or more.
Get your hands on several readers and tags to prove the performance.
Then you’re in a much better place to do some real testing with the building and vehicles/tags.
There is still a software aspect to this, which is not a newbie challenge.
You will need to track each vehicle, score it’s reader hits, and ignore impossible outcomes (e.g. an already occupied bay, or access ramp).
Remember you must be able to add, activate, associate, and pull specific tags offline during normal operations.
Of course, this could all become moot by putting visual tags (or a combination) on each vehicle - and performing optical recognition as they moves through the facility.
Cross matching the tags, pre-existing, and those already known ‘on the road’ status to detect any duplicates or phonies..
bikergal1981:
....
I will need to locate armoured vehicles in a carpark that can hold up to 500 vehicles.I managed to find ruggardised rfid tags online.
....
That explains the 'car' park having very thick walls 
It also puts a different slant on the project. In most situations fitting 500 rfid readers would not be sensible, but in this case it might.
Do you have a link to the technical specs of the RFID you are thinking of using?
The tag will have to be on the outside of the vehicle.
You did not answer the question about how and where the rfid will be attached to the vehicle?
Does the driver get the equivalent of a parking ticket each time a vehicle enters or is the tag permanently attached?
Have you consider the driver getting a token on entry that he drops into a machine at the bay when he parks?
Does this have to be an rfid solution, is there already camera surveillance and do the vehicles have visible identity markings?
WiFi triangulation seems like a good optiin here.
???? Why?
RFID trilateration (triangulation) will be infinitely cheaper than WiFi, draw no power from the vehicles etc.
KISS. Driver gets token on entry, parks vehicle, puts token in reader at bay.
There is probably going to be a lot of internal reinforced concrete in this place as well as the armoured vehicles themselves. So any kind of triangulation might be a bit hit and miss.
The only snag would be if the driver forgot to put the token in the reader. Maybe the reader could also detect that a vehicle had been parked in its bay and sound a beeper / flash a light until the token was read.
Of course the rfid has to somehow be related to the vehicle, so some kind of association would have to be done as the vehicle entered the park. I don't really see permanently attaching rfids to the outside of armoured vehicles working, too rough an environment.
bikergal1981:
I will need to locate armoured vehicles in a carpark that can hold up to 500 vehicles.
I managed to find ruggardised rfid tags online.
You could look for e.g. RfId Windshield Tags.
When you have a suitable tag, the type and operating frequency should lead you to readers you can use.
I suppose an Arduino could come into the solution by getting data from the tag reader and shoving it down an RS485 network or something.
Yours,
TonyWilk
Why try to reinvent something when it is already available, https://www.panmobil.com/single-post/Tested-RFID-Technology-suitable-for-vehicle-identification..
Paul
From the linked page above
he maximum distance between the vehicle and the Scanner has been measured 12 meters and a possible speed of 150 kilometer per hour.
Coming to a war-zone near you: Smart IEDs.
CtrlAltElite:
From the linked page above
Coming to a war-zone near you: Smart IEDs.
RFID passports don't seem like a good idea to me either. A Smart IED could wait until it detects the proximity of a number of people of a target nationality, or even a specific individual.
ardly:
A Smart IED could wait until it detects the proximity of a number of people of a target nationality, or even a specific individual.
You know the meaning of the I in IED, don't you?
Of course these things may be technically possible (until the passports are kept in a metal lined pouch), but it involves a bit of a higher skill level.
"I" Is for "improvised".
You'd be amazed how sophisticated some of the people who build IEDs are.
Sophisticated enough to put heaters in the dummies they use to drive their remotely-operated car bombs, to fool the thermal cameras of the defenders.