I am in the process of developing an automated car parking project. The main theme is that when The Car arrives a signal goes to the parking machine or a device and the camera takes the pic of the number plate and stores in the DB and when the car exits the pic is again taken, compares and after some calculations of the fare the barrier opens and the car leaves.
Now, to accomplish this task, i.e. to recognize that A Car has arrived, what is the suitable sensor.
An Inductive Loop
A Load Cell and HX711 or
any other sensor which can accomplish the job
Though, this job can be done with a an ANPR Camera, but I've already done this with a simple camera with a push button. When the driver arrives at the parking machine they (the drivers) press the button and receive the parking ticket, The pic of the Licence Plate is taken, converted to text and saved in the DB. I just want to remove the manual intervention and do the same job with the help of sensors and Arduino.
There are a great many commercial vehicle sensors out there as a Google search will reveal.
If this is a commercial product (you are charging for parking) then if it were me I would be approaching the companies that sell these products for details of purchase and installation cost plus contracts for maintenance and repair. I would not be too concerned as to what technology there were using.
fusioner:
Now, to accomplish this task, i.e. to recognize that A Car has arrived, what is the suitable sensor.
[/quote]
So what if a minivan arrives? Or a small truck? Or another non-car vehicle? You want to distinguish those as well?
But indeed for a commercial car park where those things have to Just Work (imagine something fails and people are overcharged or simply not let out or so) best go for an off the shelf product. It's likely to be cheaper than building it yourself (unless you don't charge anything for your time spent building/testing it).
I have already developed a car parking management system. I consists of a parking machine, an inhouse developed LPR engine, a barrier system and an exit system. Its running very well in some of the malls for the past 2 years. The only thing is that the drivers have to push a button and get the tickets. When the tickets are dispensed, the system captures the number plate image and when at the time of exit the exit operator scans the ticket, if the image is verified the operator collects the amount and the vehicle is out.The barrier system was recently modified and uses an arduino UNO with an ethernet shield to run the exit system.Now, I just wanted to replace the button at the entrance machine with a sensor. as soon as it senses a Car, SUV or a truck the entrance machine, the driver need not press the button, instead the machine dispenses the ticket automatically.