Smart community maintenance ecosystem with self-reporting and self-diagnostic IoT sensors

Finding a vacant parking space in outdoor parking lots is a daily concern of most vehicle drivers during rush hours, especially in the urban context. In this paper, an outdoor parking space vacancy detection system is proposed, using mobile devices to improve parking space searching experience for vehicle drivers by providing them with the location and occupancy information of parking spaces. The system uses state-of-the-art image recognition algorithm, namely Convolutional Neural Network with a Raspberry Pi to identify vacant parking spaces from a parking lot image retrieved in real time via an IP camera. A university parking lot has been chosen as the test bed to deploy the proposed system for real time parking space vacancy detection. An Android smartphone application called Driver App is developed to enable ubiquitous visualization of real time outdoor parking spaces occupancy information for vehicle drivers. Evaluation outcomes based on the responses to System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire revealed high usability of the Driver App as a tool that provides smart parking service to assist vehicle drivers in searching for a vacant parking space.

With the increasing population in urban areas, finding a vacant parking space has always been the biggest problem for drivers, which causes a series of issues such as energy waste and environmental pollution. Most outdoor parking lots cannot provide details of vacant parking spaces due to limited sensor technology in outdoor environments (i.e., poor resistance to external interference due to heat, light or signal noise). Although some studies are based on images captured by cameras, the existing vacancy detection methods using fixed-position surveillance cameras are not flexible and accurate enough for wide use. We propose an Inclined Bounding Box (IBB) method for detecting vacant parking spaces using aerial images. The IBB method takes advantage of the feature-description ability of deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to identify the status of parking spaces and develops an inclined bounding boxes calibration algorithm on the top layer of CNN architecture. The proposed IBB method can automatically identify parking spaces, locate vacant parking spaces with any direction and detect multiple parking spaces simultaneously. The experimental results show that the proposed IBB method is more accurate than the three counterpart methods.

Due to the large volumes of modern vehicles in metropolises, finding a vacant parking space has become an irritating and frustrating problem for drivers, particularly in a congested area, such as sport centers, shopping malls, and downtown [1]. The extra traffic cruising for parking spaces brings serious social problems, including traffic congestion, vehicle accident, fuel waste, and air pollution [2]. Although Google Maps and portable navigators assist drivers to discover parking garages in destinations, drivers are then faced with a problem that no vacant parking space are available [3].

In large parking area attached to shopping malls and so on, it is difficult to find a vacant parking space. In addition, searching for parking space during long time leads to drivers stress and wasteful energy loss. In order to solve these problems, the navigation system in parking area by using ZigBee networks is proposed in this paper. The ZigBee is expected to realize low power consumption wireless system with low cost. Moreover, the ZigBee can form ad-hoc network easily and more than 65000 nodes can connect at the same time. Therefore, it is suitable for usage in the large parking area. In proposed system, the shortest route to the vacant parking space is transmitted to the own vehicle by the ZigBee ad-hoc network. Thus, the efficient guide is provided to the drivers. To show the effectiveness of the proposed parking system, the average time for arrival in the parking area is evaluated, and the performance of the vehicles that equips the ZigBee terminals is compared with the ordinary vehicles that do not equip the ZigBee terminals.

Modeling Parking

In today's world, time is the most valuable asset and this paper focuses on developing a smart parking system for smart cities. Its main objective is to assist users to find a vacant location of car parking in a shorter time. The system displays occupied and vacant parking spots on LCD, making it convenient for the users to park. This parking system is based on sensors and cloud server integration. The working principle is divided into two phases. In the first phase, the ultrasonic sensor is used to detect vacant or occupied car parking space and display it on the screen using cloud technology. In the second phase, the improper parking of the car is detected by IR sensors. It alerts the driver with a buzzer if the car is not parked in the parking boundary. Moving further, some important features of this parking system are also discussed followed by, components required and their description. Towards the end of the paper, this parking system is compared with other alternative smart parking systems, the comparisons prove the correctness of our system over others.

The sustainability agenda requires that designers address the impact of their design on the environment, society, natural resources and economics. These issues have always been fundamental to good bridge design and have resulted in continued innovation of our designs and design procedures. For example the recent move towards integral bridges in the UK, to improve durability and maintenance issues, has increased the complexity of bridge analysis. Conceptual design provides the key to ensuring sustainable designs. This paper provides two such examples: • The A66 Boathouse Bridge, a single span integral bridge over a live dual carriageway designed to minimise disruption to road users and public utilities. The design concept also ensures a simple and safe construction, economy, durability and low maintenance. • The Falkirk Aqueduct, a multi span canal aqueduct that forms part of a successful visitor attraction on what was formerly a contaminated brown-field site. Key features of the design concept include aesthetics, durability, buildability, maintenance and economics. Procedures need to be developed that can better assess the complex balance of issues that affect the sustainability of our designs and recognise the role that concrete will play in the development of sustainable bridges. Introduction Conceptual Design Integral Bridges A66 Boathouse Bridge Falkirk Aqueduct Conclusions

Streetlights are among the essential public infrastructure components for both urban and rural areas. It allows people to provide a clear vision at night and brings convenience to society. A Smart Street Lighting System uses IoT sensors and can interact with software to improve its effectiveness and utility. Since streetlights must be turned on for the entire duration of the night, it is essential to find ways of reducing energy consumption to actualize a greener society. It can be done by integrating sensors that can detect movements and control the way streetlights behave through the gathered data. This research aims to reduce the energy consumption needed for the operation of streetlights by applying appropriate IoT based techniques. An extensive discussion on the existing literature and similar systems reviews the current developments critically. The research gathered public insights through a quantitative research approach and applied this information in recommending a solution. With the help of a prototyping model, the authors demonstrated how a Smart Street Lighting System could achieve optimal performance.

Smart Cities, Homes and Communities are the spaces where IoT sensors are used to the fullest in the Utilities sector. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) providing the peer-to-peer communication between metering equipment that reads, calculate and provides the information related to distribution and measure the consumption. This paper outlines the network monitoring and management architecture that can be used in Smart Cities, homes and communities using the integrated IoT and Blockchain technology. Blockchain technology provides trustworthy resource monitoring of utilities for all members of the smart community that in-turn benefit the members of smart communities with enhanced monitoring and optimize the consumption of resources in protected and transparent way.

Solar Charge Controller (SCC) with Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is needed to extract maximum energy from photovoltaic. However, a SCC device with MPPT technology feature is expensive on the market due to the requirements for a high-power system. On the other hand, in lower power applications such as IoT sensors, solar street lights, and wireless communication nodes, these types of controllers can be produced at a lower cost. In this study, the design of a low-cost SCC was conducted using the MPPT technology for low-power solar applications. The SCC is designed based on the Arduino microcontroller, which has the role of controlling the circuit and producing PWM signals to regulate the DC-DC converter. Several tests were conducted to validate the efficiency of the MPPT algorithm. The SCC device succeeded in increasing efficiency up to 52% on the low irradiance level.

In this paper, we proposed a new multi-layer discriminative framework for vacant parking space detection. From bottom to top, the framework consists of an image feature extraction layer, a patch classification layer, a weighted combination layer, and a status inference layer. In the feature extraction layer, the framework extracts lighting-invariant features to relieve the effects from lighting and shadow. In the patch classification layer, image patches are selected. In order To overcome perspective distortion, each patch was normalized. For different patch, we trained classifiers to recognize the occlusion patterns, which are treated as the middle-level feature of the parking status. In the weighted combination layer, three spaces are grouped as a unit to easily handle inter-object occlusion. Based on the middle-level features, a boosted space classifier was trained to determine the local status of a 3-space unit. In the status inference layer, we regarded these local status decisions as high-level evidences and inferred the final status of the parking lot. The results in an outdoor parking lot show our system can well handle inter-object occlusion and achieve robust vacant space detection under many environmental variations. A real-time system was also implemented to demonstrate its computing efficiency.

Currently Indonesia apply new gross split production sharing contracts for the oil & gas industry. Regulation of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Number 8 of 2017 on Gross Split Production Sharing Contracts sets out a new economic structure for production sharing contracts (PSC) based on dividing gross production between the state and PSC Contractors, without a mechanism for the PSC Contractor to recover operating costs. For mature field, high operating cost regarding low production, high maintenance, and integrity issues are challenging for this new regulation. To optimize operating cost with robust and prudent planning is one of the key of success in this era. Pertamina Hulu Energi Offshore North West Java (PHE ONWJ) has started gross split scheme since January 2017 which start a new era of production sharing contracts. With the start of gross split scheme, prioritization of production is the main objective, to gain maximum productivity in terms of operating and lifting cost. The methodology to optimize operating cost is by prioritizing productive remote well platform, Normally Unmanned Installation (NUI), by ranking of potential development and its production volume. The non-potential and non-productive NUI then be assessed to be shut off or run to fail. The assessment conducted using technical and economic approach to obtain optimized result. For non-potential and productive NUI, assessment to gain more production with minimum cost is conducted. Then, development could be focused on potential and productive NUI. Foxtrot, one of flow station in PHE ONWJ working area, has eight active NUIs that are FA, FK, FG, FFB, FNB, FWB, HZEA, and HZEB. By conducting ranking of potential development and its production volume, company could focus on five Foxtrot NUIs for development (FK, FG, FFB, FWB & HZEA), two NUIs for optimization (FNB & FA), and one NUI that potential to be shut-off, HZEB. This action on the non-potential and non-productive NUI shut off could yet decrease operating cost by IDR 8.8 Billion/ year, eliminate potential personal hazard, and reduce system's backpressure due to its low API crude oil. Oil and Gas Company that operates old facilities in mature field could apply this approach to maintain their production by focusing on beneficial asset yet decrease operating cost.

SummaryIn big cities, the drivers face a major problem in identifying an optimal vacant parking space for their vehicles as the number of vehicles has rapidly grown over the recent years. This objective of determining the available parking space results in wastage of time, air pollution, and traffic congestion. Smart parking systems facilitate the driver to book parking slots and attain real‐time parking information. However, the existing smart parking solutions necessitate the disclosure of sensitive information like desired destination from the vehicle drivers. Moreover, the current smart parking solutions are highly centralized, making them vulnerable for launching privacy breaches by service providers and resulting in the issues of single‐point failure. In this paper, ring signature and improved multi‐transaction mode consortium blockchain‐based private information retrieval (RS‐IMTMCB‐PIR) scheme is proposed for privacy preserving in smart parking system. This RS‐IMTMCB‐PIR scheme initially utilizes an improved multi‐transaction mode consortium blockchain constructed by different number of parking lot owners in order to achieve maximized parking offers based on the factor of availability, transparency, and security. It incorporates an improved private information retrieval approach for protecting the location privacy of drivers and secretly retrieving the offers of parking from the improved multi‐transaction mode consortium blockchain. It further utilizes the benefits of ring signature for permitting the drivers in a potential anonymous authentication process that aids in available parking slot reservation. The simulation results of this proposed RS‐IMTMCB‐PIR scheme portrayed a predominant performance in ensuring maximized degree of drivers' privacy with reduced computation and communication overheads.

In China, finding a vacant parking space in a congested area or a large parking lot is always time consuming and frustrating. To minimize hassle and inconvenience to the automatic drivers, this paper proposed a novel smart parking system which consists of many parking sensor nodes and one parking gateway in one large parking lot. Parking sensor node is used as vehicle occupancy detector and parking gateway is used as parking lot manager. All parking sensor nodes compose wireless sensor networks with Zigbee transmission protocol. With the GPRS/3G transmission function of parking gateway, large parking lot can provide friendly parking information to the running vehicles and subscribed users. In a word, the proposed novel smart parking system is provided with innovative and practicability.

With the rapid growth of vehicles availability and usage in recent years, it has become difficult to find a vacant parking space in the mall which in turn results in frustrations and practical conflicts. This paper comes with building an efficient system that performs the task of identifying free slots in a parking area and maintaining the time and paying duration and also to have record about the parked vehicles. This system also does the job of calculating the payment and collecting thereby reducing the human efforts and time wasted on line to a great extent.. The various steps involved in this operation are vehicle identification, free slot detection and payment calculation. Vehicle is verified using camera, free slots are detected using display and payment is calculated on the basis of period of parking using RFID.