Report contributions

1. Transmittal letter

Team RISE


19 March 2023


CapitaLand Facility Management Team


Dear Mdm Tan,


Proposal for the implementation of ParkingGoWhere: A Car Park availability application to reduce traffic congestion within Car Parks


We are a group of undergraduate engineers from the Singapore Institute of Technology and we are writing to you in response to the request for proposals for improvement on a particular technological device, system or process design. CapitaLand has once again proved to be a powerhouse in Singapore’s retail industry with its latest mall, Sengkang Grand Mall. If granted the opportunity, we would like to propose a solution that would further enhance your company’s reputation and profitability. 


Through extensive research and evaluation, our team identified a problem: the difficulty of finding available parking lots. We strongly believe that with our proposed solution, ParkingGoWhere, CapitaLand will be able to improve congestion and customer satisfaction. ParkingGoWhere aims to provide users with mall recommendations and real-time parking availability information, bringing convenience to users as they would spend less time trying to find a vacant lot. By reducing congestion in your malls, we expect CapitaLand to enjoy increased revenue and greater customer loyalty.


We would like to extend our gratitude to you for taking the time to read this letter, and we hope that you would consider our proposed design solution. It would be a great pleasure to collaborate with you to achieve our shared goal of delivering exceptional customer value and experience. We look forward to hearing from you soon.


Yours Sincerely, 

Jazlyn Catalan

On behalf of Team RISE


2.

  1. Existing Sensors Used in Car Parks

In indoor car parks, which are commonly found in shopping malls, ultrasonic sensors along with LED indicators are used to determine the vacancy of a lot. As seen in figure 4, these sensors are installed directly above the individual lots in a car park.


According to Parklio (n.d.), Ultrasonic sensors emit high-frequency sound waves and use the reflected energy to determine a vehicle’s presence in the lot. This data is then sent to a database where it is cross-checked with an algorithm that determines if a parking spot is vacant. Depending on the vacancy of the lot, the colour of the LED indicator changes, with the indicator turning green when the spot is vacant, and red when it is occupied. 


With the advancement of technology, camera-based sensors are becoming more commonly used in indoor car parks due to its ability to identify a vehicle by its licence plate. According to Parklio (n.d.), the camera sensor captures the image of the parking lot when a vehicle is in the lot and is sent to a server for image processing. Similarly, the information is displayed in the form of the LED indicator, whereby the indicator turns green when vacant  and red when occupied .


Figure 4

Overhead indicator sensors in indoor car parks

Note. Figure 4 shows overhead indicator sensors used in indoor car parks (Licence plates were blurred for the personal protection of the vehicle owners). Taken by Team RISE.


Ideally, sensors should be able to help vehicle owners identify an available parking lot more easily due to the colour of the LED above the respective lots. 

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