Project Name: Autonomous Parking Enforcement Vehicle

Project Functional Description:

We are all concerned and dissatisfied with inconsistent parking enforcement, especially when someone violates your promised parking rights, and enforcement services are not readily available. Therefore, we propose an autonomous parking enforcement vehicle that utilizes a camera to scan license plates and LIDAR to navigate parking lots/garages. This vehicle can automatically detect four major kinds of parking violations and provide citation suggestions, providing an all-in-one mobile parking enforcement solution.

There are eight major kinds of parking rule infringement according to this valuable information provided by Purdue Parking: https://www.purdue.edu/parking/citations/reasons.html. Of which, the "Parking without a permit" and "Parking in a reserved space" violation requires most human effort for diligent parking officers to check every vehicle within the parking facility for possible violations. But where and when should the parking officer spend his/her limited time for the most effective result? What if the officer didn't find any violations at 14:00, but a large amount of violation comes in at 16:00 that goes unnoticed?

This vehicle will act as the parking rule's first line of defense. At this stage of project development, this vehicle will be able to detect four major, common kinds of parking violation: 1) In-Database vehicles parking with a wrong permit; 2) Out-Database vehicles parking without a permit; 3) Wrong vehicles parked in a reserved space; 4) Vehicles with non-handicap plates parked in a handicapped space, and provide citation suggestions, but will not be able to make actual, physical enforcement decisions without the presence of a parking enforcement officer. The vehicle will determine if actual human officers should be present to address the present violations by a configurable violation thresold (default at 10 potential violating vehicles), and will also record citation suggestions to each violating vehicle for the officer's reference. There will be three types of citation suggestions, which are all issued digitally. Normal violations (No Permit, Expired Permit, Expired Plates) will result in a standard $35 Fine; Repeated, non-addressed offenses (Failure to pay fines) will result in a $25 Fine; Serious violations (Parking in a reserved space and Improper use of ADA/handicap space) will result in a $100 Fine. The related information can be fond in this treasured document: https://www.purdue.edu/parking/documents/ParkingRegs.pdf

The Autonomous Parking Enforcement Vehicle, or in short, the system, will include a Jetson Orin Nano as its main computing hardware. This 4-Wheel-Drive vehicle, utilizing the onboard Jetson Nano to process data inputs from an onboard frontal navigation camera (webcam #1) and an LIDAR, will be able to navigate itself in indoor and outdoor parking spaces (parking garages/lots). The vehicle will also be able to autonomously identify and process the aforementioned parking violations by streaming video captured through a second camera (webcam #2) to the Jetson Nano. The offending vehicle plate numbers, if visible, will be recorded and an appropriate fine/citation will be decided based on the offense by the parking enforcement vehicle. The vehicle will also be able to identify its own location (to navigate itself) within the parking facilities by applying the SLAM algorithm with a LIDAR while using a dual-band GNSS module for reference information and outdoor conditions.

An STM32 microcontroller is responsible for relaying high-level vehicle control commands issued from Jetson Nano to the robot driver board to drive the DC geared motors. It is also responsible for communicating with low-level hardwares including the GNSS module, the INA219 battery management chip (mentioned below), and the 0.91'' OLED.

Power is intended to be provided to all vehicle systems, including the Jetson Orin Nano, by an onboard, rechargeable lithium-ion battery module from its XH 2.54 Ports. This 3-series 18650 battery pack, managed by an INA219 chip, will step down the voltage (12.6V) to different levels: 12.6V for Jetson Nano, Robot Driver Board, and Motors; 5V for USB powered devices (which can also powered by Jetson Nano); and 3.3V for the microcontroller and GPS. It also manages the charging of the 18650 batteries, and the users will be able to charge this battery pack on-vehicle with a regular 12.6V DC charger or off-vehicle using a regular 18650 battery charger. Vehicle status including battery level will be visible through a small (0.91'') onboard OLED screen.

Actual users and operators of this vehicle (likely the managing team of a parking space), will be able to interface with the vehicle by ssh into the aforementioned onboard Jetson Orin Nano.

These components and softwares are planned to be integrated into one system by ROS2. This project will ensure consistent enforcement and address the inefficiency of manual spot-checking by human officers.

If time (of our senior design project) allows, the vehicle should also be able to identify open parking spaces within the parking facility it is operating at for the benefit of the actual deemed users of this parking space. In addition, the vehicle will be able to send email notifications and citation suggestions (for each individual vehicle) to an external server/database wirelessly to notify parking enforcement officers.

Project Specific Design Requirements (PSDRs):

1. PSDR #1 (Hardware): An ability to send motor control commands from the STM32 microcontroller to the motor driver board via UART.
2. PSDR #2 (Hardware): An ability to transmit data from the STM32 microcontroller to the Jetson Nano via UART.
3. PSDR #3 (Hardware): An ability to display vehicle status on an integrated OLED Screen from the STM32 microcontroller via I2C.
4. PSDR #4 (Software): An ability to identify parking violations and make enforcement decisions from the video stream of the onboard webcam #2(videostream).
5. PSDR #5 (Software): An ability to identify vehicle plate numbers from the video stream of the onboard webcam #2(videostream).
6. Stretch PSDR 1 (Software): An ability to identify open parking spaces within the parking facility via LIDAR information and video stream of the onboard webcam #1(navigation).
7. Stretch PSDR 2 (Software): An ability to have parking enforcement notifications transmitted to an external server/database wirelessly.