First deployment for Libelium's Smart Parking sensor platform

Spain-headquartered Libelium, a specialist in wireless sensor networks, has announced the launch of its Waspmote-based Smart Parking platform, part of the company’s smart cities solution designed to be buried in parking spaces and to detect the arrival and departure of vehicles. The company says the platform, which will allow system integrators to offer comprehensive parking management solutions to city councils, will shortly be deployed in Santander, Spain.
January 27, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

Spain-headquartered 740 Libelium, a specialist in wireless sensor networks, has announced the launch of its Waspmote-based Smart Parking platform, part of the company’s smart cities solution designed to be buried in parking spaces and to detect the arrival and departure of vehicles. The company says the platform, which will allow system integrators to offer comprehensive parking management solutions to city councils, will shortly be deployed in Santander, Spain.

Libelium’s Smart Parking sensors can be buried in parking spaces and communicate with the rest of the sensor network using Waspmote’s ZigBee radio. According to Alicia Asín, CEO of Libelium,  “The first deployment of the platform will be with 742 SmartSantander – a unique city-scale experiment in applications of smart city technology which is already considered as a reference in the Smart Cities field”. In fact, the Network Planning and Mobile Communications Group from the University of Cantabria contributed to the testing and performance improvement of the sensor. Initially, 100 nodes are being installed in a pilot while the next phase will cover around 800 nodes in parking slots and street lights, for measuring environmental parameters, but eventually, around 12,000 sensors will be installed over the next three years.

According to Asín, Waspmote’s outstanding power management and over the air programming (OTA) mean that, once installed, parking sensors do not need to be accessed for years. Motes only need to transmit when a parking event – a vehicle arriving or leaving a space – takes place. With suitable batteries a sensor can operate for five years before it needs to be physically accessed for battery replacement. OTA programming enables the software for entire networks to be upgraded efficiently over the radio network without digging up the parking spaces. The low maintenance involved in smart parking sensor networks means that networks with hundreds of nodes can readily be deployed.

Smart parking sensors communicate with their gateway via radios at either 2.4 GHz or 868/900 MHz. For 2.4 GHz ZigBee connections, mesh networks are implemented with routing motes located in street lights. For the lower frequency radios, it is possible for parking sensors to communicate directly with the gateway as the propagation distance is longer.

Parking & Access Control Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision Classification & Data Collection

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Denver making smart parking meters smarter
    May 29, 2012
    In the US state of Colorado, the Denver Public Works is installing 500 sensors in the streets in order make its smart parking meters smarter. In the 90-day test, sensors will communicate with parking meters when a space have been vacated or filled. If the lot is vacated, the meter will be reset to zero. Should the city like the results of the pilot programme, other features may be included into the system such as relaying real-time information to motorists on vacant parking spots in the city via a smartphon
    Read More
  • Sernis lights the way with road studs for harsh conditions
    April 6, 2016
    Portuguese manufacturer Sernis has introduced the SR-40, a reflective road stud that is very much at home in harsh conditions and is snowplough-resistant. Its design includes a solar panel of less than 1W in power, making it perfect for countries with low sun exposure. The stud also has RF low power 868MHz mesh network communication and has microcontroller technology inside each stud. Features include a wake up and sleep function, automatic brightness control and night-level contraction.
    Read More
  • Parkeon changes ANPR platforms
    April 24, 2012
    Parkeon is partnering with Ranger Services, a specialist in the development and application of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology, for the latest version of its ANPR-based off-street parking solution. ParkReg is Parkeon’s successor to ParkingPal, the back-office solution for which the company developed its innovative Strada Touch payment terminal with a full colour 7” touch screen and electronic keyboard.
    Read More
  • Philips Lighting and American Tower Corporation form alliance develop smart street lighting
    September 12, 2017
    Wireless infrastructure provider American Tower Corporation has formed an alliance with Philips Lighting to co-develop a high performance smart street lighting pole for smart city applications in the US. The companies are developing a 4G/5G-enabled LED smart light pole for use in roads, streets and parking lots to improve wireless broadband access in dense urban areas while also providing quality energy-efficient connected LED lighting.
    Read More

Highlighted Content