BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The invention relates generally to smart city. More specifically, the invention generally relates to technologies used in a smart parking control system and a smart parking control method.

Background Art

The concept of “smart city” has emerged in recent years as the technology of Internet-of-Things (IoT) develops. While there is no scientific definition of a smart city, it is generally believed that a smart city, compared with a traditional city, should have a higher level of automation and better form of coordination in city infrastructure so as to bring convenience and efficiency to people's life.

Park infrastructure is an important component of a city. In a conceptual smart city, it is desired that parking control be conducted “smartly,” with an increased level of automation and an improved level of coordination between parkers, parking property management, and city regulators. Accordingly, there have been studies on various aspects of “smart parking” ranging from detecting parking authorization, measuring parking time, billing, and enforcing parking regulations in case of violations.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

In one aspect, the disclosure relates to a parking control method. The includes: detecting, by a sensor coupled to a parking spot in a parking lot, a vehicle entering the parking spot; transmitting, by the sensor and to a cloud server, a first wireless signal; recording, by the cloud server upon reception of the first wireless signal, an entry time of the vehicle; dispatching, by the cloud server, a mobile robot device to the parking spot; capturing, by the mobile robot device, identification information of the vehicle using a camera; transmitting, by the mobile robot device and to the cloud server, a second wireless signal including the identification information of the vehicle; detecting, by the sensor, the vehicle exiting the parking spot; transmitting, by the sensor and to the cloud server, a third wireless signal; recording, by the cloud server upon reception of the third wireless signal, an exit time of the vehicle; calculating, by the cloud server, a parking duration between the entry time and the exit time; and determining, based on the identification information and the parking duration, whether the parking duration has exceeded a predetermined duration.

In another aspect, the disclosure relates to a parking control system. The parking control system includes: a cloud server coupled to a transceiver; a sensor including a sensing circuit and a transmitter, the sensor being coupled to a parking spot in a parking lot; and a mobile robot device including a transceiver and a camera. The sensor detects, by the sensing circuit, a vehicle entering the parking spot, and transmits, by the transmitter and to the cloud server, a first wireless signal. The cloud server, upon reception of the first wireless signal by the transceiver of the cloud server, records an entry time of the vehicle, and dispatches the mobile robot device to the parking spot. The mobile robot device captures identification information of the vehicle by the camera, and transmits, by the transceiver of the mobile robot device and to the cloud server, a second wireless signal including the identification information. The sensor further detects, by the sensing circuit, the vehicle exiting the parking spot, and transmits, by the transmitter and to the cloud server, a third wireless signal. The cloud server, upon reception of the third wireless signal by the transceiver of the cloud server, records an exit time of the vehicle. The cloud server further calculates a parking duration between the entry time and the exit time of the vehicle, and determines, based on the identification information and the parking duration, whether the parking duration has exceeded a predetermined duration.

In another aspect, the disclosure relates to a mobile robot device in communication with a cloud server and a sensor coupled to a parking lot in a parking lot. The mobile robot device includes a transceiver, a camera, a processor, and a memory. The memory stores a map of the parking lot. The transceiver receives a dispatch signal from the cloud server, the dispatch signal indicating that the sensor has detected a vehicle entering or exiting the parking lot. The processor navigates the map to direct the mobile robot device to the parking spot. Upon arriving at the parking spot, the mobile robot device captures identification information of the vehicle by the camera, and transmits, by the transceiver of the mobile robot device and to the cloud server, a wireless signal including the identification information.

Other aspects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.

