Innovation: Top 3 Features of the New Fastprk2 Prototype

The benefits of Parking Management Systems are manifold: from less traffic, to reduced pollution and new revenue streams for cities and parking operators – Smart Parking is one of the most adopted and fastest growing Smart City Solutions across the globe.

Automated parking technologies help cities prepare for the challenges of tomorrow caused by a growing urban population. Metropolises will need technologies like Smart Parking to manage the increasing complexity of inner-city traffic and related issues.

The IoT and connected parking spaces

To go smart, cities first need to connect their parking spaces to the Internet of Things (IoT) by installing smart sensors which transmit information about on-street space usage to the city control room or parking operator. By analyzing Smart Parking Data, cities are enabled to not only reduce CO2 emissions, but also to automate processes, such as online payment and automatic parking time notifications. One crucial factor for setting up a sustainable Parking Management Automation System is being able to rely on the data that become available for analysis.

Reliable Smart Parking Data

With Fastprk, Worldsensing not only offers the leading on-street Parking Management System, but is also the only Smart City Provider who guarantees a detection rate of 98%, the highest in the market. By combining magnetic and infrared vehicle detection techniques, the EU-funded project Fastprk2, which is a H2020-SME-Instrument coordinated by Worldsensing, aims to accomplish accuracy of close to 100%.

First functional prototype rolled out

The Fastprk2 innovation project recently reached a significant milestone by developing a first functional prototype of the new Smart Parking System after one year of successful technical development. Functional tests confirmed that besides making the current Fastprk system more competitive, Fastprk2 will reduce operating costs, consumes less energy and will offer new features in line with market requirements. The innovation project pursues to accomplish three core concepts once the project will have come to an end in May 2018:

1. New Smart Parking Sensor

Being able to detect vehicles accurately is a core part of any Parking Management System. The Fastprk2 project team has developed a new, advanced sensor to guarantee the best detection performance combined with a lower than average consumption rate at an affordable price. The main novelty of the new sensor over its predecessor is that it makes use of two different sensors working on a tandem approach; a triple-axis magnetic device and an infrared (IR-) sensor. Through a new and energy-efficient detection algorithm, the accuracy of the sensor is expected to be above 99% in optimal conditions.

2. Innovative Parking Management Software Platform

Fastprk2 goes beyond being a pure Parking Occupancy Monitoring & Management System. It will provide tools for integrating data, managing resources and advanced approaches for controlling parking facilities and other assets. To align the final Fastprk2 system with the product and solution portfolio of Worldsensing, the services included in the new system will go beyond Smart Parking and will be offered on a new software platform.

3. Intelligent Transport Services

According to the European Commission, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) are vital for increasing safety and tackle Europe’s growing CO2 emission and traffic congestion problems. They can make transport safer, more efficient and more sustainable by applying various information and communication technologies to passenger and freight transport. Fastprk2 will offer transport related operational intelligence features, which will be novel, turnkey services for both citizens and city operators.

Fastprk2 will include the following eight transport services:

• Parking occupancy detection,
• Parking guidance and recommendation,
• Traffic forecasting (predictive traffic analysis),
• Sustainable traffic (allows designing mobility concepts to tackle pollution and control energy consumption levels),
• Dynamic parking pricing,
• Automated parking payment,
• Automated parking enforcement and
• Anomaly detection (in built triggers and alarms with regards to e.g. parking occupancy patterns)

In the coming months, Fastprk2 faces the second project phase with a special focus on field trials. Worldsensing will carry out pilots in selected European locations such as Spain, Poland and Belgium, which will provide meaningful data necessary to improve and validate this new Parking Management Technology.

Conclusion

Smart Parking Systems are a key part of any city´s strategy to go smart. Deploying a functioning system offers economic and environmental benefits for cities, parking operators and citizens. Urban environments have many interference factors which can distort the quality of data captured by parking detection technologies such as different types of vehicles, obstacles such as buildings, construction sites, etc. This is why it is essential to work with an accurate Parking Management System which guarantees a high level of data reliability.

While Fastprk, Worldsensing´s leading Parking Management System, already offers an above average reliability rate of 98%, the advanced Smart Parking System Fastprk2 will provide cities and operators with an even higher accuracy of close to 100%. By combining both magnetic and infrared detection technologies and enriching the smart sensors with an enhanced Smart Parking Software Platform for data analytics and automation, the EU-funded innovation project promises to become a new reference for Smart Parking Management.

About Worldsensing

Worldsensing is a widely recognized global IoT pioneer. Founded in 2008, the Barcelona-based technology provider delivers Operational Intelligence to traditional industries and cities. With over 70 employees and offices in Barcelona, London and Los Angeles, Worldsensing is globally active and has already conducted projects in over 50 countries across 5 continents.