Knight-Park

Knight-Park is a easy way to check available parking spaces in a garage. Our Sensors send data to our website, displaying how many parking spots are currently taken on a floor in a garage.

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Inspiration

Our inspiration was the parking garages at Disney Springs. Outside of the garages, there is a clear number count of how many spaces are available on each floor of a garage. We also liked how each spot had a green LED indicating that a spot was available.

What it does

Our project uses sensors to detect whether a car is present in a certain spot. This data is then transferred, via a direct connection, to a simple webpage that displays the current amount of spots taken in a given garage on a given floor.

How we built it

We used an ESP32 microcontroller to control our several sensors representing parking spaces. The sensor we used was a Ultrasonic Ranging Module HC - SR04. We then used a simple micro USB to USB adapter to power the ESP32 and transfer the data it was collecting from the sensors to our locally hosted website. Our website, while build mainly using Javascript, also includes a Python script that reads the Serial monitor and passes that data to our website. Our website was built using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Express JS, React, and Node JS.

Challenges we ran into

Originally wanted to transfer the data wirelessly from the ESP32 to the website. Tried using MQTT, but could not get it to work on UCF's public network. We also tried pivoting to using Bluetooth but could not figure out how to get it to work in time. Additionally, we were going to host the website on a raspberry pi. We also ran out of time and decided to run the website locally using Node JS's "npm start" command.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Actually transferring data from the microcontroller to the python script. Creating a website using React, Node JS, and Express JS, and using an ESP32 with sensors.

What we learned

Partial MERN stack, better understanding of Git VC, Arduino libraries, MQTT network protocols, a little bit on Bluetooth protocols, and Serial ports.

What's next for Knight-Park

Getting Bluetooth or MQTT to work. Hosting the website on Raspberry pi. Updating the website to be more modern looking and compatible on mobile. Include more sensors and possibly a red LED indicating a taken spot.

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