Design of an Embedded System-Based Smart Parking Management Solution for University Campuses in Ibadan

Vehicle congestion and unmanaged parking at the University of Ibadan campus, Oyo State, South West Nigeria, causes daily disruptions to academic and administrative activities. This project designed an embedded system-based smart parking management solution that tracks real-time space availability and guides drivers to vacant spots. IR proximity sensors were installed at each of 30 simulated parking bays, connected to Node MCU ESP8266 WiFi microcontrollers that reported occupancy status to a central Raspberry Pi server via a local WiFi network. An LED indicator (green for vacant, red for occupied) was mounted above each bay, and a 7-segment bay count display at the parking entrance showed total available spaces. A web dashboard provided parking management staff with live occupancy maps, historical utilisation reports, and peak-hour analytics. The system was deployed and tested in a simulated parking lot over 14 days using manually operated bay occupation sequences. Sensor detection accuracy was 99.1 percent across 4,000 occupancy state changes. False vacancy readings due to sensor drift were below 0.4 percent. Dashboard update latency was below 3 seconds. WiFi connectivity reliability was 98.7 percent. Peak-hour occupancy data showed that 74 percent of parking spaces were occupied between 9 and 11 AM, enabling optimal guard deployment scheduling. The study recommends integrating ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras at the entrance to link occupancy data with vehicle registration records for security audit purposes.

Keywords: smart parking, IoT, ESP8266, campus management, University of Ibadan