Week 4

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Main Focus for Week 4

The primary tasks for this week included:

Construction of the car park.

Mounting the components in the correct positions and keeping them steady.

Attaching a gate to the servo motor.

Building the Car Park Model

This week, we found the key component materials. Black cardboard was used as the main space and floor of the parking lot, and we used a straw to serve as a gate for the small parking lot model. To make sure the components were fixed to the black board securely, we used electrical tape and blue tack to keep the components securely fixed into place.

We used white tape for lane markings and parking spaces. The board was designed to have four separate parking spaces on one side and two separate lanes for cars entering and leaving.



Challenges & Solutions

1. Errors caused by continuous car access.

Problem: When two cars passed through the gate quickly one after another, the sensor sometimes failed to register both and only counted one.

Solution: We shortened the delay to ensure only one vehicle could pass at a time. What's more, we adjusted sensor sensitivity to improve detection accuracy.

2. Traffic Congestion When Parking is Full

Problem: If the car park had reached full capacity, then the additional cars waiting at the entrance had no way to move forward or turn around, leading to a blocked entry.

Solution: We created an opening along the entry road to guide the cars that couldn’t enter. This allowed them to make a U-turn and merge into the exit lane, providing a way to turn around and avoid congestion that would occur inside a traditional car park.
Final Touch
As the Smart Parking system project enters its final stages, the last focus of the week is to prepare the project poster and make arrangements for the presentation. We discussed the layout of the poster and made sure it  clearly showed the project content and key results. At the same time, we discussed and divided the presentation for the next week, so that each member could clarify their own part. In addition, we also set the goal of completing the report and assigned the writing tasks for different parts. After these preparations, we are ready to summarize and present the project.

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