A BLE-Based Pedestrian Navigation System for Car Searching in Indoor Parking Garages

Area of Science:

• Engineering
• Computer Science
• Ubiquitous Computing

Background:

• Increasing car ownership globally exacerbates parking challenges, including locating available spaces and personal vehicles.
• Existing solutions often lack effective indoor navigation for finding parked cars.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel navigation system to help car owners locate their vehicles in indoor parking garages.
• To enhance the user experience in parking facilities through precise car-finding technology.

Main Methods:

• Proposed a system combining a car-searching mobile application with a positioning-assisting subsystem utilizing beacon technology.
• Implemented a local coordinate system for precise identification of parking spaces and beacon device locations.
• Developed the mobile app on the Android platform and used Bytereal HiBeacon devices for the positioning subsystem.

Main Results:

• The system successfully guided car owners to their vehicles using turn-by-turn navigation with heading correction.
• Experimental deployment in a campus parking lot validated the system's functionality and accuracy.
• The system provided correct route guidance information to users.

Conclusions:

• The developed navigation system effectively addresses the challenge of finding cars in indoor parking garages.
• Beacon technology and a well-defined coordinate system are crucial for accurate indoor positioning and navigation.
• The system offers a practical solution for improving the parking experience.