The objective of our project was to develop a wireless sensor device to be used for detecting motor vehicles, along with their direction of travel. The sensor is to be used in a larger system to monitor parking lot traffic by counting ins and outs of vehicles, thus showing which lots are full or not via a website and mobile application.
The sensor is a magnetometer and works by detecting the Earth’s magnetic field. As a vehicle drives over the device, a disturbance in the Earth’s field can be detected by the sensor in the x,y, and z planes. This data is analyzed by an Arduino Fio microcontroller, and if a vehicle is detected, a local car count is sent to a Raspberry Pi basestation.
Read more: Magnetometer Parking Sensor