The Selected Subsystem and its Components

 While developing the automated car parking system for XYZ organization that operates 10 car parking’s in the city we found that there are numerous functional and non-functional prerequisites that are related with the proposed framework of the XYZ car parking system as far as operations and administration regions which might be reflected in the system design. Additionally, it is important to validate the design of the system so that the development of the system becomes easy and to ensure that the system achieves the desired level of efficiency in completing functionalities.  

For this part we are considering the operational subsystem of the developed system. This subsystem includes the functionalities like, entry of the car in the parking area, payment for the parking, leaving the car parking area and recording of the security visit.  The use cases for this specific subsystem are described in the different section of this report along with the sequence diagram supporting the use case.

For the sub system that control the entry of the car to the parking area, it will handle two types of customers ordinary and the seasonal ticket holders. As soon as the sensor near the barrier detects a car it flashes a “Press button” on the control pillar. In case of the ordinary customers, they have to press the button in order to get a ticket which needs to be printed in five seconds with some specific barcode. If the parking area is full when a car is requesting for a space then this sub system will show “Full” on the control pillar. The ticket no, issue time, issue date, issuing machine is recorded by this sub system which will be later referenced by the payment processing sub system.

On the other hand the season ticket holders only need to insert their tickets in the given slots of the pillar an the sub system will check the validity of the tickets and if the ticket is a valid one then the barrier will be raised. This sub system would not provide the reserved space for the season ticket holders on the week days but this facility will be not available on the weekends and the parking spaces will be allotted to the cars as soon as they arrive to the parking area.

In case of payment processing subsystem, the ordinary customer needs to reach to the payment station and inserts the printed ticket in to a slot to complete the payment. The card reader in the slot reads and tries to validate the cards information with the stored data using the printed barcode on it. If the barcode information is not same as the stored information, then the ticket is ejected by the system and message is displayed to contact office for manual payment where an official will use office system to calculate and take payment in order to validate the ticket.

If the stored data matches with the barcode information the payment processing subs system will calculate duration of stay and according to that the amount to be paid is also calculated.   Notes and coins matching with the payable amount is to be inserted by the customer. If there are any invalid notes that cannot be processed by the system those will be ejected and the customer will be asked to enter the remaining amount to the slot.  The exceeding amount than the charge is calculated and is released in the return tray which is to be collected by the customer. After this if the customer is willing to get a receipt, then they will be asked to press “Receipt” button which provide a printed receipt containing administration address, address of the car park, VAT number, date and amount paid by the customer.    

Analysis of Functionality

After the payment is done, the customer drives to the barrier where they are asked to insert the ticket to check that not more than 15 minutes is elapsed after the payment is made for that ticket.                  

Use cases from the selected subsystem and their descriptionUse case 1: Entering to Parking area

Pre-conditions for the use case:

For ordinary customers:  Tickets are available for the customers if there is space in parking area.

For Season ticket holders: The Season ticket holders will have reserved space in the parking area for week days, for weekends the season ticket holders will be treated as ordinary customers and space will be provided if available. 

Description:

The ordinary customer presses the button at the entrance pillar. Ticket is issued for the customer and the customer takes the ticket to enter into the parking area. The barrier at the entrance is raised and the system increases the number of parked cars by one. In addition to that, the system record the different information about the ticket (such as entrance time to the parking area). The system record this information as an unpaid customer. After the entrance the number of available spaces is reduced by one.

For the season card holder, they have to insert the season ticket at the given slot at the entrance pillar. The system checks the credentials of the ticket in order to determine that whether the ticket is valid and is not expired. If the card is valid one then system records the corresponding details as well as the entrance time of the car in the parking area. In this case too, the number of available spaces is reduced by one after the entrance of the car.

Post-condition:

Entrance time for the car is stored in the system as well as to the printed barcode of the ticket.  This information is used again at the time of payment.

Number of available spaces is reduced by one after each car is entered in the parking area.

The customer enters into the parking area.

Exceptions:

If it is found that the season ticket is not a valid one or is expired then the barrier would not open.

Sequence diagram 

Use case 2: Payment Processing

Pre-condition:

The ordinary customer have an unpaid ticket and the ticket is not processed at the payment station of the parking area.

Use case Description:

The ordinary customer inserts the ticket in the given slot at the payment station. The system reads the data from the barcode printed on the ticket as well as calculates   the duration of the parking. After this the total payable amount of money is calculated and displayed on the screen. The customer put appropriate amount (using notes and coins) into the retrieval tray. The system calculates the total value of the inserted cash and if it exceed then the exceeding amount is returned through the return tray. System updates the record of the ticket as paid.

On the other hand the customers having season tickets does not have to go to the pay station as they have paid for the ticket in advance.  They only have to extend the validity of their ticket by paying the amount for different time periods (Suh as 200AUD for 3 months, 375 AUD for 6 months and 500 AUD for 12 months).    

Use Case: Entrance to the Parking Area

Post-conditions:

The money is put into the cash box (for public).

The state of the account is set ?paid‘.

The parking charge is recorded into the system under corresponding ID.

Exception:

 The information in the barcode printed on the ticket does not match with the system stored information about the customer. In this scenario the customer have to go to the attendant in the office in order to make the payment and change the state of the ticket as paid.

Sequence diagram 

Use case 3: Exit from the Parking area

Pre-condition:

The payment of for the specific ticket is processed and completed.

Use case Description:

The customer inserts the ticket at the given slot for the ticket at the barrier control pillar. The system tries to validate the status of the ticket and to determine whether the inserted ticket is paid at the pay station. In addition to that the system also checks if the elapsed time after the payment is more than 15 minutes. The system accepts customer’s ticket and raise the barrier if the status of the ticket is found to be paid. The barrier closes after the car leaves the parking area. After the car leaves the parking area number of available spaces is increased by one.

For the season card holder they insert the ticket in the given slot at the control pillar. The. The exit barrier is raised for the car and in the similar manner the number of available parking spaces is increased.

Post-condition:

The car leaves the parking area.

The available parking space is increased by one.

Exceptions:

If the status of the ticket is unpaid, the system would not accept the ticket at the control pillar thus the barrier would not be raised.

If the elapsed time after the payment is more than 15 minutes the intercom with control pillar will be used to notify the attendant at the office who can operate the barrier remotely after confirming that there is queue for the cars to leave the parking area.

Sequence diagram 

Even though the automated parking system will improve the availability of the parking spaces to the customers and the amount of revenue for the company but along with this there are some risks that may affect the efficient functionality of the system some of them are listed below.

High amount of investment(Economical Risk): In order to implement the automated car parking system in its 10 parking areas it requires huge amount of investment as this process will include installation of  different sensors and data reading equipment’s at each of the sites. Thus availability of funds will affect the automation process.

Operational risk: As the devices at the different parts of the parking area requires internet connectivity to communicate between themselves. Thus, the lack of internet connectivity can lead to the failure of the total system and the total system need to be operated manually which will incur huge amount of overhead.         

Following outcomes are proposed for the XYZ Company after the automated parking system is implemented and utilized by XYZ Company,

• This system will ensures automated and quick parking of the cars and their easy retrieval from the parking area.
• Available parking spaces to the company be efficiently used throughout the city with the help of the designed system.
• The cars of the city requiring space for parking can utilize the spaces by having one of the two service types (being an ordinary customer or being a season card holder).
• Low maintenance will be required for the parking places by the company.
• As the implementation cost and the maintenance cost will be reduced by using this system thus it will help the company to increase its revenue from the parking spaces.
• The Sensors used for detection of the space and cars awaiting outside the parking have high sensitivity and are easy to handle.
• The proposed system will be help full in providing maximum automation against lesser amount of investment.
• The system does not require line-of-sight operation except few operations (such as the card reader at the pay station is unable to read the ticket)
• It is proposed that with the additional functionalities, the system will inform the customers the nearest free parking area when they reach a specific parking area and find it full.

Conclusion

 Using the proposed system the operators and the company at   can use the collected data in order to predict trends and patterns of the vehicle parking in the city. This will also help the customers to save their cars from vehicle thefts. In addition to that the system will help in reduction in the amount of traffic and the staff required for controlling the traffic. The system significantly reduces vehicle emissions–and traffic resulting in decreasing the time required by the customers to locate open free parking spaces.

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