Automatic Car Parking By Using PLC

Abstract

Parking management has become a significant challenge in modern urban environments due to the rapid increase in the number of vehicles and the limited availability of parking spaces. In densely populated areas such as shopping malls, hospitals, educational institutions, business complexes, and residential buildings, drivers often face difficulty in finding vacant parking slots, which results in unnecessary fuel wastage, traffic congestion, time loss, and poor utilization of available space. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an automatic car parking system based on a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), designed to automate the monitoring and control of vehicle parking operations. The system uses a set of sensors placed at the entry gate, exit gate, and individual parking slots to detect vehicle movement and slot occupancy in real time. The PLC continuously receives input signals from these sensors and executes the control logic required to regulate the parking process. If a vacant slot is available, the PLC automatically opens the gate and allows the vehicle to enter; if all slots are occupied, the system blocks entry and displays a full indication on the monitoring unit. The proposed model also updates the parking status dynamically so that drivers and operators can easily know the number of available spaces at any moment. This reduces human intervention, improves safety, and increases the efficiency of parking operations. The use of PLC makes the system highly reliable, flexible, and suitable for both single-level and multilevel parking structures. In addition, the system can be expanded in the future by integrating features such as digital displays, remote monitoring, billing control, RFID access, and IoT-based supervision.

Introduction

The document describes a PLC-based automatic car parking system designed to solve increasing parking shortages in urban areas. Due to rising vehicle density and limited parking space, manual parking systems cause congestion, delays, and inefficiency. The proposed solution automates parking using a Delta DVP-ES2 PLC, enabling real-time monitoring of vehicle entry, exit, and slot availability.

The system uses proximity sensors to detect vehicles at entry and exit points, while the PLC processes these signals using ladder logic to control a DC motor-operated gate. LED indicators display parking status (available, full, or occupied), and an SMPS power supply ensures stable operation of all components.

When a vehicle arrives, the PLC checks slot availability and either opens the gate or denies entry if the parking is full. Entry and exit sensors continuously update the vehicle count to maintain accurate space tracking. The system improves speed, reduces human error, and increases efficiency compared to manual parking management.

Implementation includes hardware setup, ladder logic programming, and simulation using WPLSoft software, which verifies system behavior before real deployment. Testing confirms correct operation of sensors, counters, gate control, and indicators.

Conclusion

The PLC-based automatic car parking system has successfully shown how automation can be used to manage vehicle entry, exit, and parking slot counting in a simple and reliable way. The project replaces manual supervision with a programmed control system that responds automatically to sensor inputs, making the parking process faster, more accurate, and more organized. By using a PLC, the system is able to handle sequential operations such as gate opening, vehicle detection, slot counting, and full-parking indication in a structured manner. This not only improves efficiency but also reduces the chances of human error, congestion, and delay at the parking entrance. The simulation and testing results confirm that the system performs correctly under different conditions, which proves that the design is practical and dependable for real use. In addition, the project has strong educational value because it provides practical experience in PLC programming, ladder logic, sensor interfacing, timers, and counters. It also creates a good foundation for future improvements such as RFID access, IoT monitoring, digital payment, and smart display features. Overall, the system is a useful example of industrial automation applied to a common real-world problem, and it demonstrates that PLC-based solutions can make parking management more efficient, safe, and intelligent.

References

[1] “PLC Based Automatic Intelligent Car Parking System,” International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering” [2] “Automated Parking System Using PLC Technology,” IJEES. [3] “PLC and SCADA Based Multilevel Automatic Car Parking System,” IJCRT. [4] “Simulation of a PLC-based Car Parking System,” academic publication. [5] “Smart Car Parking System using Arduino,” IJRASET.

Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Dhanshree Ingale, Shruti Parise, Sakshi Bari, Namrata Dhangar. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.