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Haris: an Advanced Autonomous Mobile Robot for Smart Parking Assistance

Layth Hamad, Muhammad Asif Khan, Hamid Menouar, Fethi Filali, Amr Mohamed

TL;DR

The paper tackles the challenge of managing large outdoor parking by enabling autonomous tracking of parked vehicles without relying on GPS. It introduces Haris, a GPS-denied mobile robot that combines SLAM-based navigation, LiDAR and camera sensing, ALPR (via YOLOv7 for detection and OCR for reading plates), and a backend/mobile app workflow to locate vehicles in real time. Key contributions include a detailed hardware/software integration, a ROS-based perception-control stack, and empirical evaluation showing robust mapping, localization, and license-plate recognition performance (mAP ≈ 0.908) in real-world settings, including a FIFA World Cup stadium corridor with thousands of spaces. The work demonstrates practical impact for crowd-heavy facilities by reducing search congestion and improving user experience, with future directions toward outdoor ruggedization and drone-enabled extensions.

Abstract

This paper presents Haris, an advanced autonomous mobile robot system for tracking the location of vehicles in crowded car parks using license plate recognition. The system employs simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for autonomous navigation and precise mapping of the parking area, eliminating the need for GPS dependency. In addition, the system utilizes a sophisticated framework using computer vision techniques for object detection and automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) for reading and associating license plate numbers with location data. This information is subsequently synchronized with a back-end service and made accessible to users via a user-friendly mobile app, offering effortless vehicle location and alleviating congestion within the parking facility. The proposed system has the potential to improve the management of short-term large outdoor parking areas in crowded places such as sports stadiums. The demo of the robot can be found on https://youtu.be/ZkTCM35fxa0?si=QjggJuN7M1o3oifx.

Haris: an Advanced Autonomous Mobile Robot for Smart Parking Assistance

TL;DR

The paper tackles the challenge of managing large outdoor parking by enabling autonomous tracking of parked vehicles without relying on GPS. It introduces Haris, a GPS-denied mobile robot that combines SLAM-based navigation, LiDAR and camera sensing, ALPR (via YOLOv7 for detection and OCR for reading plates), and a backend/mobile app workflow to locate vehicles in real time. Key contributions include a detailed hardware/software integration, a ROS-based perception-control stack, and empirical evaluation showing robust mapping, localization, and license-plate recognition performance (mAP ≈ 0.908) in real-world settings, including a FIFA World Cup stadium corridor with thousands of spaces. The work demonstrates practical impact for crowd-heavy facilities by reducing search congestion and improving user experience, with future directions toward outdoor ruggedization and drone-enabled extensions.

Abstract

This paper presents Haris, an advanced autonomous mobile robot system for tracking the location of vehicles in crowded car parks using license plate recognition. The system employs simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for autonomous navigation and precise mapping of the parking area, eliminating the need for GPS dependency. In addition, the system utilizes a sophisticated framework using computer vision techniques for object detection and automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) for reading and associating license plate numbers with location data. This information is subsequently synchronized with a back-end service and made accessible to users via a user-friendly mobile app, offering effortless vehicle location and alleviating congestion within the parking facility. The proposed system has the potential to improve the management of short-term large outdoor parking areas in crowded places such as sports stadiums. The demo of the robot can be found on https://youtu.be/ZkTCM35fxa0?si=QjggJuN7M1o3oifx.
Paper Structure (27 sections, 7 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 27 sections, 7 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Proposed System Design
  4. Mobile Robot Hardware System
  5. iRobot Create Robotic kit
  6. The Power system
  7. The Mini-Computer Unit
  8. The GPS Module
  9. The Compass Module
  10. The Cameras and the Local Network System:
  11. The LiDAR Module
  12. ALPR module
  13. The Communication module
  14. Mobile Robot Software System
  15. The Robot Operating System (ROS)
  16. ...and 12 more sections

Figures (7)

  • Figure 1: The structure of the proposed autonomous mobile robot (Haris) for smart parking assistance.
  • Figure 2: Architecture of the proposed system.
  • Figure 3: Mobile Robot System Architecture
  • Figure 4: LiDAR system test (indoor).
  • Figure 5: Robot Global and Local Navigation Plan
  • ...and 2 more figures