e-parking: Multi-agent smart parking platform for dynamic pricing and reservation sharing service

Parking is a key element of a sustainable urban mobility policy. It plays a fundamental role in travel planning and transport management, as the foremost vector of modal choice, but also as a potential means of freeing up public spaces. In this article we define the smart parking concept, as an application of smart mobility, present a historical analysis of the evolution of smart parking framework and show a statistical analysis of the published patent applications in this field around the world using the ORBIT database. Then, we propose a new smart parking architecture based on multi-agent features. Finally, we introduce the e-Parking system, platform to improve the driver experience of crowded cities. It provides real-time parking prices and offers a reservation and guidance services. In addition, the system assigns an optimal parking for a driver based on the user's requirements that combine proximity to destination, parking cost and dwell time, while ensuring a fair sharing of public space among users and improves traffic conditions. Our approach is based on dynamic pricing policy. Our scheme is suitable for mixed-usage areas, as it considers the presence of reserved and not reserved driver in the same parking area. © 2019, Science and Information Organization.