Santa & Cole, Ediciones de diseño S.A.

It is already a fact that cities are capable of processing and communicating information. The technology developed by the UPC and the company URBIÓTICA which is currently being tested at the university’s North Campus will reach Barcelona’s 22@ district in December. The intelligent free parking space detection system will inform the drivers approaching Pasaje Taulat in real time as if it were a car park on their mobile, laptop, satnav, iPad or the luminous panels on the street. According to Ramón Pallàs, in charge of the team of electronic engineers from the UPC which designed it, “it is not the first system allowing free parking spaces to be detected, but it is the most efficient and is a low consumption system, as it is not necessary to wire the city”.  

The system combines two sensors, one optical and the other magnetic, which are encapsulated in a cylinder with a diameter of 4 centimetres and a length of 13 centimetres embedded in the ground in each parking space. "The magnetic sensor detects when the car parks above it and the optical one whether or not there is light. The combination of both, connected to a microcontroller, makes it possible to know whether the space is occupied or free, information which is transmitted by radio frequency (Wi-Fi or GPRS) to an aerial located at a maximum distance of 50 metres. The device, designed to be installed in Streetlamps, receives and transmits the information in a hundredth of a second. That is, in real time ", explains Pallàs.


At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, we are all increasingly aware that the main challenge faced by the present-day city is sustainable development, that is to say development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Report “Our common future” by the World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Recognizing that cities are ecosystems of enormous and increasing complexity makes it necessary to think of a new model, a new strategy based mainly on information. In this respect, "the systems which blend sensors, computer and communication networks are the next step toward efficiency, because they allow information to be gathered in real time on plenty of aspects, from parking spaces to the need to water green spaces, and they transform the city into a connected operating system which is more productive and environmentally sustainable", maintains Antonio Brey, Managing Director of Urbiótica, which markets the technology developed by the UPC.

URBIOTICA is the result of the collaboration between Santa & Cole, Grupo Iviron and D3K Gestió del Coneixement (Technical University of Catalonia or UPC) in which Santa & Cole contributes its knowledge on the world of urban development and industrial design, so that the new technological media are integrated into the urban fabric in a smooth and coherent manner; Grupo Iviron brings together different companies from the sphere of ICT and provides its experience in municipal management; and the company D3K is the project’s research arm and is made up of lecturers and professors from the Technical University of Catalonia’s Department of Signal Theory and Communications.

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