My dad kept scratching his car in our tight garage, so I built my Smart Parking Assistant with my Arduino Uno and Embedded Learner Board—my first coding try! I wanted a sensor to measure how close the car is, light up LEDs to show distance, and buzz if it’s too near, with a computer screen acting like the car’s display, like a robot parking coach. It’s so cool helping Dad park smoothly!

I wired an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor to ELB pins 6 (trigger) and 7 (echo), a buzzer to pin 8, and three LEDs (green, yellow, red) to pins 9, 10, and 11 with resistors. My code sets pinMode(6, OUTPUT), pinMode(7, INPUT), pinMode(8, OUTPUT), and pinMode(9-11, OUTPUT) in void setup(), with Serial.begin(9600). In void loop(), I ping the sensor—digitalWrite(6, HIGH), delayMicroseconds(10), duration = pulseIn(7, HIGH)—and calculate distance = duration * 0.034 / 2. If distance > 50, green LED lights (digitalWrite(9, HIGH)); 20-50 cm, yellow (digitalWrite(10, HIGH)); under 20 cm, red (digitalWrite(11, HIGH)) and tone(8, 1200, 500) buzzes, with Serial.println("Too Close!"). A delay(200) steadies it. The sensor misfired at first, but I adjusted thresholds, and now I grin when Dad parks with my guide!

I’m thrilled to make it slicker next time! Maybe I’ll add a screen to show exact distance, or make the buzzer beep faster as you get closer. I could even add a button to reset it like a robot valet! I really like coding this with my Arduino, and I can’t wait to show my family my parking helper!

Future applications for this project could be awesome! I could make a robot cart that parks itself in tight spots, like SAM’s precise smarts. Or a bike rack sensor that buzzes for perfect parking, or a smart garage that guides multiple cars, turning my gadgets into autonomous parking pros!