IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering

PAPER • OPEN ACCESS

Traffic Light Monitoring System based on NodeMCU using Internet of

Things
To cite this article: G S Miratunnisa and A H S Budi 2018 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 384 012024

View the article online for updates and enhancements.

This content was downloaded from IP address 181.214.164.226 on 12/07/2018 at 13:25

International Symposium on Materials and Electrical Engineering (ISMEE) 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 384 (2018) 012024 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/384/1/012024
1234567890‘’“”

Traffic Light Monitoring System based on NodeMCU using

Internet of Things

G S Miratunnisa and A H S Budi*

Department of Electrical Engineering Education, Faculty of Technology and
Vocational Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. Jalan Dr. Setiabudhi No.229
Bandung 40154

*[email protected]

Abstract. The increasing numbers of the private car cause the road traffic congestion. That is
becoming important problems in the big cities. Another solution to reduce the traffic jam is
developing intelligent transportation system such as intelligent traffic light system. However, the
solution of such problems is one of the mandatory concern. In recent years, a smart city is the
hottest topic for the efficiency of traffic light using the Internet of Things. Based on that issue,
this research proposed traffic light monitoring system that can monitor and display a real-time
traffic congestion through smartphones. The system utilized NodeMCU (ESP 8266 12E)
equipped by IR obstacle sensor to indicate the road traffic congestion. To connect the internet,
the system uses ESP8266 12E wifi in the chip of NodeMCU. It will send a notification to
smartphones user. With this research, it is expected to improve road traffic tremendously such
as to predict traffic congestion and the system can give some efficient routes for a user.

1. Introduction
Nowadays, Indonesia become urban country because every year the number of private vehicles always
increases about six million units per year, 10-15 % comes from the cars. But the infrastructure to support
that so bad. That is becoming important problems, because according from TomTom navigation devices
Indonesia has the fourth worst evening rush hour traffic in the world cited by CNN.
Some countries in the world have the same problem [1], such as Japan, USA, and Europe countries.
To reduce that problem their reformed the road system and improved the traffic management method
using intelligent transportation system [2, 3]. The development of ITS has been a popular research for
the traffic monitoring using The Internet of Things [1, 3]. IoT concept constructs some object around
us become smarter for connection to each other such as roadside sensor systems for supporting road
infrastructure systems[4], so that can communicate with each other for gather everyday information
about the traffic environment with the minimum human intervention[4]. From that issues, this research
was design an intelligent transportation system using internet of Things platform. The system can
monitor a real-time condition the traffic congestion on road [5, 6], use some roadside sensor system for
dynamic management of traffic signals. And to avoid the traffic jam, the user can able to find out
optional routes to go to destination.

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
International Symposium on Materials and Electrical Engineering (ISMEE) 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 384 (2018) 012024 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/384/1/012024
1234567890‘’“”

2. Methods

Figure 1. Architecture of the system.

The figure 1 approximately overall architecture of the traffic light monitoring system. The system
divided into two module such as hardware module and software module. In hardware module, utilized
the Android Phone/Device, NodeMCU (ESP8266 12E), IR obstacle Sensors (FC-51), Resistors, LED,
etc. And in software used the MIT App Inventor for an android application, a web server for saving the
database [7, 8].
In this system, sensors will send information to a NodeMCU [9]. Then NodeMCU will receive that
information and transfers to the android device via the internet. Android device will send all the collected
information to the server over the web server and store it in the database [8].
According to the traffic signals from the sensors will be managed dynamically to avoid a traffic jam.
When a user needs a real-time traffic data or condition the routes, the user can log in to the Android
application, the application will request to the web server for the user requirement [7] and the server
will get results from requirement and user will see the traffic data and traffic condition.

Figure 2. Design of the system.

2
International Symposium on Materials and Electrical Engineering (ISMEE) 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 384 (2018) 012024 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/384/1/012024
1234567890‘’“”

Figure 2 is a miniature of 2 crossroads and 1 T junction in an urban area with the maximum speed of
the vehicle is 50 km / h with a road width of 7 meters and 3 meters, with a road length of 25 kilometers.
Which equipped 3 sensors at a certain distance to the traffic signals. The first sensor indicates the route
is normal, the second sensor indicates the route is jammed, and the third sensor indicates total traffic
jam.

2.1. Hardware
The hardware for this system using some components includes: Phone/Device, NodeMCU (ESP8266
12E), IR obstacle Sensors, Resistors, LED etc.

2.1.1. NodeMCU (ESP8266 12E). ESP8266 is a microcontroller designed for Expressive Systems.
ESP8266 is a solution for Wi-Fi networks from existing Micro Controllers to Wi-Fi and is also capable
of running standalone applications. Connection with PC using the micro USB cable and there are 17
GPOI, with a consumed current of 10uA ~ 170mA and RAM of 32K + 80K [10]. It is designed for
wireless location-aware devices, wireless positioning system signals, industrial wireless control, etc.
ESP8266 is used to process and transfer information to the web server so that the smartphone can access
the information.

2.1.2. IR obstacle sensors. It detected object range of 10-30 cm. This sensor can be used for most indoor
applications where no important ambient light is present [11]. The IR sensor will used to sense the road
traffic congestion.

2.1.3. Step down module (MB-V2-102). It is a voltage-reducing module and current stabilizer, the input
voltage for the module is 6.5V-9.0V DC from datasheet [12]. While the output voltage of 3.3V Dc and
5 V Dc with current 700mA. The module can use a USB or jack from the adapter.

2.1.4. LED. A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits visible light when an
electric current passes through it. In this system, LED is a miniature of traffic light system in the real
life.

2.1.5. Resistors. It is a passive two-terminal electrical component. It implements electrical resistance as

a circuit element and acts to reduce current flow. Also, act to lower voltage levels within circuits, at the
same time.

2.2. Software
Software module for developing a system using various software tools which includes: Arduino IDE,
MIT App Inventor, and Firebase.

2.2.1. Arduino IDE. Arduino is programmed with a C/C++. Then Arduino IDE software is written in
Java based on the processing project from writing and uploading the code to the Atmega chip in Arduino.
It is compatible software to program with some module such as ESP.

2.2.2. Firebase. It is middleware between the hardware module and the end user. Firebase is platform
for internet of things for web server with open big data from sensors. Which is MQTT platform (Message
Queuing Telemetry Transport), it is a protocol that runs on top of the TCP / IP stack and has a small
data packet size with a low overhead (minimum 2 bytes) so that it affects the consumption of the power
supply is also quite small.

2.2.3. MIT app inventor. The first one the application will receive all the sensor values and transmit/
upload that sensor values to the server another app will use to monitor the traffic condition. The software
is interfacing from android smartphone user with a web server, so user able to see the condition of the
road from a smartphone.

3
International Symposium on Materials and Electrical Engineering (ISMEE) 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 384 (2018) 012024 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/384/1/012024
1234567890‘’“”

3. Results and discussion

In this section discussion about the design overall of the system. This screenshots of the Android
application are as follows:

Figure 3. Android application.

Figure 4. Arduino IDE program.

4
International Symposium on Materials and Electrical Engineering (ISMEE) 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 384 (2018) 012024 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/384/1/012024
1234567890‘’“”

The system was adapted from the Android application as shown in figure 3 was developed using App
inventor software to connect with Wifi module, web server and display given sensor values which are
collected from the hardware module and finally upload this values on the web server. This developed
android app will active on any android device and it will always connect to the hardware module. Figure
4 showed the program from Arduino IDE to write in the microcontroller NodeMCU, it is important to
program for this research because of all program from the system in here.
In the Android application showed some button for user requirement, the application provided some
option for monitoring traffic light in the first crossroads or second crossroads or T junction in some
condition, also user can select another button for monitoring traffic density. The application can show
the condition of the route, the user chooses the location and destination in this system then application
show how condition in the route. If the route is jam the system will give some optional routes.
In figure 5 showing the hardware system for monitoring traffic light. This prototype has several that
is the mismatch between the goals with the results achieved. These constraints include:
 In the planning of the prototype using NodeMCU ESP8266 but I/O from the microcontroller is less
than other microcontroller but NodeMCU stabil on connectivity.
 The output voltage from NodeMCU is 3V then the sensors need 5 volts to work and has a large
current consumption, which that requires a separate adapter. Then NodeMCU did not have a voltage
stabilizer so ESP always does the reset, to reduce it needed a voltage stabilizer using a step down
the module.
 NodeMCU support with another web server, so that can be modified the web server or MQTT
broker. And NodeMCU can programme with LUA. And for the Android application can use
AndroidApp, its support for NodeMCU.
 The sensor can not implement in the real life because of many disadvantages, readability of the
sensor so small from 0-30 cm. The sensor can not detect glass objects.

Figure 5. Hardware system.

4. Conclusions
The design of monitoring traffic light system on this research is not too much developing as a whole.
Need future research about ITS. The monitoring traffic congestion system was presented traffic
connection routes with IoT to develop a real-time software for managing traffic conditions. This system
used a web server and an Android client application for reporting and displaying traffic condition. The
system for administrators includes a web application, and for the interface of the client application, it is
easy and safe to use while driving. The focus on this research about efficiency and traffic density using
ITS and IoT technologies.

5
International Symposium on Materials and Electrical Engineering (ISMEE) 2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 384 (2018) 012024 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/384/1/012024
1234567890‘’“”

References
[1] Wang Y and Qi H 2012 “Research of Intelligent Transportation System based on the Internet of
Things frame” Wirel. Eng. Technol. 3 (3) pp. 160–166.
[2] Xu X, Gao X, Zhao X, Xu Z and Chang H 2016 “A novel algorithm for urban traffic congestion
detection based on GPS data compression” Int. Conf. Serv. Oper. Logist. Informatics pp. 107–
112.
[3] Wu N and Fang H 2017 “A Novel Traffic Light Recognition Method for Traffic Monitoring
Systems” 2nd Asia-Pasific Conference on Intelligent Robot System (ACIRS) pp. 141–145.
[4] Chepuru A and Pradesh A 2015 “a Survey on Iot Applications for Intelligent Transport Systems”
(8) pp. 116–127.
[5] Pyykonen P, Laitinen J, Viitanen J, Eloranta P and Korhonen T 2013 “IoT for intelligent traffic
system” Proc. - 2013 IEEE 9th Int. Conf. Intell. Comput. Commun. pp. 175–179.
[6] Sherly J and D.Somasundareswari, “Internet of Things Based Smart Transportation Systems,”
Int. Res. J. Eng. Technol. 2 (7) pp. 1207–1210.
[7] Nor, Mohd R F A, Zaman F H K and Mubdi S 2017 “Smart Traffic Light for Congestion
Monitoring using LoRaWAN” IEEE 8th Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium
(ICSGRC) pp. 4–5.
[8] Choosri N 2015 “IoT-RFID Testbed for Supporting Traffic Light Control” Int. J. Inf. Electron.
Eng. 5 (2) pp. 102–106.
[9] Perumalla B K and Babu M S 2016 “An Intelligent Traffic and Vehicle Monitoring System using
Internet of Things Architecture” International Journal of Science and Research 5 (11) pp.
2013–2016.
[10] U M V “ESP8266 Handson Technology” pp. 1–22.
[11] De Nunzio G and Marsella G “FC-51 : IR Infrared Obstacle Detection Sensor Module 2 - 30cm”
pp. 0–8.
[12] P. Specifications, “Breadboard Power Supply Specifications,” no. Dc, pp. 1–2, 2014.