Published by : International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

http://www.ijert.org ISSN: 2278-0181

Vol. 10 Issue 12, December-2021

Advanced Traffic Signal Monitoring using

Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)
1
Rohit Bharti 2Deeptanshu Samotra 3Aman Sharma 4Rohit Chib 5Shefali
Department of Electrical Engineering
Government College of Engineering and Technology, Jammu

Abstract- The purpose of the project is to execute the traffic signal Various sensors are deployed on road that signals are taken in
monitoring system based on PLC technology. In our project, a count by the traffic monitoring system. The evolving global
system designed for monitoring the four-sided roundabout. In system ensures coordination of four squares, establishing a
our project, there are four major monitoring features, one being path that respects the coordination mode of light; integrate
that in the case of a normal cycle of vehicles having the same
density on all roads forming a junction. Next, when there is
additional sensors to inform traffic participants about the
presence of physically challenged pedestrians, a pedestrian signal recommended speed to reach the green state in crossroads. [5]
is applied to pass the pedestrian safely. Next, if the vehicle’s To detect the daily traffic system video cameras are applied.
density is more on any lane, the green signal will illuminate for This data is then collectively used to manage traffic. The
more time with respect to vehicle’s traffic. The final feature is image scan and the support memory are two main parts of
priority/emergency. In the priority feature, the green signal system input, Further the image scan have two main phases
illuminate for the priority lane and the other shows red signal i.e. training and detection phase. The images captured from
until emergency is over. After that normal cycle repeats. There image scanner are then converted into binary form using
is a ladder diagram developed for its implementation in PLC. As
filter. The training phase will further use these images in case
the traffic police find it difficult to control the entire traffic from
day to night. So, this project can be applied on NH, city roads
of road mishappening, later these images are saved to
and intersections, such as 4 ways, 6 lanes etc. memory for further investigation and recognition. [6]
He considered emergency cases in the design where, if an
Key words- Traffic Control, PLC- Programmable Logic Controller, emergency occurs, priority vehicles will run first, using
Allen-Bradley, MicroLogix, PDS- Pedestrian, N- Normal, PRI- MCGS to animate and simulate the system. The paper does
Priority, TINC- Time Increase, PCT- Pre-set cycle time, NH- not show what sensors are used or how the software is
National Highway programmed to detect emergency cases, but in conclusion,
they mentioned that the system is okay. [7]
1. INTRODUCTION To calculate the green LED's time, the project has a
Traffic Signal is one of the crucial facilities for road users. mathematical tool and a plc controller for controlling traffic
Traffic lights are applied to govern the ruse of vehicles and monitoring unit. For detecting the presence of vehicles, PE
pedestrians, so that road users can move easily and securely. sensors are used, but inductive loop sensors are suggested for
The prior traffic light is not automated and the time for which the real-time system. For the simulation
it glows is specific due to which some time the traffic of PLC, TRILOGI software is taken in use. [8] [9]
congestion and road mishappening may occur due to a
pedestrian or rush on a specific road. Hence, we introduce 3. PROPOSED SYSTEM
PLC controlled advanced traffic light system. 3.1 Problem Formulation
An advance traffic signal comprises of various sensors In many countries, the city's traffic lights are becoming
implanted on the road which collect the real-time data, and a major problem. The increasing number of vehicles and
these traffic lights give output based on the data collected. lower phases of development of highways have led to
Our process and control of the traffic light can be done by the problems of traffic congestion, particularly in major
many automated tools, but in our case we are using PLC. [1] cities. Moreover, delays due to traffic congestion are
also indirectly affecting productivity, efficiency and
energy loss. There are a number of factors that cause
traffic congestion, such as the density of vehicles on
roads, human habits, social behaviour and traffic
lighting systems. With effective control over
Traffic Light Model
intersections, it is believed that the overall capacity and
performance of the urban traffic network can be
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
resolved. There are various standard methods of traffic
In n this project, the vehicle count on each lane are referred as light control. However, the prior traffic lights are
traffic congestion, then apart the traffic accordingly. It is also inadequate to deal with time-changing and more traffic
not simple for policemen to govern the whole scenario in such efficiently. The PCT is the most common method which
a small time. [2] [3] The problem in the traffic has enhanced in is used now-a-days in many sites of world. Many traffic
the previous few years, now-a-days traffic lights have police men are deployed in the city during busy time.
restriction because they use pre-determined hardware that From this scenario it is clear the traffic lights which are
doesn’t have scope of variation on a real time basis. Waiting being used are not working properly and efficiently, i.e.,
time is more due to the specific time interval of LED’s. [4]

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Published by : International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
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Vol. 10 Issue 12, December-2021

they are inadequate. Hence it takes high time for the 4.2 WORKING
replacement of these traffic light by more efficient, The data collected from the sensor are in integer form. An
newer, more automated and viable traffic monitoring inductive loop sensor is used to collect the data in integer
system. This project aims towards the development of form. Furthermore, this data is converted into a Boolean by
more automated and advanced traffic monitoring system the RFID sensor. [10] As our project is working on a
controlled by plc. Three main problems can be resolved roundabout, thus both the sensor that is RFID and an
by our project. Inductive loop sensor collect from each direction. The
1. If the waiting area of the pedestrian is empty, the output of the sensor will be the inputs of Plc, and such inputs
traffic monitoring system will not glow the pedestrian will be used by the specific program to obtain the desired
LED and hence no hindrance in a normal cycle. output. But in our case, there is no live action on the road;
2. Secondly in case of priority or emergency vehicles, we will do it in the lab. So we don't use any sensor. We
we have customized our traffic monitoring system in directly give the authority to the police man who will do
such a way that our sensor will detect the emergency according to him. If the number of vehicles is increased on
vehicle and the lane in which there is a presence of such one side, he will increase the time of the timer. In an
vehicle gives a green LED by traffic and that lane is emergency case or priority case, a police man directly
glowed until the vehicles pass. 3. The traffic rush on pressed the start push button on the priority side, gave a
any side is referred to as traffic density in our project. In green signal and all other signals would remain red until he
such cases the time of the green light is increased for the pressed the stop push button. In case of a pedestrian cycle,
lane in which there is traffic density. this will be allowed only when a police man sees a man who
These three main features of our traffic light monitoring doesn't cross the road, especially for handicapped, senior
system are making our system better than traditional citizens. When he sees he will press the pedestrian start push
traffic light. Hence, this will reduce the traffic button. The pedestrian signal will start only when the main
congestion and also ensure the safety of road users. signal green light is over.
3.2 Objective
• Make a system of a traffic light which will play 5. HARDWARE
a normal cycle. 5.1 Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)
• Consider a pedestrian cycle in a system. PLC used is Allen-Bradley.PLC works on twentyfour
• Consider emergency or priority cases to give a volts direct current, and the sensor also required input
green signal immediately. and output of similar voltages. The PLC comprises both
• Make a system to increase Green light time of digital input/output and Analog input/output. Digital
a lane having high density of vehicles. inputs is 10, Digital output is 10, Analog input is 2
Analog output is 2 But the requirement is 15 inputs and
4. METHODOLOGY 20 outputs. To meet the requirement of the desired
It is a graphical artificial language. Ladder logic programming input/output SM 1223 Signal module is added to our
has been swollen to include tasks such as counter, timers and project which grants 3 more digital inputs and eight
maths operations. The observation that the program in this more Digital outputs. 5.2 LED (Red, Yellow, Green)
language is sort of a ladder with a series of vertical “rails” and LED used are Red, Green and Yellow represent the
horizontal “rugs” between them. PLC is operated by exciters. These are the basic LED, 5 mm in size, work
continuously scanning the program and working on on 2- volt DC and 20 mA. It cannot be connected
instructions at a time to turn various outputs on or off. To do directly to the PLC as the output is 24VDC. In the actual
this, the PLC scans all the input first and store them States in case, the traffic light is floating on 240 AC Volt But in
memory. It then scans the program and decides which output the prototype case, it is of 2 volt. So can be connected
should be high according to the program logic. In this section directly. The use of a converter or resistors is mandatory.
the data collected from the sensor deployed on the roads can 5.3 Resistor (2.2kΩ)
be used, but we are not using that real time data and the data Since the PLC output voltage is 24-volt and the LEDs
which we are taking in use is prepared by us. This data will operate on 2-volt if they are connected in series, the
be further processed using plc. The reason behind that we are voltage across the resistor will be 24-
not using the real time data in our project is that we don’t 2=22-volt. From the basic Ohm’s law.
deploy it on the road.
4.1 FLOW CHART 6. SOFTWARE
6.1 Allen-Bradley MicroLogix The Allen - Bradley
MicroLogix 1100 family of programmable logic
controllers (PLC) is also known as small logic
controller, especially complete micro and small - level
automation applications. With data logging and
relatively large allocated memory for resident storage as
compared to MicroLogix 1500, MicroLogix 1100
product line is excellent for remote monitoring and used
for applications that require large and intensive memory

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Published by : International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
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Vol. 10 Issue 12, December-2021

access, but with less I/O density. The controller is a compare function we will trigger the time of the
compact controller with ten digital input, two analog timer, but we don't have real time data. So, for that
input each model embedded with digital output, while we gave push buttons to increase the time of the
dc input has an additional feature of an embedded 40khz timer of the green light, i.e., it will move from 30 to
high speed counter and DC output controllers are 45 seconds when we press the high density push
provided with two 40khz high speed pulse train button.
output/pulse width modulation output. All MicroLogix
1100 are configured using RSLogix 500 Programming 7.1 Implementation
Software, a ladder language enabled software that is There are several ways to do our program of advance
Microsoft Windows based. traffic signal monitoring system, i.e., ladder logic
method, sequential output method etc. We used the
7. SIMULATION ladder logic method in our system. In our program we
Our PLC controlled traffic monitoring system monitors the use input push buttons, output, binary, MOV and timer.
four-way roundabout along with a pedestrian signal. There A timer is used to glow the set of sequence accordingly
are fifteen inputs and twenty outputs in our project. There are in time. The program is reset using the end timer to
eight RED, eight GREEN and four yellow LED's which continue running. MOV is used to extend the timer time.
comprises the output of the system. The roundabout has RED, Binary is used for latching. Program done in the
GREEN and YELLOW LED's on each side. But there are RSLogix 1000 software. Therefore, we are dividing our
only RED and GREEN LED's for each pedestrian side. The program into four parts/cycles.
LED's are deployed symmetrical on the roundabout and
pedestrian lane, which means that every signal will operate 8. RESULT
on its own time. But in case of a pedestrian signal, when the Design and Construction of prototype of advanced traffic
signal glows green, all the other vehicles signal will turn red. light control system for the intersection for all round traffic
In our project/system there are four cycle which are explained lights has been developed with automatic ON and OFF
below:- operation of traffic lights. The model test was performed on
1. Normal Cycle: - The normal cycle means that when simulator and the result we have received is shown below in
we start our system, the GREEN light of lane 1 will order:-
start for thirty seconds and the other lane glows The Outputs of the Advanced Traffic Light/Lane are look like
RED signal. After that, the transition of signal as shown in Fig. below:-
begins. For transition lane 1 and lane 2 glows yellow
signal for ten seconds and the remaining lane glows
red signal. After ten seconds, the green signal glows
in lane 2 for thirty seconds and the other lane shows
a RED signal. After that, the same sequence of
transition occurs for lane 3 and lane 4. After
completed the cycle, the transition occurs between
lane 4 and lane 1 and again restart the system from
lane 1 and cycle moves on until we stop the system. The sequences of light blinking in output are shown
2. Pedestrian Cycle: - In this cycle when there is any below:-
pedestrian in a waiting area of a pedestrian, they will 1. Normal Cycle:-
pass a request for green light, but the request is only The output of the normal cycle is shown below. In a
accepted when the green light of the normal cycle is normal cycle, first Lane1 shows green light when we
off. When the the green light of the normal cycle is start the system and all the other shows red light. After
off, the cycle moves from a normal cycle to a 30 seconds, lane1 and lane2 show yellow light for 10
pedestrian cycle for 10 seconds, and after ten seconds, and after that, lane2 shows green LED and all
seconds they will move back to a normal cycle. This the other shows red LED, and the further sequence
means during the ten-second period only pedestrian operates as lane1 and lane2.
signal glows green and the other one shows red
signal.
3. Priority Cycle: - This cycle can disrupt or stop all
other cycles. This will come into action only when
we have an emergency. When we pressed the start
priority push button of the lane 1, 2, 3 or 4 and gave
a priority or green signal for that direction, until we Lane 1- Green Signal Lane 2- Red Signal
pressed the stop priority push button of that lane. Lane 3- Red Signal Lane 4- Red Signal
When we pressed the priority stop push button, the PDS-1- Red Signal PDS-2- Red Signal
normal cycle began again. PDS-3- Red Signal PDS-4- Red Signal
4. High Density Cycle: - In this case, we don't have
real-time data of the number of vehicles. If we got
that data, we set a limit of high density and using

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Lane 1- Yellow Signal Lane 2- Yellow Signal Lane 1- Red Signal Lane 2- Green Signal
Lane 3- Red Signal Lane 4- Red Signal Lane 3- Red Signal Lane 4- Red Signal
PDS-1- Red Signal PDS-2- Red Signal PDS-1- Red Signal PDS-2- Red Signal
PDS-3- Red Signal PDS-4- Red Signal PDS-3- Red Signal PDS-4- Red Signal

Lane 1- Red Signal Lane 2- Green Signal Lane 1- Green Signal Lane 2- Red Signal
Lane 3- Red Signal Lane 4- Red Signal Lane 3- Red Signal Lane 4- Red Signal
PDS-1- Red Signal PDS-2- Red Signal PDS-1- Red Signal PDS-2- Red Signal
PDS-3- Red Signal PDS-4- Red Signal PDS-3- Red Signal PDS-4- Red Signal
2. Pedestrian Cycle:- 4. High Density Cycle:-
The output of the pedestrian cycle is shown below. Here, In case of high density in real or live action we used
when we needed a pedestrian signal green, we pressed sensors, but in our case we will put it into a police man
the start pedestrian push button. This will start only who will increase time according to need. As we
when the normal cycle moves from green to yellow. The showed, if a police man sees the lane 1 has a high density
green light blinks for 10 seconds, and after that, the of vehicles, they will press a push button to increase the
normal cycle begins to start. time of the timer from 30 to 45 seconds.

Lane 1- Red Signal Lane 2- Red Signal Lane 1- Green Signal Lane 2- Red Signal
Lane 3- Red Signal Lane 4- Red Signal Lane 3- Red Signal Lane 4- Red Signal
PDS-1- Green Signal PDS-2- Green Signal PDS-1- Red Signal PDS-2- Red Signal
PDS-3- Green Signal PDS-4- Green Signal PDS-3- Red Signal PDS-4- Red Signal

The project has generally broaden our understanding of

the principles of operating on advance for traffic lighting
control systems, particularly on the professionalism of
electrical engineering, and has familiarized us with some
component specific and related defects and frequent
Normal Cycle after Pedestrian Cycle problems with electronic circuits and systems, and how
Lane 1- Yellow Signal Lane 2- Yellow Signal these defects can be overcome.
Lane 3- Red Signal Lane 4- Red Signal
PDS-1- Red Signal PDS-2- Red Signal 9. FUTURE SCOPE
PDS-3- Red Signal PDS-4- Red Signal • Controlling Traffic by SCADA System
• Continues Traffic Tracking by GPS System
3. Priority Cycle:-
• Use of sensor to detect theft car
The output of the priority cycle is shown below here
• Use of sensor to detect over speeding vehicles
when the normal cycle lane 2 shows green light and all
other shows red light, but we have need to open lane 1,
So to open lane 1 we pressed start priority push button 10. CONCLUSION
of lane 1 and green light is blinks until we pressed stop We considered a lot of research and studies, but all of them
push priority button for lane 1 and for this time all other have the same general objective that is to build the traffic
signal shows red lights. monitoring system which is advanced and smart from old
traffic lights. The methods used in this research are mainly
based on the number of vehicles which is being determined
by inductive loop sensors, and the conversion of these

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Published by : International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
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Vol. 10 Issue 12, December-2021

integers to binary is done by an RFID sensor, as mentioned

in upper sections. The project which is being built is four way
roundabout and is operated by PLC. The PLC used here in
this project is Allen Bradley. The ladder logic diagram of the
project and the outputs are also mentioned in this report.
There are four main cycles in this project that is normal,
pedestrian, high density and priority cycle as explained in
upper section.
Finally, the main purpose of this project is to pass the
pedestrian securely, reduce road traffic and mishappening.
All of them have been achieved in this project, and the model
is working quite as per needs

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