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ISSN 2222-1727 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2871 (Online)
Vol 3, No 5, 2012

Intelligent Traffic Signal Control System Using Embedded System

Dinesh Rotake1* Prof. Swapnili Karmore2
1. Department of Electronics Engineering, G. H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur
2. Department of computer engineering, G. H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur
* E-mail of the corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract
A development of an intelligent traffic signal control (ITSC) system needed because present traffic light controllers
are based on old microcontroller such as AT89C51 which has very less internal memory and no in-built ADC. These
systems have limitation because they will use the predefined program that does not have the flexibility of
modification on real time application. The present traffic system have fixed time interval for green and red signal
which does not provide the flexibility to the system. The ITSC system consist of high-performance, low power
AVR_32 microcontroller with 32kbytes of in-system programmable flash memory and in-built 8-channel, 10-bit
ADC which is required to process the IR input from sensor network. The ITSC system will able to deal two basic
problem of traditional traffic light system: i) Detection of traffic volume by using genetic algorithm. ii) Emergence
vehicle detection such as ambulance, police etc by using wireless sensor network (IR) embedded at the signal
intersection.
Keywords: Traffic Volume Estimation, Genetic Algorithm, wireless sensor network, Vehicle detection, Intelligent
Traffic Signal Controller, embedded system.

1. Introduction
A steady increase in metro-city population, the number of automobiles and cars increases rapidly and metro traffic is
growing crowded which leads to the traffic jam problem. This proposed system will have effective role to avoid the
traffic jam.
Under ordinary conditions, traffic signals control mainly has two defects:
1. When the traffic lane waits until the green light, time setting is almost same and fixed. A-road was always
crowded with vehicles and go-ahead time is short. So, vehicles can’t pass through in the time allowed. But sublane
has few vehicles and go-ahead time is relatively long.
2. Emergency cars are not considered. (For example, fire engines and ambulances have priority over other traffic.
The two lanes should both wait them to pass through. ) Because the traffic light control system is lack of emergency
measures, the crossroads always meets a traffic jam and leads to unnecessary economic losses[1]. The author Zhang
Yuye et.al. [1] System use AT89C51 and CAN BUS controller which leads to complicated design and cost of the
system more because of CAN BUS controller. Also power requirement will be more in case of AT89C51 but the
proposed ITSC system will used low power AVR-32 microcontroller.
The author Manoj Kanta Mainali et.al.[2] proposed a genetic algorithm approach to estimate the traffic volume in
road sections without the traffic information of road sections. This method can estimate the unknown traffic volume
using only the known traffic volumes. So, proposed ITSC system use the advantage of [1][2] to design very
efficient system that use the combination of AVR-32 and genetic algorithm.
The author Cai Bai-gen et.al.[3] design a vehicle detection system based on magneto-resistive sensor is composed by
wireless traffic information collection nodes which are set on two sides of road to detect vehicle signal. The
magneto-resistive sensor is costly and maintenance cost of the system will be more if the system fails. This system is
lack of emergence measures and proposed ITSC system will able to solve this problem effectively.
The author S.L.Toral et.al.[4] design will provide good result for vehicle detection where ARM-based video
processor not only deals with the video processing algorithms but again the cost of system design will be more

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Innovative Systems Design and Engineering www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1727 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2871 (Online)
Vol 3, No 5, 2012

because camera will be required to capture video .

The author Shilpa S.Chavan et.al.[5] design of traffic light controller handles major problem of conventional traffic
signal. At certain junction, sometimes even if there is no traffic but people have to wait because the traffic light
remains red for the preset time and road users waits until the light turn to green. They try to solve this problem
effectively by using GSM but system will leads to complications. The proposed ITSC system solves this problem by
using genetic algorithm.
The author Ahmed S. Salamaet.al.[6] provide integrated intelligent traffic light system using photoelectric sensors
distributed on long range before and after traffic light on roads. Emergency cases such as , the passing president car
and ambulance that require immediate opening of traffic signal. The system has the ability to open a complete path
for such emergency cases until reaching the target but this system does not operate wells when more than one
emergence Vehicles come on the signal from two sides.
The proposed ITSC system solves this problem in most effective way. The rest of the paper is organized as follows.
Section 2 presents the definition and problem description. Section 3 described the proposed method and design.
Section 4 gives the experimental results and finally, Section 5 concludes the paper.

2. Definitions and Problem Description

The problems of typical conventional traffic light Controller are mentioned below:
2.1. Heavy Traffic Jams:
With increasing number of vehicles on road, heavy traffic congestion has substantially increased in major cities. This
happened usually at the main junctions commonly in the morning, before office hour and in the evening, after office
hours. The main effect of this matter is increased time wasting of the people on the road. The solution for this
problem is by developing the program which different setting delays for different junctions. The delay for junctions
that have high volume of traffic should be setting longer than the delay for the junction that has low of traffic. This
operation is calling Normal Mode [7].
2.2. No traffic, but still need to wait:
At certain junctions, sometimes even if there is no traffic, people have to wait. Because the traffic light remains red
for the preset time period, the road users should wait until the light turn to green. If they run the red light, they have
to pay fine. The solution of this problem is by developing a system which detects traffic flow on each road and set
timings of signals accordingly. Moreover, synchronization of traffic signals in adjacent junctions is also necessary
[8].
2.3. Emergency car stuck in traffic jam:
Usually, during traffic jam, the emergency vehicle, such as ambulance, fire brigade and police will be stuck
especially at the traffic light junction. This is because the road users waiting for the traffic light turn to green. This is
very critical problem because it can cause the emergency case become complicated and involving life [5].
2.4. When more than one emergency car came:
The proposed ITSC system solves this problem in most effective way. When more than one emergency car came then
most of the system fails. They give green signal to both which lead to traffic conjunction problem and also leads to
accidents. In ITSC system, this problem solve by giving red signal to all traffic. So only emergency cars will pass the
signal for particular time period.

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Vol 3, No 5, 2012

Figure1. Emergency Cases Activity Diagram

3. Proposed Method and Design

The proposed ITSC system consist of high-performance, low power AVR-32 microcontroller with 32kbytes of
in-system programmable flash memory and in-built 8-channel ADC which required to process the IR input from
sensor network. So complexity of system reduces as no additional ADC required.

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Vol 3, No 5, 2012

3.1 Required Data Input

The utilisation rate of machines in a period of time, Ut, can be calculated as the total processing time, tpro, over the
duration of periodical review, trev, and the number of machines, NM, on the shop floor:
Σ t pro, i
i
Ut =
t rev N M t (1)
As mentioned earlier, absenteeism and turnover are identified as the two major problems leading to workforce
disturbance. Each type of disturbance can be quantified by its frequency and intensity of occurrence. The frequency,
f , ascribes to how often it occurs over a period of time (e.g. one turnover in a month), whereas the intensity, t ,
refers to the average duration it has occupied (e.g. absent for two days). With the subscript Abs for absence and Tnv
for turnover, the collective disturbance rate for a period of time, δt, is hence computed as:

f Abs t + f Tnv t
δ =
Abs Tnv (2)
t t
NW

Where, NW represents the number of workers in total.

The emergency vehicle detection system based on wireless IR sensor network is shown below to solve two basic
problem related to emergency case:

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Vol 3, No 5, 2012

(3)
Case1: When single emergency car comes on the signal and no. of vehicles will be available in front of the
emergency vehicle. In this situation, IR sensor network detect the emergency car and then open divider gate to pass
the car. As the signal will be red for other vehicles, so no possibility of accident.

Case 2: When two emergency cars come on the signal and no. of vehicles will be available in front of the emergency
vehicle. In this situation, IR sensor network detect the emergency cars and then open divider gate to pass the cars.
Arrows will indicate the possible direction. The sensor network is used to open and close the divider gate when
emergency vehicles pass through gate.
The proposed ITSC system combines the advantages of hardware and software and we can easily control the traffic
system through central computer system.

4. Experiment Analyses
The ITSC system consist of AVR-32 microcontroller with inbuilt 8-channel ADC to receive IR-input from
IR-transmitter which is embedded in the emergence vehicle. The 8-IR sensors are used to detect the emergence
vehicle and open the divider gate to pass emergence car and then immediately closed the gate. This system used the
genetic algorithm to find the traffic flow information at signalized intersection using previous data. Genetic
algorithm calculates the green light time for signal depending on the three factor’s demands, densities, and flow. The
formula to calculate the green light time is given below:

Total time = (Demands) + (Densities) + (flows)

Where,

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ISSN 2222-1727 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2871 (Online)
Vol 3, No 5, 2012

Demands- Past dada of signalized intersection

Densities- No. Of present vehicle on the signal after red signal
Flows- Approximate no. Of vehicle comes from previous signal.

The following result shows the estimation of unknown traffic volumes to vary the time of green signal light:

Figure3.Waveform of density and flow for flow =12(vph), split ratio = 0.06224

Figure4.Waveform of density and flow for flow =108(vph), split ratio = 0.16224

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Vol 3, No 5, 2012

Figure5.Waveform of density and flow for flow =132(vph), split ratio = 0.25224

Figure6.Waveform of density and flow for flow =132(vph), split ratio = 0.50224

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Vol 3, No 5, 2012

All the above waveform will shows that when density and flow parameter will change then that will change the green
signal time. Only single parameter is also capable of changing the green signal time depending on the traffic flow
and density at present time.
So we will get the following result by fixing traffic flow and changing the value of split ratio in the range 0 to 1:

Figure7.Waveform of density and flow for flow =60(vph), split ratio = 0.25224

Figure8.Waveform of density and flow for flow =60(vph), split ratio = 0.50224

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Vol 3, No 5, 2012

Snapshot of Hardware:

Figure9. AVR 32 Microcontroller Kit

Figure10. ITSC system (Upper view)

Figure11. ITSC system (Side view)

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Vol 3, No 5, 2012

5. Conclusions and Future Work

In this paper, an evolutionary approach to estimate the traffic volumes of road networks has been proposed, in which
real time traffic information is not provided. Genetic algorithm was used to estimate the unknown traffic volumes for
such road section whose traffic information not available. Present work considered a simple road sections under
static environments.
In future work, we will use real dynamic road section to estimate the unknown traffic volumes and apply to real
traffic. When more than one emergency car came then most of the system fails. They give green signal to both which
lead to traffic conjunction problem and also leads to accidents. In ITSC system, this problem solve by giving red
signal to all traffic and only emergency cars will pass the signal for particular time period.

References
[1] Zhang Yuye & Yan Weisheng, (2009) “Research of Traffic Signal Light Intelligent Control
System Based On Microcontroller”, First International Workshop on Education Technology and
Computer Science,pp301- 303.
[2] Manoj Kanta Mainali & Shingo Mabu (2010) “Evolutionary Approach for the Traffic Volume
Estimation of Road Sections”, pp100- 105, IEEE.
[3] Cai Bai-gen, ShangGuan Wei, Wang Jian & Chen Rui (2009) “The Research and Realization of
Vehicle Detection System Based on Wireless Magneto-resistive Sensor”, Second International
Conference on Intelligent Computation Technology and Automation, pp476- 479.
[4] S. L. Toral, F. Barrero & M. Vargas (2008) “Development of an Embedded Vision based Vehicle
Detection System using an ARM Video Processor”, 11th International IEEE Conference on
Intelligent Transportation Systems Beijing, China, pp292- 297.
[5] Shilpa S. Chavan, Dr. R. S. Deshpande & J. G. Rana (2009) “Design of Intelligent Traffic Light
Controller Using Embedded System” Second International Conference on Emerging Trends in
Engineering and Technology, pp1086- 1091.
[6] Ahmed S. Salama, Bahaa K. Saleh & Mohamad M. Eassa (2010) “Intelligent Cross Road Traffic
Management System (ICRTMS)”, 2nd International Conference on Computer Technology and
Development, pp27- 31.
[7] Stefan Peelen, Roelant Schouten, Merlijn SteingrÄover, “Design and Organization of
Autonomous Systems: Intelligent Traffic Light Control”.
[8] Wen and Yang,( 2006) “A dynamic and automatic traffic light control system for solving the road
Congestion problem” WIT Transactions on the Built Environment (Urban Transport). Vol. 89, pp
307-316.

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