IOT Traffic Signal Monitoring & Controller System

DIGITAL ASSIGNMENT - 1

Submitted by
MUSKAN AGARWAL
AGARWAL-16BEE0143

Internet Of Things

Prof. Ramesh Babu K

OCTOBER 2018
Problem Statement
Here we propose an IOT based automated traffic signal monitoring as well as controller system
that automates complete traffic signalling system automation and also allows for manual override
over internet. The system uses ARDUINO based circuit system to monitor traffic signal densities
and transmits this data online over internet to the controllers. We use IOT Gecko in order to
develop the online GUI based system to monitor the traffic densities. The system shows current
densities to help monitor traffic conditions on roads. Also the system provides an option to the
controllers to override any signal and make it green in case of any ambulance or important
vehicles to pass through while keeping other signals red. This puts forth a traffic signal
monitoring and controller system that can be operated remotely over the internet from anywhere
with manual override ability.
Hardware Specifications
 ATmega328P AVR MC
 I R Transmitter Receiver
 ESP8266 Wifi Module
 LCD’s
 Crystal Oscillator
 Resistors
 Capacitors
 Transistors
 Cables & Connectors
 Diodes
 PCB
 LED’s
 Transformer/Adapter
 Push Button

Software Specifications
 ARDUINO Compiler
 MC Programming Language: C
Introduction
This project is about an intelligent traffic controlling system. The present traffic
controlling systems are not efficient and smart. One of the oldest ways of handling
traffic was having a traffic policeman at each junction and traffic was controlled
manually through hand signaling. However this wasn’t efficient for developing
cities so then we started using traffic light control systems.

Our present traffic control systems uses fix timing method to control traffic.
According to this each direction has to wait for a fixed amount of time and then
was allowed to cross. This is functional for normal traffic but it fails in heavy rush.
Here comes the need of smart traffic monitoring system. This system will monitor
the vehicle density at the moment and based upon the density traffic lights can be
controlled.

Project Overview
This project’s objective is to design a traffic control system that can control traffic
automatically depending on the traffic conditions. A dynamic traffic control system
is designed that will help to clear traffic during peak hours. This intelligent traffic
signal controller is efficient in minimizing the possibilities of traffic jams by
clearing the roada at faster rates while there is high density of vehicles and also for
emergency vehicles like ambulances it provides clearances provides the clearance
for the Emergency vehicle if any. The system is based on the arduino micro
controller and IR sensors Technology

Working Procedure
The traffic control system is made using IR sensor, LEDs and microcontroller.
Here a four side junction with traffic flow in each side in only one way is
considered .The system has three main components:

 Traffic density Detection: - Here the density of the traffic is determined at

each junction using IR sensors which will detect the traffic by the resistance
change and will notify the microcontroller.

 Light controlling: - Here the LEDs (traffic lights) are controlled by the
ARDUINO microcontroller according to the signals received by the IR
sensors.
  Display unit: - It is real time application of each junction who consists of 3
LEDs- Green, Red and Amber for real time monitoring.

Now the output sent from IR sensor can be classifies in three cases:-

 When there is no vehicle on the road, IR light transmitted by IR LED is

received by the photodiode which starts conducting and so it gives a low
output to the microcontroller and then microcontroller make LED glow for a
fixed amount of time.

 If there is presence of vehicles then communication between IR transmitter

and receiver will be interrupted and photodiode receives less amount of
light(little traffic) or no light (in case of heavy rush) and so base current of
transistor reduces and so conductor will be in off state and so the output is
high for the microcontroller and the microcontroller changes the glow time
of green light and increase it. So if there is heavy rush then green light glows
more time allowing quick flow of traffic.

An ESP8266 module is used to transfer the density information over internet. A

GUI based is developed using IOT Gecko and the data from ESP is displayed on
this GUI for remote monitoring and also a manual override can be done for
emergencies like ambulances by giving controllers a signal to make green in case
of any ambulance or important vehicles to pass through while keeping other
signals red.

Sensors/devices used
1. ARDUINO UNO

The microcontroller used is an ARDUINO UNO, shown in Figure. This is a

popular microcontroller that is easy to wire and program. It has sufficient analog
input ports to read from 17 various analog sensors simultaneously, and also
features a Serial Data (SDA) line and a Serial Clock (SCL) line. Both an SDA line
and an SCL line are required to support I2C sensors. With these input ports, the
ARDUINO UNO is able to read from three different analog sensors and two digital
sensors simultaneously. Furthermore, the ARDUINO UNO includes Serial
Peripheral Interface (SPI) functionality, which allows it to interface with certain
peripheral hardware devices, such as SD card modules. On top of this, the board
also allows digital ports to be configured to act as Serial Receive (RX) or Serial
Transmit (TX) lines. These are necessary to connect with a Bluetooth module
correctly. Finally, because of its popularity, many hardware modules are designed
to work specifically with ARDUINO microcontrollers, including those that the
Sensor Interface requires, like Bluetooth modules and SD card modules.

2. I R Transmitter Receiver
The principle of an IR sensor working as an Object Detection Sensor is explained
using the following figure. An IR sensor consists of an IR LED and an IR
Photodiode; together they are called as Photo – Coupler or Opto – Coupler. When
the IR transmitter emits radiation, it reaches the object and some of the radiation
reflects back to the IR receiver. Based on the intensity of the reception by the IR
receiver, the output of the sensor is defined.
 3. ESP8266 Wifi Module
The ESP8266 WiFi Module is a self contained SOC with integrated TCP/IP protocol
stack that can give any microcontroller access to your WiFi network. The ESP8266
is capable of either hosting an application or offloading all Wi-Fi networking
functions from another application processor. Each ESP8266 module comes pre-
programmed with an AT command set firmware, meaning, you can simply hook
this up to your Arduino device and get about as much WiFi-ability .The ESP8266
module is an extremely cost effective board with a huge, and ever growing,
community.
This module has a powerful enough on-board processing and storage capability
that allows it to be integrated with the sensors and other application specific
devices through its GPIOs with minimal development up-front and minimal
loading during runtime. Its high degree of on-chip integration allows for minimal
external circuitry, including the front-end module, is designed to occupy minimal
PCB area. The ESP8266 supports APSD for VoIP applications and Bluetooth co-
existance interfaces, it contains a self-calibrated RF allowing it to work under all
operating conditions, and requires no external RF parts. There is an almost
limitless fountain of information available for the ESP8266, all of which has been
provided by amazing community support
 4. LCD’s
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is an electronic display system. A 16x2 LCD display
is a very basic system and commonly used in various devices and circuits. LCDs
are preferred over seven segments and other multi segment LEDs. The advantages
of LCDs are as follows:
1. LCDs are economical.
2. They are easily programmable.
3. A number of characters can be displayed.
4. Very compact and light.
5. Low power consumption
A 16x2 LCD means it can display 16 characters per line and 2 such lines are there.
In this LCD every character is displayed in 5x7 pixel matrix.
LCD possesses two registers:
 Data and
 Command registers.
The command register stores the command instructions given to the LCD. A
command can be defined as an instruction given to LCD to do a predefined task.
For example, initializing the LCD, clearing the screen, controlling the cursor
position, controlling the display etc. The data register stores the data which is
displayed on the LCD screen. The data is the ASCII value of the character which is
displayed on the LCD screen.

Programming OF LCD: For programming the 16x2 LCD display there are three
basic steps.
1. Initialization of LCD
2. Giving command for reading the given data
3. Giving command for writing data and displaying on the screen
Connectivity methods
 IR sensor connectivity with the arduino

Connection between IR sensor and ARDUINO is really simple. We have to

connect the output to a digital pin. And connect ARDUINO’S 5v to IR
sensor’s VCC and common grounding that is ground of ARDUINO to ground
of sensor.

Now IR sensor has a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter is a LED

that emits light in Infra-red band. To match the receiver frequency the data is
modulated at 38.7 KHZ by configuring 555 timer at a stable mode of
operation, which generates frequency using the components R2 and C2 .This
frequency can be varied over a long range just by varying the preset R1 and
C1.The transmitter usually is a battery powered handset. It should consume
as little power as possible, and the IR signal should also be as strong as
possible to achieve an acceptable control distance.

Preferably it should be shock proof as well. Many chips are designed to be

used as IR transmitters. The older chips were dedicated to only one of the
many protocols that were invented. Nowadays very low power
microcontrollers are used in IR transmitters for the simple reason that they
are more flexible in their use. When no button is pressed they are in a very
low power sleep mode, in which hardly any current is consumed. The
processor when wakes up to transmit the appropriate IR command only a
key is pressed .An emitter follower circuit can avoid this.
 The 2 diodes in series will limit the pulses on the base of the transistor to
1.2V. The base-emitter voltage of the transistor subtracts O.6V from that,
resulting in constant amplitude of O.6V at the emitter. This constant
amplitude across a constant resistor results in current pulses of a constant
magnitude. Calculating the current through the LED is simply applying ohm'
law.

 Arduino connectivity with the LEDs

LED (light emitting diode) colour is characterized by the wavelength it emits.
The peak emission wavelength differs according to the energy released during
recombination. This energy differs according to the LED material used. Mixed
crystals of GaP & GaAs are used. By varying the mixing ratio “X”, different
luminous colours from red to yellow are obtained.
LEDs can typically draw up to 30mA.A current limiting resistor is mandatory
to protect both the microcontroller & LED. Even connecting a led through a
resistor is not advisable in case of 8051.A NPN or a PNP transistor may be
used. This way even higher currents can be used. Ohms law can be used to
calculate the value of the current limiting resistor, i.e. I=V/R.
 Arduino connectivity with ESP8266
ESP8266 (technically ESP8266EX) is a Wi-Fi Module based on Cadence
Tensilica L106 32-bit MCU manufactured by Espressif Systems. The
ESP8266 SoC contains a fully functional Wi-Fi Stack and TCP/IP Stack that
allows any Microcontroller to get connected to Wi-Fi Network.
Platform for data processing and user interface
The connectivity platform used here is IOT gecko. We can operate and monitor our
IOT systems with GUI using IOT gecko using web interface on IOT Gecko.
For this we have to connect ESP with the cloud and then send the sensor
data. To link gecko library is included in the code and a predefined gecko
layout can be used of traffic monitoring for GUI interfacing.
Conclusions
Integrating features of all the hardware components used have been developed in
it. Presence of every module has been reasoned out and placed carefully, thus
contributing to the best working of the unit.
Future Scope
We can use GSM module to track location of car. We can use camera for security
purpose. We can use image processing technique.