International Journal of

Emerging Research in Management &Technology Research Article May

ISSN: 2278-9359 (Volume-5, Issue-5) 2016
Special Issue on International Conference on Advances in Engineering (ICAE) -2016
Conference Held at Hotel Magaji Orchid, Sheshadripuram, Bengaluru, India.
Design of an Automated Traffic Control System for Emergency
Vehicle Clearance
Manjunath N, Nikschal V.M, Surabhi Mohta, Sindhuja N
Department of ECE, Bengaluru, Karnataka,
India

Abstract- The occurrence of traffic congestion at the intersections in cities is one of major problem. Congestion on
roads eventually results in slow moving traffic, which increases the time of travel, thus becomes notable as one of
the major issues in metropolitan cities. We through this paper like to propose an alternative solution for hassle free
movement of ambulance by introducing an automated traffic signal using RFID. The proposed system tries to
minimize the possibilities of traffic jams, caused by the traffic lights, by clearing the road also provides the clearance
for the emergency vehicle if any. Our project aims at providing ample amount of time for ambulance to not only pass
the signal without hindrance but allows for smooth traffic movement in other roads joining a Junction. The proposed
system provides quality of service to Emergency vehicles and improves the accuracy of Automatic Traffic Light
system.

Keywords- RFID, GSM, Automated Traffic Signal Controller

I. INTRODUCTION
In most parts of the world, traffic congestion is a serious problem as traffic lights have a conventional setup
using with fixed signal timing. Therefore it is practically important to develop, verify and validate simple yet
powerful models that help in designing and improving the safety and efficiency of transportation [1]. Our paper
aims at providing clearance to Emergency vehicles like ambulance, fire engine that need to reach their destinations
at the earliest. If they spend a lot of time in traffic jams, valued lives of many people may be in danger. Our project
not only provides sufficient amount of time for ambulance to pass the signal without hindrance but even allows a
smooth traffic movement in other roads joining the junction. It provides efficient emergency mode operation and
satisfactory operation of SMS using GSM Modem. To make traffic light controlling more efficient, we exploit
the emergence of new technique called as Automated traffic light controller.
The proposed Automated Traffic light controller system provides clearance to Emergency vehicles
using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) module that consists of RFID tag and an RFID reader and a GSM
modem. GSM acts as a wireless network to send the message from emergency unit end and receive the same text
message at the traffic junction end.
The performance of the Automated Traffic Light Controller is compared with the Fixed Mode Traffic Light
Controller. It is observed that the proposed Automated Traffic Light Controller is more efficient than the
conventional controller in respect of less waiting time, more distance travelled by average vehicles and efficient
operation during emergency mode and ensures proper operation of GSM interface. The designed system has
simple architecture, fast response time, user friendliness and scope for further expansion.
This paper is organized as follows: Section II summarizes some related published articles. Information about
the hardware used in the system is described in Section III. The working principle of a system and its
implementation is discussed in Section IV. Section V describes the simulation and results of proposed system.
Finally, this work is concluded in Section VI.

II. RELATED WORKS

A.D.Jadhav, et.al.[2] proposed an Intelligent Traffic Light Control System which aims at reducing the delay
on roads by reducing the amount of traffic. This paper includes analyzing the traffic flow of each road along with
the signals and assigns time period to glow the respective light The proposed system tries to minimize the
possibilities of traffic jams, to some extent by clearing the road with higher density of vehicles The road which is
recorded with more traffic density then other roads will be assigned with a green signal and all other roads will be
assigned with red. This paper focuses to reduce traffic congestion on roads which results in long waiting times, loss
of fuel and money.
Ruthvik Gautham, et.al[3] proposed an Automated Traffic Signal which provides a smooth flow to emergency
vehicles by introducing a dynamic traffic signal. This paper focuses on providing a smooth flow to ambulance
using non pre- scheduling where the sole resource is time. The traffic density on each road will be measured by
using Radio Identification Readers to count the number of vehicles.
Nazneen Syed [4] proposed Smart Traffic Control System for Emergency Vehicle Clearance using image
processing this system uses LABVIEW for image processing of vehicle sample images. The Automatic traffic
density estimation and vehicle classification she is done through video processing. This system aims at reducing

2016, IJERMT All Rights Reserved Page | 278

 Manjunath et al., International Journal of Emerging Research in Management &Technology
ISSN: 2278-9359 (Volume-5, Issue-5)
the manual efforts from the side of policeman on duty and it is implemented only for single lane and there is no
information about the exact location of emergency vehicle.
Sangeetha et.al [5] has proposed a system which will automatically controls the traffic signal, and use GPS
to trace the location of the emergency vehicle and send a message to embedded system. Further this message
will be encoded and transmitted to the Traffic junction which contains a receiver to decode the message. Although
the system is automated it takes a long time and every time the GPS will not be able to track the locations.
To summarize it can be seen that the existing approaches are not sufficient to control the traffic flow and
provide an optimum green path to the emergency vehicles. This approach is fully automated to detect an
emergency vehicle and immediately send a message to the traffic controller, so that a green path is provided to
the emergency vehicle until it crosses the traffic junction.

III. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION

A. Rfid [Radio Frequency Identification]
The RFID technology provides an elaborated object tagged recognition which will support the dynamic traffic
signal [6]. It is a technique that uses the radio waves to identify the object uniquely and is widely used in the
various application areas like medical science, commerce, security, Electronic toll collection system, etc.
RFID system consists of a Reader and one or more Tags. The tags consist of 12 digit unique code which is used
to identify the objects uniquely. The tags can be classified as active or passive; in this system we use passive tags
because of its long life and ease of maintenance. The reading range of tag depends on various parameters like
environmental condition, frequency of operation and antenna size.

B. Gsm[Global System For Mobile Communication]

The traditional approach of sending data is wired transmission. This method follows security but it is not
suitable in all environments. Therefore we adapt for wireless communication and use GSM modem[7]. A GSM
modem is a specialized type of modem which accepts a SIM card, and operates over a subscription to a mobile
operator. It exposes an interface that allows applications such as SMS to send and receive messages over the
modem interface. This is a very simple and efficient way of sending messages. To perform these tasks, a GSM
modem must support an extended AT command set as defined in the ETSI GSM 07.05 and and 3GPP TS 27.005
specifications.

C. UART and RS-232

UART is a hardware that translates the data to serial form. It is used to implement the communication
between two computers with recommended standard (RS) 232 or RS 422. The basic principle of UART is to
convert parallel data to serial data and vice versa.RS-232 is a standard for serial communication transmission
of data. It formally defines the signals connecting between a DTE (data terminal equipment) such as a
computer terminal, and a DCE (data circuit-terminating equipment or data communication equipment), such as
a modem. The RS-232 standard is commonly used in computer serial ports.

D. Selection of Processor
The selection of processor plays a crucial role as the overall efficiency of the system depends on the
results from a microprocessor or microcontroller, such as propagation delay, efficiency, and compatibility with the
wireless technology. In this paper we use ARM7 based processor LPC2148.The ARM architecture is based on
Reduced Instruction Set Computing [RISC] and the instructions set are much simpler compared to other processor.
It supports In System Programming [ISP] and features such as low power consumption, fast responses.
Presently, this system implementation is possible through many software options; programming languages/tools,
such as C, MATLAB.

IV. PROPOSED SYSTEM

Under the proposed system, we aim at providing an efficient traffic management scheme which provides
priority to emergency vehicles. The operation of Automated Traffic Controller is as shown in the Figure
1.The proposed system is implemented for a multilane traffic junction [8] and the operations are carried out using
ARM which is the Heart of the system. The whole setup consists of ARM, RFID and GSM for identifying the
ambulance and providing it a green path.
Using the RFID system the traffic problems that usually arise with standard traffic control systems can be
avoided. The traffic signal indication continuously glows to green as long as the emergency vehicle does not cross
the traffic junction. Once the emergency vehicle, crosses the junction automatically the traffic signals continue their
idle operation. The timing of signal is adjusted according to the priority of emergency vehicle detected on each road.
Each lane consists of a RFID system connected to Microcontroller using serial protocol. The RFID tags will be
attached to the ambulance, when this ambulance passes through the lane the tag would be read by the reader and
ambulance/emergency vehicle would be detected if the Tags Unique Identification Code (UID) matches with
the preset code. Once the RFID Tag code matches, then the GSM Module sends a unique message such as
emergency to the GSM module placed at the Traffic Junction. Once the unique message is received and
verified, the ideal operation is halted and the path where the ambulance is detected turns green. Considering a

2016, IJERMT All Rights Reserved Page | 279

 Manjunath et al., International Journal of Emerging Research in Management &Technology
ISSN: 2278-9359 (Volume-5, Issue-5)
multilane junction, only the path where any ambulance is detected turns green and the remaining paths will turn
red to provide a smooth flow for the emergency vehicle.

Fig 1: Block Diagram of Proposed System

V. SIMULATION AND RESULTS

Initially, the traffic light signals are programmed in all the areas in order to vary from red to yellow, yellow
to green and green to red within particular time interval. When one face is green, all the signals in other faces are
in red. According to the location of the ambulance, the corresponding path is made free by clearing the traffic
signals in that particular path. This can be done in the control room and the corresponding signal is made green as
shown in When the RFID code present in the emergency vehicle matches with the preset code fed in the
program, then the GSM modem is activated and it uses AT commands and sends a unique message
emergency as shown in Figure 2 to the GSM Modem placed at the traffic junction.

Fig 2: Output when an emergency vehicle is detected

When the RFID code present in the ambulance/emergency vehicle does not match with the preset code fed in
the program, then the GSM modem is not activated and it stays idle. Therefore no message is sent to the traffic
junction as shown in Figure 3 and default operation of traffic light controller is carried out.

Fig 3: Output when no emergency vehicle is detected

2016, IJERMT All Rights Reserved Page | 280
 Manjunath et al., International Journal of Emerging Research in Management &Technology
ISSN: 2278-9359 (Volume-5, Issue-5)
Figure 4 shows the output when the GSM Modem placed at the traffic junction receives the unique message
and accordingly changes the traffic signal to green to provide a smooth flow for the emergency vehicle.

Fig 4: Traffic junction receives the unique message when emergency vehicle is detected

VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a novel idea is proposed for providing a green path to the emergency vehicles. Most of the traffic
signals are static in nature and requires modification to reduce the possibilities of traffic jams and provide clearance
to emergency vehicles. The system shows promising results, since active RFID technology permits to detect the
presence and identify the emergency vehicle sufficiently in advance. The design and implementation of the
proposed project is directly targeted for traffic management so that emergency vehicle on road gets clear
way to reach the destination in time and without any human interruption. This system will definitely help to
give a smooth flow to the emergency vehicle when there is heavy traffic on the road and gives a powerful solution
to improve existing system with the new automated traffic light controller. Further the project can be extended
to provide communication from one vehicle to other for a smooth flow of traffic.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Foremost, we would like to express our deep sense of gratitude to the founder Chairman of The Oxford
College of Engineering Sri S. NarasaRaju and our Principal Dr. K Karibasappa for their constant support and
encouragement. We like to express our sincere gratitude to Head of Department, ECE Dr.Dattathreya and
our guide Associate Professor Mrs.Sajithra Varun S for the continuous support, motivation, enthusiasm, and
immense knowledge and suggestion provided to us. A note of thanks to all the teaching and non-teaching staff
and our friends for their co-operation and support extended towards us. Last but not the least we would thank our
parents and God almighty for bringing us to this position.

REFERENCES
[1] N. M. Z. Hashim,, A. S. Jaafar, N. A. Ali., L. Salahuddin, N. R. Mohamad and M. A. Ibrahim,
Traffic Light Control System for Emergency Vehicles Using Radio Frequency, IOSR Journal of
Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 7, pp. 43-52, 2013.
[2] A.D.Jadhav, Bhor Madhuri, Thakre Ketan, Intelligent Traffic Light Control System proceedings of 4th
IRF International Conference, ISBN: 978-93-82702-66-5,16th march 2014
[3] Vasuki Shankar, Ruthvik Gautham, Vedaprakash Varma, Automated Traffic Signal for Hassle
Free Movement of Ambulance ,pp 1-5 2015 IEEE Conference Paper 2015.
[4] Veera Venkatesh, Nazneen Syed, Smart Traffic Control System for Emergency Vehicle Clearance
International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering Vol. 3, Issue 8,
August 2015
[5] K.Sangeetha et aI., "Automatic ambulance rescue with intelligent traffic light system", IOSR journal
of engineering (IOSRJEN), vol.4, Issue 2, February 2014.
[6] Gajanan P. Dhok, Sarika B, Embedded System for Intelligent Ambulance and Traffic Control
Management International Journal of Computer and Electronics Research, volume 2, issue 2, april 2013
[7] Shilpa S. Chavan (Walke) , Dr. R. S. Deshpande, J. G. Rana, Design of Intelligent Traffic Light Controller
using embedded System Second International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering and
Technology, ICETET-09
[8] Osigwe Uchenna Chinyere, Oladipo Onaolapo Francisca, Onibere Emmanuel Amano, Design and
Simulation of an Intelligent Traffic Control System International Journal of Advances in Engineering &
Technology, Nov 2011 ISSN: 2231- 1963

2016, IJERMT All Rights Reserved Page | 281