2009 First International Workshop on Education Technology and Computer Science
Research of Traffic Signal Light Intelligent Control System
Based On Microcontroller
Zhang Yuye
Marine college of Northwest Polytechnical University
Xi’an, China
Physics Department of XianYang Normal University
XianYang, China.
lele98412@126.com
Abstract—A development of distributed area traffic signal
lights control based on single-chip microcontroller through
CAN BUS is described. With the core of AT89C51, infrared
receiver receives the infrared signal coming from launcher.
The demodulation signal is treated by single-chip
microcontroller. The single-chip microcontroller controls the
CAN BUS controller to structure CAN BUS communication
system to transmit the data. The designator of distributed
traffic signal lights intelligent control system was carried out
by three control styles of Vehicle flux, remote and PC. The
paper introduces total scheme and system structure, also the
hardware design of the system in detail. By experimental
testing, when the key K1-K6 is pressed ,time setting of east-
west,south-north direction, emergency car ,time’s increase
,decrease ,holding are effectively controlled. When the low-
level time of WDI is continuous greater than 1.6s, the RESET
port of watchdog produces negative overflow pulse signal
lasting 200ms to reset AT89C51.The design demands of system
are all satisfied.
Keywords-Traffic signal ligt; AT89C51; CAN BUS;
Intelligent control
I. INTRODUCTION
With the economical development, the number of
automobiles expands rapidly and urban highway is growing
crowded. Traffic jam is already an international problem. A
secure, reliable, convenient and fast urban multifunction
traffic lights control system becomes very urgent necessary.
Under ordinary conditions, traffic signals control mainly has
two defects:1.When the traffic lane wait 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 sub-
lane has few vehicles and go-ahead time is relatively long.
2. Emergency cars is 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.
978-0-7695-3557-9/09 $25.00 © 2009 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ETCS.2009.328
Yan Weisheng
Marine college of Northwest Polytechnical University
Xi’an, China
In this system, the realization of design of traffic signal
light control is in virtue of the single-chip microcontroller
AT89C51 and CAN BUS is regarded as field bus. The
designator of distributed traffic signal lights intelligent
control system was carried out by three control styles of
Vehicle flux, remote and PC. And some corrective measures
are taken in aspect of software and hardware. The field
control of traffic signal light becomes flexible and effective.
To some extent, traffic jam, unreasonable latency time of
stoppage of vehicle, emergency cars or forcibly passing, etc
are solved. The system has several benefits such as simple
structure, high reliability, low costs, good real-time, easy
installation and maintenance and so on. So, the system owns
a broader application prospect.
II. DESIGN SCHEME AND SYSTEM STRUCTURE
The hardware subassembly of this system consists of
vehicle-flux detecting circuit, keyboard-time setting circuit,
infrared remote transmitter/receiver circuit, single-chip
controller, CAN BUS controller[1], CAN BUS transceiver,
optoelectronic isolation chip, SCM parallel interface, watch
dog circuit, etc. The supervisor node connected to host
computer is set as main node and control apparatus of signal
light in each crossing as smart node. So, region traffic light
control system is realized and the system principle diagram
is shown as figure1 below:
Signal light control of each crossing is realized by
infrared remote control apparatus. Encoded signal emitted
by Infrared transmitter is loaded to single-chip controller
through infrared receiver so as to control traffic lights,
waiting time and emergency cars.
In addition, the vehicle-flux detection apparatus in east
and west, south and north direction is used to real-
signal is treated by single-chip microcontroller. the set of
red-green alteration and waiting time of traffic lights is
realized by programming technique of single-chip
microcontroller. Communication between PC and single-
chip microcontroller is done through serial port. And the
transmitter and receiver of digital communication in CAN
Bus is also carried out[2]. PC is in charge of centralization of
management of control apparatus of all signal lights and
301
transmission of working-mode control information of each generate carrier frequency signal with certain pulse width
signal light controller. after division. The infrared-emitting diode is driven by
output encoded signal to emission outwardly.
PC Serial port B. Infrared remote receiving circuit
Time Infrared receiving, demodulation module receives
display infrared signal coming from emitter, after amplification and
time
Keyboard-

Extensive CPU parallel interface

Watch demodulation of internal integrated circuit, the coded pulse
dog signal, which is output by output terminal and inverse
Signal
SCM controller

amplified by transistor, is sent to receiver to decode by

light receiver demodulation module[3]. When the corresponding
control key of the receiver is pressed, the receiver outputs high level
control coding
Infrared remote

signal which connects to external interruption of single-chip

controller and applies for interruption. The valid key
latch

Vehicle condition is judged by interrupt service routine. The

-flux interface circuits of infrared receiver and single-chip
informa controller are shown as figure3 below:
tion
Signal Signal Infrared
receiving demodulating receiving
apparatus
CAN BUS

CAN Bus Photoelectric CAN Bus

controller isolation receiver

Figure 1. Block diagram of system principle. Power Signal MCU

driven amplification
III. SYSTEM DESIGN
Figure 3. Principle diagram of infrared receiving

A. Infrared remote transmitting circuit

Because system should realize signal light alteration in C. Interface circuit of CAN Bus nodes[5]
different direction, if the two directions are east-west and The communication of traffic lights control of each
south-north, several functions such as the choice of the crossing and host computer is done by the respective CAN
signal lights in east-west, south-north direction, time Bus interface module. The principle diagram of hardware
increase and decrease, emergency cars, etc should be circuit of bus system is shown as figure4 below:
realized. The principle diagram of Infrared remote
transmitting circuit is shown as figure2 below:
CAN Bus transceiver
Single –chip control

CAN Bus control

Optical coupler

Power South Time

control and control CAN BUS
signal amplification

Signal transmitting

north
contro

Infrared remote electroplate

Figure 4. principle diagram of CAN Bus nodes interface

carrier East Power
The single-chip controller is mainly in charge of the
frequency and drive
initialization of CAN Bus controller, the receiving and
generate west transmitting of data, etc. CAN Bus transceiver and CAN
control Bus interface section adopt some safe and anti-jamming
Figure 2. Principle diagram of Infrared remote transmitting circuit measures. To enhance CAN Bus anti-jamming ability, CAN
controller does not directly connect to CAN transceiver. But
Oscillating circuit consisting of infrared remote by adding high-speed optoelectronic isolator chip, the
transmitter, ceramic resonant device and capacitor can electrical isolation of each nodes in CAN Bus is realized. It
is worth noting that VCC and VDD of optically coupled

302
circuit should be completely isolated, or, the use of optically
coupled circuit has no sense. Thus, small-power supply
isolation module or isolated output switch supply module
whose value is less or equal to 5V can be adopted.
D. Watch-dog circuit
Single-chip controller’s own capacity of resisting
disturbance is less. Especially in formidable or big-noise
condition, because of external disturbance to single-chip
controller, when things are not so bad, the inner data of
system will go wrong, when situation is serious, the
program run will be seriously affected to system halting. So,
the system can not run normally. Watch-dog technology is
an important method to prevent SCM from system halting
and enhance capacity of resisting disturbance of SCM
system. In consideration of design for reliability and good
running in severe rugged environment, the system adopts
hardware watchdog circuit is shown as figure5 below:
Hand-reset Monitoring SCM
circuit control
Power driven
Figure 5. principle diagram of watchdog
E. Distribution detecting control system
CAN Bus has several virtues such as good anti-jamming
capacity, no address conception in communication, no
constrain to node, and so on. So, it is widely used in many
fields as vehicles, numerical control machine, instruments
and meters and field controlling. In the design, intelligent
traffic signal lights controller, supervisor node interface and
PC are component of communication system. The real-time
monitor, high-speed data acquisition, and so on of
intelligent distribution signal lights are realized.
The communication between SCM and PC adopts serial
style[4]. The working mode of CAN Bus is set as Intel. PC
sends data to SCM. Then, by control signal, SCM writes
data to CAN Bus controller .And the transceiver of CAN
Bus sends data. Data receiving is done by interruption.
IV. EXPERIMENT ANALYSES
The SCM controller of this system chooses
IntelAT89C51chip of MCS-51 series. Infrared remote
transmitter/receiver adopts BA5104/BA5302. Watchdog
monitoring circuit is designed by MAX692 .In bus
communication interface, CAN Bus controller SJA1000[6]
303
and bus transceiver 82C250 of PHILIPS are used. The
optical coupler adopts 6N137 chip. The hardware circuit of
system is designed and manufactured by Protel DXP.
By experimental testing, when the key K1-K6 is pressed
, time setting of east-west, south-north direction, emergency
cars, time’s increase, decrease, holding are effectively
controlled. When the low-level time of WDI is continuous
greater than 1.6s, the RESET port of watchdog produces
negative overflow pulse signal lasting 200mst to reset
AT89C51[7].The design demands of system are all satisfied.
To improve anti-interference and reliability of system
communication, pin CANH and pin CANL of Bus
transceiver 82C250 connects to CAN Bus through 5 Ω
resistance. So over-current surge is avoided. Between pin
CANH and pin CANL of 82C250 and ground, respectively
exists a 30pF parallel capacitor to get rid of high-frequency
interference and prevent electromagnetic radiation. The two
terminals of bus respectively connects 120 Ω terminating
resistance and matched bus impedance. In addition, between
the input and ground of CAN Bus, there is a lightningproof
tube. When transient disturbance occurs between the input
and ground, the affection of thunder weather to system
communication is avoided by discharge of lightningproof
tube. Although this part adds complexity of nodes,
guarantees effectively stability and security of
communication.
V. CONCLUSION
Traffic signal light intelligent control system plays an
active role in improvement of traffic jam and increase traffic
capacity. In this system, the real-time control of
automation, intelligence, humanization of signal lights in
crossing is realized. By system’s function extension, the
system can be used in other field of industrial control and
can own a broader application prospect.
REFERENCES
[1] SJA1000 CAN Controller[S].Product Specification. Philips
Semiconductors,2000.
[2] PCA82C250 CAN Controller Interface. Product
Specification[S].Philips Semiconductors,2000.
[3] Digital Logic Pocket Data Book[S] .Texas Instruments，2003：512.
[4] MAX232.Multichannel RS232 Drivers and Receivers. Maxim
Integrated Products[S].1997.
[5] Hu Guangyong, Design and Implementation of CAN Bus Node
Circuit[J], Control & Automation, 2006(22): 1-2.
[6] Rao Yuntao,Zhou Jijun,Zheng Yongyun,FieldbusCAN Principle and
Applied Technology[M].Beijing:Beijing aerospace University
Press,2003.6,154-155.
[7] Rao Yuntao,Zhou Jijun,Zheng Yongyun,FieldbusCAN Principle and
Applied Technology[M].Beijing:Beijing aerospace University
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