Smart traffic control system for Smart Cities

Increasing traffic congestion on city roads, wastage of fuel at traffic lights and loss of precious lives due to emergency services like Ambulance, Fire Brigade getting stuck in traffic jam were the key motivators for three students of second  year Electronics & Communication Engineering at Chandigarh University, Gharuan to come-up with a Smart Traffic Control System.

“According to statistics 20 per cent of patients needing emergency treatment die on their way to hospitals every year because of traffic delays and uncooperative motorists in India,” says Raj Aryan, who along with Kashish Jangid and Himanshu Soni, has developed this sensor-based smart traffic control system which will not only help to give passage to emergency services but will also help in generating power that will be used to run the traffic lights. 

Based on the installation of Piezoelectric Sensors, which have the ability to convert pressure into electric voltage on all crossings where the vehicles stop due to traffic lights, the smart traffic control system will calculate the length of traffic queue on all the sides of the crossing. The sensor will send the signals to the microcontroller installed in managing the traffic lights to go green based on the traffic queue. 

An interesting part of the proposed system is that the piezoelectric sensor will also generate power from the weight of the vehicles which stop at the traffic signals and hence the generated power will be used to provide power to the traffic signals. 

The system will also sense the presence of emergency service vehicles like ambulances, fire brigade through RF transmitter and receiver installed in the system. Using the alarm sound detection system generated by the emergency vehicle, the RF Receiver will send signals to the microcontroller of the traffic lights to go green while keeping the other signals red and hence prioritising the traffic flow at the crossing from the side where there is an emergency vehicle stuck in the jam due to traffic lights. The RF receiver can detect the sound frequency within the distance of 100 to 200 meters. This can help in saving many precious human lives as emergency services vehicles will get priority at traffic signals. 

The students of Chandigarh University have already filed a patent for the smart traffic control system with the patent granting agency of India. —TNS