# A NEW APPROACH TO AUTOMATION AND MONITORING IN ROAD TRAFFIC SYSTEM

Franklin Ouvolelolo Okorodudu, P. O. Okorodudu, B. Ossai

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Franklin Ouvolelolo Okorodudu, P. O. Okorodudu, B. Ossai. A NEW APPROACH TO AUTOMATION AND MONITORING IN ROAD TRAFFIC SYSTEM. 27th International Conference on Digital Inclusion: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Jul 2018, international conference centre, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. pp.10-16. hal-04680033

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Submitted on 28 Aug 2024

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Full Paper

A NEW APPROACH TO AUTOMATION AND MONITORING IN
ROAD TRAFFIC SYSTEM

F. O. Okorodudu

School of Applied Sciences,
Department of Computer Science,
Delta State Polytechnics,
Otefe-Oghara, Delta State, Nigeria
okoroblackx4@yahoo.co.uk

P. O. Okorodudu

Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria
philip.okorodudu.pg80051@unn.edu.ng

B. Ossai

Department of Science Laboratory
Technology,
Delta State Polytechnics,
Otefe-Oghara, Delta State, Nigeria
ossaiblessing18@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Traffic congestion in highway networks is one of the main issues confronting today's traffic management schemes. this article deals with the problem of traffic automation and monitoring at large intersection of roads with a tendency for heavy traffic. in this study, a solution to automate and monitor several tasks of operational control at major lanes and road junctions is presented. the study developed a new approach to road traffic automation and monitoring system using a network of sensors and real-time image processing system to control traffic and reduce traffic gridlocks and environmental hazards resulting from smokes of car exhausts. the design is made up of the power supply unit, the micro controller unit, the motion sensors, the timer, the digital calculator, the digital display, the message processor, sender and camera. simulation of the various units was done individually using the procedural programming application proteus 8. the components used were according to design specifications from data book with alternatives used in cases where they are unavailable. the designed traffic automation and control system is user friendly and easy. the designed system makes the traffic monitoring simple, it is reliable and capable of reducing high concentration of vehicles in a lane thus reducing environmental pollution and traffic gridlock

Keywords:

Digital Calculator, Microcontroller, Road Traffic Monitoring and Traffic Gridlock
## 1. INTRODUCTION

With increasing traffic congestion in major towns and cities, modern societies with well-planned road network and average infrastructure for transportation still face the problem of traffic congestion (baskar, de-schutter, hellendoorn & papp 2012). road traffic automation, monitoring and control techniques are used to control the traffic flows and reduce traffic jams, improving the performance of the road traffic system in the process. the benefits of this techniques include the reduction in travel time, safety, reduction in fuel consumption, gas emission reduction and improved reliability (an, lee & shin, 2011). existing traffic management approaches make use of roadside based traffic control measures using traffic signals and road traffic wardens. these techniques have proved ineffective over the years as traffic wardens face the risk of being ran into by reckless drivers, there is also the issue of drivers breaking road traffic laws and going unpunished. the consequence of this is the loss of travel time and economic loss to the society. while constructing new roads could be one of the solutions for handling the traffic congestion problem, its feasibility considering political, environmental and financial implications is a challenge. an alternative would be to make efficient use of the existing infrastructure in the best possible way. in this article, we consider the option of effective utilization of existing road infrastructure with particular interest on road automation, monitoring and control.

## 2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Traffic congestion globally is on the increase and with detection and tracking of moving vehicles posing a huge challenge in the application of computer vision, researchers in the field of artificial intelligence have been seeking for ways to mitigate the effects of these congestions. Remy, Tarak and Mohan (2014) investigated how artificial intelligence techniques could be applied in the measurement of traffic data. The study used sensors with looped detectors to solve a traffic congestion problem. However, findings of Rita, Massimo & Paola (2000), Kanungo, Sharma & Singla (2014) revealed that vision-based cameras would have proved more useful as they are more sophisticated and easy to maintain than the pneumatic sensors. In another study (Erhan, Murat

& Sibel, 2007) proposed the use of GPRS or radio for vehicle tracking and classification so as to convey information such as traffic situation, vehicle speed and distance between moving vehicles to drivers. The system proposed by Drhan et al, (2007) also included an incident detection system to be transmitted to drivers using the GPRS or radio. This method utilizes moving objects to extract images. However, this method generates large quantities of ghost which affects the clustering and tracking processes (Liu & Payeur, 2003., Pang, Lam & Yung 2007., Ramazani & Vahdat-Nejad, 2014). An extension to the existing traffic control technologies is in the field of communication, control and information systems which have been combined with the existing transportation infrastructure and equipment (Kim, Lewis & White). The use of these intelligent control systems incorporates intelligence in the use of road signs and in the vehicles with the intention of reducing congestion and environmental impact by exploiting the distributed nature of the system and by making use of cooperation and coordination between the various vehicles and the different roadside traffic signs (Hall and Chin, 2005) These techniques have over the years not been sustainable as most drivers tend to disregard road signs and traffic information.

In a related study, Kumar, Singh and Reddy (2005) developed an advanced traveler information system. The study utilized a 16km long stretch road that included heavy traffic roads. The study used over 100 GPS devices placed on city buses on the route and 32 video cameras mounted along the road to collect data. The information to travelers was provided through variable message sign boards on the routes and on the website. One of the limitations of this system is the high cost that is involved in the purchase of GPS devices and video cameras. There is also the issue of safety of these devices and willingness of drivers to ensure that the road is traffic free before plying them. Christopher and Stuat (2017) developed a high definition video surveillance and broadcasting system that will allow the analysis of video technology for traffic analysis and a deployable wireless image transport system. Further, Medina and Benekohal (2012) developed an agent-based management technique with reinforcement learning principle. The study developed an adaptive operated traffic signal to cut down travel time, rate of fuel consumption and improve traffic flow rate.
However, the relatively low level of literacy of citizens in developing countries is a huge challenge to the implementations of this advanced technology

In this study, a model id designed that considered a multi-track road network. The direction of arrival of vehicles at different multi-track road was programmed into the memory of a microcontroller and this program handles all traffic related issues within the road network. The motion sensors were programmed to handle the issue of vehicle arrivals across the multi-track road. The microcontroller works in consonant with the motion sensors and then feeds the timer which in turn feeds the digital calculator and tells the volume of traffic on the road for drivers to know the route which best suits them

**3. COMPONENT DESIGN**

The design and development of the system has both the hardware, software and user requirements. The hardware subsystems include the hardware units used to realize the visible part of the road traffic automation/monitoring and control network. The software sub - systems include the software units used to realize the sensor that initialize the process, data transfers from the deployed visible test-bed to the vehicles in which the sensors have been installed and an online server and clients at the office of road monitoring agencies. The user requirements require that the users understand and can interprets basic instructions.

The hardware sub system is categorized into the following major segments:

**3.1 The power supply unit**

A centre-tapped transformer was used in the design of the power supply unity. The rectification process used was the bridge rectifier with four diodes connected to the secondary of the transformer. The power supply system consists of 220v/9v ac transformer, 25v by 2200uF or 25v by 3300uF capacitor, IN4001 diodes connected in bridge rectification.

The transformer steps down 220/240V to 12V. This 12V AC was converted to DC to feed DC supply voltage to the control circuit, which includes;

transistors and the relays. The block diagram of the power supply unit is as shown in Fig. 1 below

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 1:** Power Supply Unit</figcaption></figure>

**3.2 The microcontroller unit**

The microcontroller is the brain behind the automation and control process. It is basically a computer that controls the actions of the designed system. The microcontroller takes inputs from the motion sensor and interprets it to the other parts of the network. It also feeds information to the motion sensor. Basically, the microcontroller is the component responsible for detecting and interpreting signals received from the sensors. The microcontroller in this system performs the same function a processor does to a computer system; it governs its operations. The microcontroller chosen for this function in this design is the PIC16F 628A, a product of Microchips. The Functions of the microcontroller-16F628A include amongst others: to turn on the system automatically when power is connected, to interpret signals, to send an alert signal to the base station in case it senses an intruder, to clear the transceiver's screen and to relay audio signals to the base station

**3.3 The motion sensors**

Motions sensors are used to detect moving objects. When a vehicle is stationary, the effect of motion sensors does not apply because light is sensitive to motion and not to a car that is stationary. Hence motion sensors are used to detect and capture physical or kinetic movements on a real time basis. The passive infrared sensor (PIR) used in the design of this study works with the microcontroller to sense the number of vehicles on a particular lane and sends the
information to the digital controller through the
timer.

**3.4 The timer and digital calculator**

The timer is used for measuring time intervals that
vehicles are held up on traffic while digital
calculator computes the number of vehicles that
are on the traffic. The timer and the digital
calculator works together. The timer is set to a
certain time interval for which a vehicle's stay on a
particular lane is termed to have exceeded the
maximum time while the digital calculator is used
to add up the number of vehicles that have spent
that certain amount of time on the traffic. The
information obtained from the timer is relayed to
the digital calculator and digital display counter.
This method helps to inform road users of the
approximate number of time that they are likely to
be held up in traffic. If the time frame is within
what they can accommodate, they can choose to
still take the route.

**3.5 Message Processor**

Message processors are generally used to deliver
messages to the camera and sender having
obtained its information from the motion sensor as
shown in Fig. 2 below. The message processor
basically delivers messages that have been
temporarily stored to units such as the camera and
the sender that feeds on the information to
execute their task.

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>Figure 2: Block diagram of the feedback traffic monitoring and control system</figcaption></figure>

**4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION**

A prototype of the new approach to road traffic automation/monitoring and control was designed and tested. The designed device was incorporated in a vehicle with information being fed to it from the office of road traffic monitoring agency. The device was coated with sensor wires. The system is set to read information from the data available at the office of the monitoring agency. Vehicles are able to determine the status of a road in terms of traffic before travelling on a particular road. Information on different routes to a destination are laid bare to drivers for them to choose which of them to travel on. Drivers choose the roads to travel on based on the existing traffic situation. A major benefit of this system is the posting of traffic situation in an area.

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>Figure 3: Feedback traffic control circuit diagram</figcaption></figure>

The designed circuit basically has two parts: the
feedback traffic control circuit and the sensor
input message processor circuit as shown in Figs. 3
and 4 respectively. The feedback traffic control
circuit obtains the necessary road information and
feeds it to the message processor to process and
give the status of each road. It is important to note
that the system is dynamic as the process of
operation is continuous. This is because vehicles
arrive and leave traffic points at every point in time.
For this reason, the back-up power supply unit of
Fig. 2 was designed to ensure that power is
automatically restored once there is an outage of
electricity from the public power supply.
<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 4:** Sensor input/ message processor circuit diagram</figcaption></figure>

This measure of traffic control is ideal for developing countries to regulate traffic. The designed devices pre-inform drives of the traffic nature of the road they choose to ply to get to their destination. This way, drivers already know the nature of traffic that they should expect on a lane or road.

Most roads in developing countries have been built to allow different types of road users going at widely ranging speeds in the same space and at the same time. Such all-purpose roads are liable to have a high traffic incident rate. Conscious road planning and design such as the use of the proposed road traffic automation and control mechanism are key to better traffic management in developing countries

## 5. CONCLUSION

A new approach to automation in road traffic monitoring and control system capable of automating vehicular traffic system was developed in this study. Motion sensors which provided a continuous electrical path was used to indicate the volume of traffic and the probable time that the traffic will persist on the road based on the existing road traffic information from the timer and the digital calculator. The designed system has as its brain, the microcontroller which regulates the activities of the other parts of the designed circuit. The advantages of this system include easing of traffic on the road by informing drivers through the

use of sensors of the traffic nature on a road, reducing environmental hazards that could result from the release of carbon monoxide from the exhaust of slowly moving or clustered vehicles, reducing the likely effects of head-on collision of vehicles that could result from vehicles coming from different directions or junctions, easing the ability to shut down a road or lane that require maintenance without causing much damage to road users. The designed system, if implemented, would reduce the task of road traffic wardens at major T-junctions and cross-junctions

## 6. REFERENCES

An, S., Lee, B., &Shin D. (2011). A survey of intelligent transportation systems. Proceedings of the IEEE third international conference on Computational Intelligence, Communication Systems and Networks (332-337). Bali, Indonesia

Baskar, L.D., De-Schutter, B., Hellendoorn, J., & Papp Z (2008). Traffic control and intelligent vehicle highway systems: A survey. *IET Intelligent Transport Systems*, *5* (3), 38–52.

Christopher, D., & Stuat, M. (2017). A proof-of-concept and demonstration of a high definition, digital video surveillance and wireless transmission system for traffic monitoring and analysis. Retrieved from http://www.citsm.umd.edu/documents/abstracts-finished/milner-abstract.php.

Erhan, B.A., Murat, T.F &, Sibel, S. (2007). Automatic vehicle counting from video for traffic flow analysis. Proceedings of IEEE Intelligence Vehicle Symposium (392-397). Istanbul, Turkey

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