Traffic Light Control System

2020 COE Engineering Design Project (VG06)

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Faculty Lab Coordinator

Vadim Geurkov

Topic Category

Embedded Systems

Preamble

Besides the normal traffic control features, this system also uses sound to let visually handicapped people know when it is safe to cross the street. A CCD camera and a magnetic reed switches (or other type sensors) are used to sense when a car is waiting at the light. This system detects these inputs, as well as a pedestrian crossing button, in order to determine the time it takes for the lights to change. When a car has run at the red light, a warning sound is sent out to visually impaired pedestrians, and trigger level voltage is sent, that is used for a camera to take the offender’s picture. The speed of a running car is also calculated and stored in the system. If the speed exceeds limits the camera takes the photograph of offender's plate and stores it in the memory. The system is controlled by a host PC using RF-link. The traffic light control should be capable of parameter modification over the Internet, as well as, have a capability of uploading the offender’s picture by the request of a remote PC (or a tablet, cell-phone etc.). A GUI interface has to be designed for the purpose of the control of the network of traffic lights and monitoring the images and times when the traffic violation occurred and at which traffic light. GUI should have a capability of requesting an immediate image capture from the specific traffic light camera. The mode of operation changes during the day.

Objective

(a) Design and development of a traffic light control system; (b) Research and development of monitoring software; (c) Research of CCD cameras; (d) Build electro-mechanical platform; (e) Development of a microcontroller based control system; (f) Interfacing with control device; (g) Preparation of technical documentation

Partial Specifications

- Power supply: 5V battery
- Tcl/Tk, Visual Basic or other GUI
- Control processor: ARM Cortex M3, Altera, Xilinx or Actel programmable logic devices with an embedded ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller

Suggested Approach

- Study the literature on light, motion and magnetic controls
- Study the literature on CCD cameras
- Understand the concept of light controllers
- Study the characteristics of micro controllers and magnetic sensors

Group Responsibilities

Research the literature, development of the technical specifications of the system, design, implementation and testing of the system with the above objectives, preparing the thesis, project management.

Student A Responsibilities

Design of the hardware part of the system, design of CCD-camera interface to a PC.

Student B Responsibilities

Design of the software part of the system.

Student C Responsibilities

Design of the microcontroller communication protocols, project management.

Student D Responsibilities

Exploration and design of a video recognition methods to be implemented on a microcontroller, or a PC.

Course Co-requisites

COE-328, COE-538

To ALL EDP Students

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, in the event University is not open for in-class/in-lab activities during the Winter term, your EDP topic specifications, requirements, implementations, and assessment methods will be adjusted by your FLCs at their discretion.