Chapter One General Introduction

Chapter One

Introduction

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Chapter One General Introduction

1.1 General review

Around the world, traffic light system is an automated device which
used to control the traffic flow in urban junctions and ensure the safety of road
users. Road users will be obvious with the traffic flow and can cross the
junction by following the instruction given by the traffic light if it is installed at
the junction. Therefore, for safety traffic light systems need to be installed at
the junction to control the traffic flow and assign timely direction. In general, a
junction is made up with few components; it may consist of two or more road
segments and one intersection point where the segments can meet. When road
users enter to an intersection point which is without installation of traffic light
system, they will easily get confused with the priority of crossing the junction.
In that case, any driver with bad attitude may intend to jump queue and ignore
the traffic guide. Such scenario can cause accidents on road due to negative
behavior of the road users. Basically, there are two common junctions; T-
junction and cross junction. T-junction is formed between one minor road
connecting to another major road in a T shape. The angle between the two
roads is 90o as shown in Figure (1.1a); the road users can turn either left or
right from the minor road. In cross junction road, where two tracks cross over
or four roads connected to a junction. The angle of the tracks connection is
depends on the structure of the road, but mostly is close to 90 o as shown in
Figure (1.1b). Therefore, an intelligent traffic light systems need to be installed
for both types of junction. An intelligent traffic light system can manage a high
volume of vehicles, control the traffic flow and make the flow be smoothest.
Apart from that, the system can give a clear instruction to the road users, i.e.
the timing and cycle length of each lane can be determined. So that, road users
will not get confuse to across a junction.

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Chapter One General Introduction

)a ( )b (
Fig (1.1): (a) T-junction traffic light system, (b) Cross junction traffic light system.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Because traffic light in Libya is still traditional; then some problems show
up:
(a) The heavy traffic jams increases the number of vehicles in road. This
happened usually at the main junctions commonly at the morning, before
office hour and at the evening, after the office hour. The main effect of this
matter is wasting time on the road.
(b) The road user need to wait although no traffic, because inadequate the
traffic red light.
(c) At traffic jam emergency vehicle stuck such as ambulance, fire brigades
and police will stuck especially at the traffic light junction. This is very critical
problem because it can prevent the emergency case and costing human life.
Therefore, due to the social progress and economic development in
Tripoli Libya will cause traffic jams (vehicle congestion phenomena at
intersection).To solve such problems an intelligent traffic becomes necessary
to be simulated; this thesis proposes intelligent system based on Programmable
logic controller (PLC) to control complex traffic flow and to be monitored by
SCADA System. Figure (1.2), shows the control system components which
consists of the vehicle sensor detectors, PLC, SCADA, and power components.
The control system uses PLC with Remote Terminal Unit (RTU), which it is a

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Chapter One General Introduction

high reliability, low costs and convenient installation and maintenance, etc.
Also; it is suitable for heavy traffic and crossroads [9].
Counter
Queue Sensors
Arrival

SCADA PLC
Controller
Traffic Light
Interface

Fig (1.2): intelligent control system

1.3 Conflicts at an intersection

Conflicts at an intersection are different for different types of intersection.
Consider a typical four-legged intersection as shown in Figure (1.3). The
numbers of conflicts for competing through movements are 4, while competing
left turn and through movements are 8. The conflicts between left turn traffics
are 4, and between right turn and merging traffic is 4. The conflicts created by
pedestrians will be 8 taking into account all the four approaches. Diverging
traffic also produces about 4 conflicts. Therefore, a typical four legged
intersection has about 32 different types of conflicts. The essence of the
intersection control is to resolve these conflicts at the intersection for the safe
and efficient movement of both vehicular traffic and pedestrians. Two methods
of intersection controls are there: time sharing and space sharing.

Fig (1.3): Conflicts at an intersection

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Chapter One General Introduction

The type of intersection control that has to be adopted depends on the traffic
volume, road geometry, and importance of the road [10]. A traffic light system is
built by three components such as display unit, controller unit and sensor unit as
shown in Fig (1.4). Basically, display unit is used to visualize the colors of
green, amber and red in giving instruction to road users. Apart from that, sensor
unit is act as a device that generates the input signal when it sense present of
vehicle to trigger the controller unit. Thus, controller unit is an automation
device which also considered as a heart of traffic light system which used to
manage the incoming signal from sensor and visualize the output as display.

Controller

Traffic Light
System

Fig (1.4): Block diagram of components for an intelligent traffic light system.

1.4 Traffic Light Control Device:

In literature there are different modern techniques which can base on
such as radio frequency identification (RFID), Fuzzy Logic System (FLS)
..etc. The main design aspect of this thesis is to control the vehicles traffic
automatically using PLC. Sensors within Intelligent Traffic Control are used to
detect presence of vehicles in a lane and control the density to decide which
lane is to be serviced first. A programmable logic controller (PLC) is used to
control and to automate complex systems. Besides that, PLC can also use to
monitor an input signals from a variety of input sensors. Therefore, PLC is
more suitable and reliable device in controlling traffic lights, as they operate

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Chapter One General Introduction

for long hours ideally without pause regardless of the weather. The grey circle
in Figure (1.5) shows the PLC based traffic light controller which is located on
road site at the traffic junction.

Fig (1.5): PLC controller on certain junction.

An Intelligent Traffic Control System senses the presence or absence of

vehicle and reacts according to the sensors. In this system controller takes a
data from sensors and checks the priorities; after that the controller write action
to traffic signals. Most of the traffic light system manufacturers are using PLC
as the main controller to control incoming signal from sensor unit and outgoing
[11]
signal to display unit . Figure (1.6) illustrates the relationship between
incoming signal, traffic light controller and outgoing signal [12].

Fig (1.6): Relationship between sensor unit, control unit and display unit.

1.5 Objectives
The objectives of this thesis can be summarized as following:

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Chapter One General Introduction

Improve traffic safety.

Relieve traffic congestion.
Improve transportation efficiency.
Reduce air pollution.
Increase the energy efficiency.
Use intelligent technique in traffic system.
1.6 Literature Survey
A telemetry system to monitor and control traffic light intersections was
presented by Erwin Normanyo (2009); the authors used loop detectors to
collect data, the data used by traffic light controller, to control traffic light
timing [1].
A new approach using Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)
technology was proposed by Mohit D.Srivastava (December 2012), in order to
reduce the heavy traffic and congestion on the road, the authors tried to
measure the traffic density by counting the number of vehicles in each lane and
their weight using weight sensors whose output be fed to PLC which control
the traffic diversion, according to this approach, the heavy vehicles take a
deferent line than the light vehicles [2].
A novel traffic signal controller proposed by Yue-Jiao Gong and Jun
Zhang (2013) using Fuzzy logic, two fuzzy layers was used for signalizing the
roundabout, in order to smooth the traffic flows and to avoid traffic jam [3].
A novel methodology was described by Y.P.Singh and Pradeep K. Mittal
(April 2013) in order to design an inelegant traffic light control system, using
image mosaic based design methodology. The data is collected from several
CCTV cameras and integrated to match the test image and reference image
whose result manipulates the timing of green signal and red signal using
decision making algorithm. The approach presented in the previous paper
might be very beneficial, as it provides an actual data about traffic density,
especially at peak hours [4].
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Chapter One General Introduction

An intelligent traffic light system based on fuzzy logic technology was

designed by Kavaya.p.walad and Jyothi Shetty (October 2014), in order to
solve the problems of road traffic congestion in large cities, through monitoring
and controlling traffic lights. The authors used Java software for building the
simulated version of the traffic control system, the results shows that the system
applied provided better performance in terms of total waiting time as well as
total moving time, and he used an edge detection techniques as a one of image
processing technique to find traffic density, the method can be applied in
MATLAB for regulating traffic light control system based on traffic density, to
save the time and to reduce operating cost [5].
A mathematical model has been developed representing the traffic control
stochastic environment by Ahmed A. Ezzat (2014) [6].
Muzhir Shaban and Khattab Alheeti used intelligent cameras which
connected for capturing real-time traffic flow images of each direction; authors
used an intelligent traffic light control algorithm to adjust the traffic light
automatically according to the changes of traffic flow in different directions [5].
Madhavi Arora and V.K. Banga used an image processing which measure
the traffic density on the road; the cyclic time of the traffic light signals is
decided according to the traffic density measurements, the authors used also
fuzzy based controller in order to control traffic light timing [6].
A radio frequency identification (RFID) technique used by Siuli Roy to
identify the traffic congestion through detecting the velocity of vehicles, and
then to control the traffic signal through increasing or decreasing the green
signal time due to traffic jam volume [8].
The authors determined the optimum/near optimal traffic signal timing
values through the application of a genetic algorithm that feeds these values
into a developed simulation model to obtain the corresponding queuing
parameters. The generated signal timings significantly enhance the traffic

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Chapter One General Introduction

performance. The optimization results show that the proposed model can
improve the queuing parameters of the vehicular flow.
In this study, an integrated model is used including: Programmable logic
controller (PLC) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) in
order to investigate and to solve the traffic congestion problem in some regions
in Tripoli.
1.7 Outlines
The thesis is organized into following chapters:
Chapter One: presents an overview of entire thesis, objective of the search,
literature survey and statement of the problem.
Chapter two: presents the function of traffic light signals and some
terminologies needed to understand the traffic signal. It then presents
discussions of operational and safety performance measures by a simple
mathematical model of the aggregate delay for all vehicles passing through the
traffic signal.
Chapter three: discusses different approaches for an implementation of the
traffic signals such as in signal phase design and determination saturation flow
rate, Maximum volume capacity, Green splitting and cycle time.
Chapter four: presents general information about the PLC and SCADA in
terms of the definitions of the components, interfacing and programming.
Also, illustrates a conceptual and benefits of PLC and SCADA in thesis.
Chapter five: is the main part of this research work, this chapter gives the
simulation of an intelligent traffic light control system when a change in green
time and cycle depending on traffic density. Traffic parameters such as traffic
density, flow are collected and transmitted to the PLC controller in order to
issue the required commands for the traffic light control system. Also shows
the source code (control program) emergency control system and flow chart
which describe the mechanism of the action.

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Chapter One General Introduction

Chapter six: conclusions and the future work of the research.

1.8 Summary
Traffic system is highly dependent on parameters such as time, day,
season, weather and unpredictable situations such as accidents, special events
or construction activities. If these parameters are not taken into account, the
traffic control system will create bottlenecks and delays. A traffic control
system that solves these problems by continuously sensing and monitoring
traffic conditions and adjusting the timing of traffic lights according to the
actual traffic load is called an intelligent traffic control system.
1.9 References

[1] Erwin Normanyo, et. al. Telemetric Control of Traffic Lights Intersections
in Ghana, Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer
Science 2009 Vol I.

[2] Mohit D. Srivastava et. al. Smart Traffic Control System Using PLC And
SCADA, International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering
and Technology Vol. 1, Issue 2, December 2012.

[3] Y.P.Singh, Pradeep K. Mittal, Analysis and Designing of Proposed

Intelligent Road Traffic Congestion Control System with Image Mosaicking
Technique, International Journal of IT, Engineering and Applied Sciences
Research (IJIEASR) ISSN: 2319-4413, Volume 2, No. 4, April 2013.

[4] Yue-Jiao Gong and Jun Zhang, Real-Time Traffic Signal Control for
Modern Roundabouts by Using Particle Swarm Optimization-Based Fuzzy C

[5] Kavya P Walad, Jyothi Shetty,Traffic Light Control System Using Image
Processing , International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and
Communication Engineering Vol.2, Special Issue 5, October 2014.
ontroller, Sun Yat-sen University Technical Report SYSU 2011.

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Chapter One General Introduction

[6] Ahmed A. Ezzat, et. al. Development of a Stochastic Genetic Algorithm for
Traffic Signal Timings Optimization, Proceedings of the Industrial and
Systems Engineering Research Conference 2014.

[7] Muzhir Shaban Al-Ani And Khattab Alheeti, Intelligent Traffic Light
Control System Based Image Intensity Measurement, Al-Anbar University-
College Of Computer Science Iraq.
[8] Madhavi Arora, V. K. Banga, Real Time Traffic Light Control System
Using Morphological Edge Detection and Fuzzy Logic, 2nd International
Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Civil Engineering (ICEECE'2012)
Singapore April 28-29, 2012.
[9] Siuli Roy et. al. Real time traffic congestion detection and management
using Active RFID and GSM technology, research supported by Smart-Road:
An Intelligent Traffic Congestion Management System using RFID and
wireless Networking Technology project of IIM Calcutta, India.
[10] PLC Based Intelligent Traffic Control System - International Journal of
Electrical & Computer Sciences IJECS-IJENS Vol: 11 No: 06.
[11] Transportation Systems Engineering 27. Principles of Traffic Control Dr.
Tom V. Mathew, IIT Bombay February 19, 2014.

[12] Adopting Novel Joint Algorithm in Traffic Light System For Urban
Intersection Junction -Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, Sep
2013.

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