Abstract
Traffic situation in some cosmopolitan cities in Nigeria, such as Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja are becoming chaotic, and resulting in needless waste of man-hour and loss of lives. Traffic lights are installed at most intersections to control traffic by authorising rite of passage to routes in an orderly manner. The order ensures that the rite of passage is often granted equally to all routes in sequence. This arrangement has been seen to introduce delay, and consequently increased travelling time of road users. The delay is attributable to equal insensitivity to the conditions of traffic approaching the intersection. Wireless sensor network (WSN) application in target detection, among others, have been applied to the modern intelligent traffic system. This research seeks to deploy findings in WSN to improve vehicular traffic light control in a developing country using on-road sensors. `A unique feature of the system is the varying time slots allotted to each route subject to traffic conditions of the highway. Time allotted for each of the routes at any time of the day is determined based on the condition of the route at that period. The route with the highest traffic at the beginning of each period determines the time slot to be allotted to it, and the other routes in relation to their comparable volume of traffic. A simulated performance appraisal shows considerable improvement in the waiting period at the intersection, and subsequent reduction in travel time by travellers using the
intersection to which the system applies.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Traffic control relates to the supervision of the movement of people, goods, or vehicles to ensure efficiency and safety[1].Techniques and devicesused to facilitate traffic controlinclude Signs, Signals Markings, Licensing, etc. [2]. Traffic light is one of the popular techniques employed in support of traffic control. It tells road users what to do on approaching an intersection or along a road, i.e. stop or go, and when or how to turn, or move with caution. Its basic design included the tri-coloured Red to mean Stop, Amber (Yellow) to mean Get-Ready, and Green to mean Right of Way. The design remained in use till date. However, the basic design has been improved to incorporate automatic timers, motion sensors, LED, among others. Various technologies have been employed as motion sensors. These include wireless sensors.
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), as a technology, has been successfully deployed for use in a variety of applications and environments. It focused originally on designing efficient solutions for transfer of information from sensor nodes to a sensor network gateway.Recently the focus started to shift towards creating sensor network based communities, the Internet of Things, and defining the role and place of sensors and machines in the Future Internet [3]. The successful and promising outcome of such deployments in commercial, medical and industrial applications has led to increase in the interest of new users [4].
The main purpose of sensor networks is to monitor an area, including detecting, identifying, localising and tracking one or more objects of interest [5]. WSN is defined as a group of autonomous sensor nodes, mostly based on
low power consumption, that send their sensed data to a main network gateway by using a radio frequency channel of communication [4]. Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a network which implements many autonomous sensors to monitor physical or environmental conditions and passes the collected data to a main location [6]
Traffic road network is increasing day by day in today’s world [7]. Traffic jam and high number of accidents in urban and metropolitan areas become more and more stressful and lead to dramatic consequences on economy, human health, and environment [6].
Two main concerns regarding traffic on roads are congestion and safety [6]. In order to address these issues, intelligent transsportation systems are being developed and deployed. These systems acquire traffic information across road networks. Traffic Information acquisition Systems (TIS) in most places where available use wired power and communication, and require powerful computing resources to attain high detection accuracy. Such methodologies elevate the cost of construction and maintenance; consequently, the available detection area is narrowed. The high cost may be disincentive to adoption of (TIS), particularly in developing countries. Thus, the promise of low cost, highly scalable detection properties of WSN in applications such as traffic surveillance or monitoring make deployment of the technology in solving traffic problems an attraction.
The research is therefore motivated by desire to improve traffic control using on-road wireless sensors networks.
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Congestion on major road in urban areas results in traffic jam and high number of accidents. In order to ensure safe society, therefore, the need to resolve challenge of traffic congestion in the most effective and economical way is paramount to the development of the society. Effort at addressing the
challenge requires acquisition of traffic condition on the road, and an effective control thereof. It is in search of the solution that this project seeks to consider effectiveness of the use of on-road WSN in traffic control.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The aim of this thesis is to develop and analyzethe on-roads wireless sensor network prototype for improving traffic control in a given road network under real-time constraints. The following objectives are set to meet the requirements of the thesis:
Collectionof vehicular movement record or traffic data using on-road wireless sensors network
Design and development of the system prototype
Cost effective deployment of on-road WSN
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
Rising population in developing nations of the world are bound to give rise to increase in human and vehicular movement. This increase results in problems like congestion and possibly collusion with attendant loss of man- hour, lives and other resources. Design and development of road networks are expected to be carried out painstakingly taking into consideration human safety concerns. This study aims at developing and analysing on-road wireless sensor network for improving traffic control in a given road network under real-time constraints is therefore relevant in attaining the objective of design and development of road network.
Secondly, it is noted that various attempts and efforts have been put into solving the problems of road congestion and enhance road safety. However, being an evolving challenge, following dynamism of human society, solution requirecontinuous refinement. The focus of this thesis, which is devoted to
improving on the existing solution, meets this requirement. The study, therefore, represents a significant contribution to knowledge.
1.5 SCOPE OF WORK
The project is intended to presentthe use of on-road wireless sensors networks for vehicular traffic control at a two-lane bi-directional intersection in a developing country.
1.6 OUTLINE
The document is structured in such that here in the introduction, WSN is introduced. The motivation for the study, its aims and objectives are clearly stated. The scope of the study is defined while the methodology adopted is enumerated. Then in the second chapter, theoretical backgrounds that are used for the realisation of the work are explained. It discusses related work carried out on the subject matter. Further on, in chapter three the design and implementation of the complete work, with the theoretical consideration in mind, is presented. The chapter describes the hardware and software platforms used for the reference implementation. Chapter four presented an evaluated implementation of the design in real time using a designated road network. And finally, the tests results are presented in chapter fiveto show the performance of the system. The concluding chaptersummarises the thesis, presents conclusion reached and recommendation for future research.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
IMPROVING VEHICULAR TRAFFIC LIGHT CONTROL IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRYUSING ON- ROAD WIRELESS SENSORS NETWORKS (WSN)
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