An Optimised Traffic Control Scheme with Preference to Emergency Vehicles Leveraging RFID

Abstract

Emergency Vehicles (EV) such as ambulances, fire fighting vehicles, Road safety vehicles and other emergency vehicles encounter delays on their missions at traffic light control points due to traffic jams. The direct consequence of these delays results in unwarranted loss of lives and properties.  This research work proposes and implements an improved traffic control system with preference to emergency vehicles leveraging RFID technology and a novel Dynamic Traffic Sequence Algorithm (DTSA). Atmega 328 was used to actualize the novel DTSA, control the RFID and the entire traffic control system. The distance of RFID signal transmitted by the emergency vehicle was determined by physically measuring the distance of clearer signal obtained at various distances from the test bed. MATLAB was used to plot the response time of the RFID, thereby helping in the choice of RFID used. It was observed at 100 meters distance between the RFID transmitter in the emergency vehicle (EV) and the traffic light system, a clearer signal was obtained. Therefore at 100 meters the emergency vehicle will be detected and the traffic system will reset its normal routine to give right of way to the particular lane that the emergency vehicle is detected. Comparing the old and the new system it was observed that in the new system the EV will be 12minutes faster than the EV in the old system. From the result obtained, the RFID best suited for this application is active RFID. The results obtained proved that the system will effectively mitigate and almost completely eradicate the delay encountered by emergency vehicles at traffic control points.  The system will be deployed in any many cities in Nigeria that have traffic control systems installed.