Arduino Based Traffic Light Controller Design Project

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DESIGNING A PRODUCT THAT MEETS CUSTOMER’S REQUIREMENTS
Arduino based Traffic Light Controller
Student Name
Roll Number

Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................4
LO1 Plan a design solution and prepare an engineering design specification in response to a
stakeholder’s design brief and requirements......................................................................................4
1. Design brief.................................................................................................................................4
2. Importance of design brief specifications................................................................................4
3. Targeted design specifications..................................................................................................5
4. Scheduling project design.........................................................................................................5
4.1 Process of traffic light controller......................................................................................5
4.2 Block diagram....................................................................................................................5
4.3 Design process scheduling.................................................................................................6
5. Benchmarking............................................................................................................................7
LO2 Formulate possible technical solutions to address the student-prepared design
specification specifications....................................................................................................................8
Methodology.......................................................................................................................................8
1. Technical designs.......................................................................................................................8
1.1 Technical design 1..............................................................................................................8
1.2 Technical design 2..............................................................................................................9
1.3 Technical design 3............................................................................................................10
2. Evaluation of technical designs...............................................................................................10
3. Final design selection...............................................................................................................10
4. Tools use modeling simulations..............................................................................................11
5. Improvement suggestion.........................................................................................................11
LO3 Prepare an industry-standard engineering technical design report...................................11
1. Technical design.......................................................................................................................11
2. Limitation of design.................................................................................................................12
3. Role of specifications in finished product..............................................................................12
4. Compliance, safety and risk management issues..................................................................12
5. Effectiveness of final design....................................................................................................13

LO4 Present to an audience a design solution based on the design report and evaluate the
solution/presentation...........................................................................................................................15
1. Presentation of technical design.............................................................................................15
2. Presentation strategy...............................................................................................................16
3. Effectiveness of presentation strategy....................................................................................16
4. Feedback from target audience..............................................................................................16
5. Improvement suggestion for presented design......................................................................17
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................17
Appendix 1: Schematic of Final Design.............................................................................................18
Appendix 2: Design Layout.................................................................................................................18
Appendix 3: Arduino Code.................................................................................................................20

List of Figures
Figure 1 Importance of design components and evaluation parameters..................................................5
Figure 2 Block diagram of traffic light controller...................................................................................6
Figure 3 Gantt chart of project design scheduling...................................................................................6
Figure 4 Critical path analysis of project scheduling..............................................................................7
Figure 5 Schematic of technical design 1................................................................................................9
Figure 6 Schematic of design 2................................................................................................................9
Figure 7 Evaluation of technical designs...............................................................................................10
Figure 8 Design elements of selected design.........................................................................................11
Figure 9 Contributions of specifications towards finished product.......................................................12
Figure 10 Vehicles in all directions of intersection...............................................................................13
Figure 11 Presence of vehicles at intersection.......................................................................................14
Figure 12 Only vehicle at intersection...................................................................................................14
Figure 13 Presentation of final design...................................................................................................15
Figure 14 Presentation strategy effectiveness........................................................................................16
List of Tables
Table 1 Comparison of different Arduino boards....................................................................................7
Table 2 A sample feedback questionnaire.............................................................................................17

Introduction
The traffic light controller is major component of traffic controller system. It operate the
system according to preprogrammed instructions. The traffic light controller system help to
regulate routine traffic to make roads congestion free. In this perspective we are assign with
the project of designing a traffic light system. For this purpose we document our project in
this report according to available standards. This report provide brief overview of project
different phases and system delivery.
LO1 Plan a design solution and prepare an engineering design
specification in response to a stakeholder’s design brief and
requirements.
1. Design brief
Our project manager assign us a task of design and develop traffic light controller. Produce
possible design solutions and select one solution after testing. Make sure selected design
satisfy client.
2. Importance of design brief specifications
From design brief, we try to identify the important specifications of traffic light system. We
studied a traffic control system as reference to understand the working of system. The
reference study help us in identification of important components of system. The major
component of system is Arduino board, LED lights, resistors, breadboard, and connecting
wires. Now, we assign these components importance weightage according to project and to
parameters which will use for evaluation of design solution. We assign weightage on the
scale of 1 to 50, where 1 being lowest and 50 being highest importance. The figure 1
illustrate assigned importance weightage to different components and evaluation parameters.

Arduino Board LED Lights Resistors Breadboard
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Weightage of Specification Durability Compatibility
Reconfiguration Assembling
Figure 1 Importance of design components and evaluation parameters
3. Targeted design specifications
We meet with client to discuss design specifications from design brief. We also propose some
alternatives for design specifications. After meeting with client, we able to have some
requirement for project. The requirements are as follows:
 Arduino board- UNO or Mega
 LED lights- four way traffic lights
 Resistors- 220 ohm
 Jumper wires generic
 Breadboard generic
4. Scheduling project design
4.1 Process of traffic light controller
The traffic light controller system operation possible with following components:
 Arduino board work as controller which control the operation of LEDs
 LED light will glow according to preprogrammed Arduino board
 Resistor protect LED from damage
 Jumper wires connect every component with each other
4.2 Block diagram
Considering process of traffic light controller system, figure 2 illustrate the block diagram of
its operation.

Figure 2 Block diagram of traffic light controller
4.3 Design process scheduling
Our first task in design process is to meet with client to get understanding of desired product.
Requirement are gathered about product, discuss implications of requirements. When
requirements fully understood then process of developing different design concepts will be
started. These design concepts will be evaluated on basis of certain parameters to select a
final design. When final design selected, its prototype modeling take place. After developing
prototype testing will perform keep in view application of product. Suggested improvement
implement on the basis of feedback and this process will continues to test design till it satisfy
desired requirement. When requirement are satisfied, a final meeting with client conducted.
This meeting present final product and elaborate its design working (Kumar, 2013).
Figure 3 Gantt chart of project design scheduling

Figure 4 Critical path analysis of project scheduling
5. Benchmarking
Table 1 Comparison of different Arduino boards
Arduino
Board
Input
Supply
Processor Memory Digital I\O Analogue I\
O
Arduino
UNO 7V ~ 12V 16Mhz
ATmega328
2KB
SRAM,
32KB flash
RAM
14 6 input, 0
output
Arduino
DUO 7V ~ 12V 64Mhz
AT91SAM3X8E
96KB
SRAM, 512
flash RAM
54 12 input, 2
output
Arduino
Mega 7V ~ 12V 16Mhz
ATmega2560
8KB
SRAM,
256KB
flash RAM
54 16 input, 0
output
Arduino
Leonardo 7V ~ 12V 16Mhz
ATmega32u4
2.5KB
SRAM,
32KB flash
RAM
20 12 input, 0
output

LO2 Formulate possible technical solutions to address the student-
prepared design specification specifications.
Methodology
We devise our methodology to design a traffic light controller, in which we state common
components in each design. For each technical design, components we need is Arduino board
which control operation of LED lights. LED lights which operate according to
preprogrammed Arduino board. Using programmable Arduino board which control traffic
lights and turn them on or off according programmed instructions. These all components are
common in every technical designs. For testing purpose we use breadboard and connecting
wires.
1. Technical designs
We devise our methodology and state common components for design. Now we develop
technical design of traffic light controller. From these designs, we find three technical designs
feasible to implement. In next sub section, we discuss these technical design and their
weakness.
1.1 Technical design 1
We develop technical design 1 according to four way traffic flow. For developing this design
we need Arduino UNO, 4 traffic signals, and 12x 1 KΩ resistors. Arduino UNO is main part
of design, it work as a controller. It controls the timing and switching of LEDs. LEDs use in
design are basic 5mm Red, Yellow, and Green with maximum current of 20mA. The circuit
design of design 1 illustrate in figure 5, where LED are connect through 1 KΩ resistors with
Arduino UNO. During experiments, we observe that Arduino UNO digital I\O pin is 20mA
and does require current limiting resistors. But, it is advised to use 220 Ω to protect LEDs
from damage.

Figure 5 Schematic of technical design 1
1.2 Technical design 2
We develop technical design 2 according to three way traffic flow. For developing this design
we need Arduino UNO, 3 traffic signals, and 3x 220 ohm resistors. Arduino UNO is main
part of design, it work as a controller. It controls the timing and switching of LEDs. LEDs use
in design are basic 5mm Red, Yellow, and Green with maximum current of 20mA. The
circuit design of design 2 illustrate in figure 6, where LED are connect through 220 ohm
resistors with Arduino UNO. During testing of design, we observe that we use only 3 current
limiting resistors. So, we need current limiting resistor for every LED.
Figure 6 Schematic of design 2

1.3 Technical design 3
We develop technical design 3 according to four way traffic flow. For developing this design
we need Arduino Mega 2560, 4 traffic signals, 12x 220 ohm resistors, and 4x HC-SR04
ultrasonic sensors. Arduino Mega is main part of design, it work as a controller. It controls
the timing and switching of LEDs. LEDs use in design are basic 5mm Red, Yellow, and
Green with maximum current of 20mA. The circuit design of design 2 illustrate in appendix
1, where LED are connect through 220 ohm resistors with Arduino Mega. Additionally, we
connect 4x HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors with Arduino Mega. These sensors can measure echo
from 2 cm to 400 cm and these echo’s read by Arduino Mega. The Arduino Mega calculate
the distance between travelling vehicle and traffic lights.
2. Evaluation of technical designs
In this section, evaluation of technical designs carried out using certain parameters. This
evaluation activity helps in selecting final design for project. On the basis of evaluation, we
will select a final design for project and if required new parts will be added. All parameters
will be rated on scale of 1 – 10, 1 being lowest and 10 being highest. Each evaluation carry
out by keeping in mind technical designs and client’s requirements.
Design 1 Design 2 Design 3
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Durability Compatibility Reconfiguration Assembling Cost Effective
Figure 7 Evaluation of technical designs
3. Final design selection
We briefly discuss each design solution with its shortcomings. Then evaluate them on the
basis of predefined parameters. After evaluations we find out that design solution 3 dominate
other two designs so we choose design solution 3 as final design for traffic light controller.

4. Tools use modeling simulations
Software tools: Fritzing for circuit design and Arduino IDE for simulation
Hardware tools: PCB Sheet for PCB design
5. Improvement suggestion
Our final technical design did not receive major improvement. It has return with suggestion
of adding warning system into design. For instance, if a vehicle passes through green signal
at intersection but at same time another vehicle from other side of intersection approaching
red signal speedily. Then, system generate a warning to the vehicle passes through green
signal as well as traffic warden.
LO3 Prepare an industry-standard engineering technical design report.
1. Technical design
We develop number of technical designs for traffic light controller and evaluate them on
some parameter to select a final design. After this extensive activity, a final design has been
selected, modeled, and pass the testing phase. Our designed traffic light controller compared
with client requirement and it shows commendable match. Technical design components
traffic light controller illustrated in figure 8 (Bawa, 2013).
Figure 8 Design elements of selected design