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Four-Way Traffic Light Controller System

Article · December 2020

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 Four-Way Traffic Light Controller System
Md Ether Deowan, Kazi Shahadat Kabir, Saidul Arefin Emon, Aman Ullah, Samiul Azim,
Md Nayeem Reza Sopnil, Md. Jobaer Hossain, Tasdid Hasan, Zahid Hasan Khoka
Department of Electric and Electronics Engineering
American International University-Bangladesh
E-mail: Shahadat7034@gmail.com

Abstract−The simple traffic light controller design environmental pollution caused by traffic Most importantly
project was introduced to alleviate this shortcoming and increases road safety. Control down to 4-phases traffic
gain experience in solving implementation and system with the traffic flow optimization strategies are the
interfacing problems of a modern digital system. we main objective of this project.
implement a fully functional traffic signal controller for
II.TRAFFIC-LIGHT CONTROLLER DESIGN
a four-way intersection. The function of a traffic light
controller requires sophisticated control and This project describes a simple traffic light controller
coordination to ensure that traffic moves as smoothly design project for a junior level VLSI class at the Bijoy
and safely as possible. The project was designed in Sarani. It requires to develop a state machine-based
DSCH by using a 4-bit counter. The software controller for traffic signals at a four-way intersection. This
implementation of the circuit was simple and reliable. intersection has two travel lanes in each direction; east,
west, north and south. This project stresses the difference of
Keywords— Counter, alleviate, DSCH, Traffic writing DSCH and Cadence Virtuoso for modelling and
Control, flip-flop, timer, logic control. synthesis and Microwind for creating the schematic layout.
Optimize the traffic flow at network junctions.
I. INTRODUCTION
III. TRAFFIC-SIGNAL PHASE SEQUENCES
Traffic lights, also known as traffic lamps, traffic signals,
stoplight, stop-and-go lights semaphore or robots, are The traffic light controller must handle a four-phase
signalling devices positioned at pedestrian crossings, road signal intersection. If we consider only straight way
intersections, and other locations to control competing flows of direction when Bijoy Sarani street is on then traffic is
traffic. Traffic lights have installed in most cities around the followed by North to South or South to North alternatively.
world to control the flow of traffic. It assigns the right of way During this EW street traffic is stopped by Red signal. After
to road users by the use of lights in standard colours (Red completion of NS street now EW street traffic is followed
- Yellow - Green), using a universal colour code (and a by East to West or West to East alternatively. If we
precise sequence, for colour blind). Traffic lights are used at considered another possibility to follow traffic in another
busy intersections to more evenly apportion delay to the direction rather than straightway direction, we can see from
various users. The increasing amount of traffic in the cities fig.1 that during Bijoy Sarani street on vehicles can go to
has a large impact on the congestion and the time it takes to left or right direction according to North-South direction
reach a certain destination. parallelly to main direction because EW street is OFF
during this. Similarly, we can say about EW street.
A Traffic light controller plays a very important role to control
the vehicles on the busy roads. Nowadays there are occurring
many accidents because of the lack of properly maintained
traffic signals. Besides, it creates a huge traffic jam. For
example, in Dhaka city, the flow of vehicles in most of the
crossways is not properly maintained. As a result, Dhaka city is
badly affected by the traffic jam. This traffic light controller
can be used to solve the traffic problem.

To solve these congestion problems, we have to build new

facilities and infrastructure. The only disadvantage of making
Fig.1: Four Way Road Structure.
new roads on facilities is that it makes the surroundings more
congested. So, for that reason we need to change the system IV. DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION
rather than making new infrastructure twice. The Main goals of
this paper are improving safety, minimizing travel time and This project was implemented in DSCH v3.5
increasing the capacity of Infrastructures. Such improvements simulation software. This project is a combination of a 4-bit
are beneficial to health, economy and the environment. counter using D flip-flop, an inverter, 3 input and gate and
Measurably improve traffic flow. Reduce Light emitting diodes. Design process:
 I. A D flip-flop was designed. Then the flip-flop schema If there is low input when the clock pulse is provided the
was converted into a symbol. flip-flop will reset. In this project, D flip-flop has been used
II. Using the 4 D flip-flop symbol a 4-bit counter was for designing the counter circuit.
designed and then converted into a symbol.
III. Finally, the traffic light controller was designed using
the counter, an inverter, and an and gate.
IV. With every count of the counter, the state of the traffic
lights changed.

A traffic light at the intersection of north south (NS) and

east-west (EW streets goes through the following cycles of
states: both red (30 sec), NS green (30 sec), NS yellow (5 s)
-- both red(5s) EW green (30 sec) EW yellow (5sec). A 0.2
Hz clock signal is available for timing. Both streets are
equipped with sensors that detects the presence of a car
close to the intersection. Whenever there is a car close to the
intersection on the street currently having its light red while Fig.4: D flip-flop in DSCH.
there is no car approaching the intersection on the street
with green light, the switchover takes place and green light
immediately turns to yellow.

Fig.5: D flip-flop layout.

Fig. 2: Block diagram.

V. COMPONENT DESCRIPTION
Asynchronous counter: Asynchronous counters are
Logic Gate: An AND gate and an INVERTER is used those whose output is free from the clock signal. Because
for this project. The inverter inverts high input to low output the flip flops in asynchronous counters are supplied with
and low input to high output. Here inverter is also used for different clock signals, there may be a delay in producing
controlling lights. output Asynchronous counter is a type of counter where
clock pulse is provided to the clock input of the first flip-
D flip-flop: The D flip-flop tracks the input, making flop only. The second flip-flop is triggered by the output of
transitions with match those of the input D. In a D flip-flop the first flip-flop, the third flip-flop is triggered by the
there is one input and one clock. If the input is high when output of the second flipflop, and so on.
the clock pulse is applied the flip-flop will set.

Fig.6: 4 Bit Counter in DSCH.

Fig.3: D flip-flop in cadence.
 Fig.11: Traffic light controller system circuit layout.

Fig.7: 4 Bit Counter in Cadence. Table Ⅰ: Truth Table

Fig.8: 4 Bit Counter Layout.

VI. WORKING PRINCIPLE

The system consists of an asynchronous counter inside
which there are four D flip- flops. Using the clock pulse and
Reset switches, the traffic lights are controlled. A reset and
a clock are given as input to the counter. With every clock
pulse, the counter counts one bit, and the state of the light
change. While two face to face lights (street 1 & 3) would
be turned green another two would be red and vice versa.
The circuit was designed according to the proper logic
diagram to fulfil this operation. The pulse rate of the clock
can be set according to wish. The complete circuit is shown
VII. RESULT
in the figure below.
After the implementation, we observed every state. Among
them, three observations are shown below.
First observation:
Two opposite signal’s red lights are on (Road 2 and 4) while
the other two signal’s green lights are on (Road 1 and 3).

Fig.9: Traffic light controller in DSCH.

Fig.12: Observation 1 .

Fig.10: Traffic light controller in Cadence .

Second observation:
Now in every road all yellow light will turn on with
previous state. In this way with every count of the counter,
the state of the traffic lights changed.

Fig.16: Timing Diagram of the system.

VIII. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

This design Process may be done in many ways. For

example, by using Arduino, by using 555 timers, counters,
and so on. Here we have used 4-bit asynchronous counter.
Every design has its purpose. Based on that every design
Fig.13: Observation 2.
has some advantages and disadvantages.
Third observation:
The advantages of these projects are, this design process is
In this state of the counter road 1 and 3 will block by
simple and easy to design by using. The hardware
turning on the red led on the other hand the road 2 and 4
implementation will cost low. As we have followed a simple
will free to move the vehicle by turning on the green led.
design process. Easy to find the errors. Traffic control
signals provide for an orderly movement of traffic. There is
less chance of error as the face-to-face traffic lights depend
on the counter.

Disadvantages are, as we have used D flip-flop, a delay flip

flop in this circuit increased the circuit's size. There are
associated with propagation delays. Traffic control signals
may result in a re-entrant collision of vehicles. They may
cause a delay in the quick movement of traffic. Another
main disadvantage is we cannot set the times for signals
individually.

IX. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT

Fig.14: Observation 3. Today's world is almost fully autonomous. For a heavy

traffic city, it is a bad way to control traffic signals manually
According to counter input our design will work and where it can create big problems for a tiny mistake. The
the cycle will be continuing project will work in a fully autonomous process which will
Timing Diagram: reduce the dependency on manual traffic signal changing.
Besides, it will reduce traffic jams and accidents as it will
work in a sequential process. And it is a good solution to
control traffic signals because of its simple design and low-
cost implementation and maintenance.

X. CONCLUSION

We have designed full system of Traffic-Light Controller by

implementing the logic of block diagram of the system and
could simulate the result on LED 7-segment display using
counter and switchover of LED during this counter interval.
Instead of a manual traffic signal, we could go for an
Fig.15: Timing Diagram for counter. autonomous traffic light simulator, where the controller on each
crossway will determine the duration of signal lights for the
traffic of that particular road. The controller, on detecting
the traffic amount will trigger the control and ensure that the
green signal is given for the required duration. A simulation-
based traffic light controller system is good for analysing and
making necessary modifications. Further development would
be done on the traffic control system to become a more
suitable and less costly model.

XI. REFERENCES

[1]. V. Panchal, "Four-Way Traffic Light Controller Designing with

VHDL," Research Gate, 2014. DOI:
10.13140/RG.2.1.4194.7282

[2]. J. E. Ortiz and R. H. Klenke, "Simple traffic light controller: A

digital systems design project," Proceedings of the IEEE
SoutheastCon 2010 (SoutheastCon), Concord, NC, 2010, pp.
85-88, doi: 10.1109/SECON.2010.5453915.

[3]. ELECTRONICS HUB, "Asynchronous Counter," 5 AUGUST

2015. [Online]. Available: https://www.electronicshub.org
/asynchronouscounter/#:~:text=UP%20%2F%20DO WN%
20counter. [Accessed 15 December 2020].

[4]. Neil H. E. Weste and David Money Harris, “CMOS VLSI

Design: A Circuits and Systems Perspective (4th Edition)” Ed.
4th.

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