Traffic Light Area Network for Green Traffic Stops based on ARM

Cortex M3 and WPAN

Abstract
Nowadays, rising fuel costs and the harmful effects of air pollutants has been the subject of
considerable public debate. The Kyoto Protocol aims to stabilize the greenhouse gas concentrations in the
atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous interference with the climate system. Carbon dioxide
(CO2) is the largest component of greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, it is desirable to create new
economical and environmental friendly traffic system, which focus on minimizing vehicle fuel
consumption and emissions.
With increasing vehicle usage, there may be more traffic and longer wait times at traffic signals
(e.g., at a traffic intersection or a railway crossing). Fuel may be wasted when drivers keep their vehicles
running while waiting for the traffic signal to turn "green" or waiting for a train to pass at a railway
crossing. Most drivers may not switch off their engines in these situations. Drivers who do switch off
their engines may do so inefficiently. For example, a driver may switch off the engine, only to start it up a
short time later. In such cases, more fuel may be consumed in restarting the engine. Some traffic signals
may have clocks that indicate remaining durations before the signals change. However, drivers in vehicles
waiting at the back of the queue may not be able to view the clock.
The project aims to solve this by designing a system in which the traffic light signal information
is wirelessly transmitted to all the approaching vehicles when they are within a Region of Interest (ROI).
Each vehicle has an On-Board Unit (OBU) that displays the current traffic signal status to the vehicle so
that the vehicle can adjust its speed while approaching the signal. When the vehicle stops at the signal, the
traffic light judges how long vehicles have to wait and sends them "stop-engine command" when the
pause is long enough to make switching off optimal. This is done by communicating with queuing
vehicles and collecting their positional data, and subsequent start-engine notices are also distributed
intelligently, as the first vehicle in the queue gets it earlier than the second and so on right to the back.
OBU is connected with the engine control unit and this makes the traffic light to take control of the
vehicle engine while it is waiting at the signal. The result is decreased vehicle fuel consumption and CO2
emission resulting in green traffic stops.
Traffic light signal OBU forms a wireless network with the OBU in the vehicle as they are
equipped with the short range LR-WPAN wireless communication transceiver with IEEE 802.15.4
protocol operating at 2.4 GHz and low power microcontroller running the protocol stack. The
microcontroller chosen is based on ARM Cortex M3 architecture. ARM Cortex M3 is the next generation
high performance 32-bit ARM core developed specifically for microcontroller applications with thumb-2
technology based on ARMv7-M architecture.