Design and development of a microcontroller based traffic light control system using image processing techniques: — A case study prototype for Legon-Okponglo Junction, University of Ghana

Traffic congestion on our roads especially in the urban cities is becoming overwhelming. Safety and comfort of road users is gradually becoming a matter of grave concern. Present Traffic Light Controllers (TLC) are based on microcontroller and microprocessor. The limitation with the TLC is that it uses the pre-defined hardware, which is functioning according to the program that does not have the flexibility of modification on real time basis. This proposed system makes use of embedded technology along with image processing analysis to control traffic at a local intersection that consists of a main road and two side roads and it is an improvement upon the efficiency of the current Traffic Light Controllers. Intervals between the green, amber and red states are based on current traffic density, which optimizes traffic light switching and avoids traffic congestion. A prototype for controlling traffic at the intersection is designed and simulated using the Proteus Design Suite. Using image processing technique via OpenCV, background differencing of an empty-lane road and a traffic congested road is performed. The resulting output is fed as input to the microcontroller system for traffic light control system on real-time data.