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Intelligent Traffic Density Monitoring Using RFID

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 7th International Engineering Symposium - IES 2018
March 7-9, 2018, Kumamoto University, Japan

Intelligent Traffic Density Monitoring Using RFID

Samhita Varambally B 1, Prachi Shahi2, Adarsh Rajesh3 and Dr. Aparna P.4

1 B.Tech Student, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, National

Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India.
email:samhitav@gmail.com
2 B.Tech Student, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, National
Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India.
email:prachi.shahi@gmail.com
3 B.Tech Student, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, National
Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India.
email:adarshrajesh19@gmail.com
4 Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,
National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India.
email:p.aparnadinesh@gmail.com

ABSTRACT:
Vehicular traffic is a ubiquitous problem in metropolitan cities. Automation of traffic
management and intelligent control of traffic signals will go a long way in reducing road
accidents, noise pollution etc. Traffic congestion causes heavy delays to vehicles such as
ambulances and fire engines which require prompt and easy access to their destinations.
We propose to help alleviate these problems associated with severe traffic conditions.
Existing methods of traffic monitoring include using the GPS data of active users in a city
or through images collected by satellite. These methods, though commonly employed,
suffer from some drawbacks. GPS data isn’t thorough because not all drivers on a road
use GPS to navigate. Satellite images are affected by weather conditions and require
computationally intensive pre-processing to measure traffic density. Radio Frequency
Identification(RFID) systems provide an advantage over other technologies, as it is very
economical to mass produce RFID tags. Furthermore, since an RFID chip is capable of
carrying up to 24 bits of data to classify objects, it provides flexibility to categorize
vehicles based on size and priority. This paper outlines and discusses the design of a
traffic monitoring system using RFID and show the methodology of implementation of
such a system on a small scale using a Raspberry Pi 3 micro-controller.

Keywords: traffic management, RFID, traffic density, traffic monitoring, traffic

automation, embedded systems, adaptive traffic control, priority vehicles

required destinations on time. A study

1. INTRODUCTION
Traffic congestion is a major problem on
roads all over the world. Congestion at
junctions cause several problems such as
air pollution, noise pollution, higher
average travel time, more fuel
consumption, increased stress on drivers,
wastage of time and money and reduced
quality of life. Emergency situations are
the worst affected in traffic congestions as
they may be blocked from reaching their
showed that in New Delhi, in the year
2008, traffic congestion at junctions
caused a loss of US$ 156 million per
annum due to fuel wastage, Parida P et al.
(2008). With further development of
countries around the world, traffic on
roads is only going to increase. There is a
dire need to improve traffic management.
Most cities use fixed time control of traffic
lights, where the lights change according
to predetermined time durations and are

1
 7th International Engineering Symposium - IES 2018
March 7-9, 2018, Kumamoto University, Japan
fixed until an operator goes and manually
changes the time duration of the signal.
This is accompanied by manual traffic
handling by a policeman. Latest traffic
controllers use digital hardware but are
still held back by analog concepts such as
standardised fixed allotment of green
signal time, predetermined cycle length,
and fixed offsets. This is highly
disadvantageous in cases where traffic
density changes throughout the day. This
may lead to an empty lane having green
time while there are a lot of cars waiting in
other lanes. Situations like this also lead to
drivers skipping signals and traffic
violations. In almost all cities, the density
of traffic on road networks is constantly
changing which is why there is a need for
Adaptive Traffic Control Systems where
the traffic control is constantly changing
depending on the density of traffic. These
models can adapt to random fluctuations
in traffic as well, which may happen before
or after some special events in the city ,
Studer L. et al. (2015). There are several
methods of Adaptive Traffic Control
Systems such as wireless sensor network,
video data analysis, inductive loop
detection, infra-red sensors, etc. These
methods are all effective in traffic
management but they have problems in
terms of cost and time taken for
installation and maintenance. Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) technology
can be used to combat these problems.
RFID provides the key to the
implementation of a cost-efficient, highly
scalable, highly compatible and effective
adaptive traffic control system. This paper
outlines such a model using RFID to ease
the flow of traffic and to aid emergency
vehicles to reach their destination quickly.
2. EXISTING METHODOLOGY
2.1 Inductive loop detection
Inductive loops consist of wires in coiled
form embedded onto the road. It works
similar to a metal detector in the sense
that, it measures the change in field when
an object passes over it. When a vehicle
drives over a road embedded with an
inductive loop, the loop field changes
which is sensed by the detection device.
This is a reliable method of traffic
2
detection but has some drawbacks.
Reliability may decrease due to improper
connections or application of a sealant on
the road surface. This system will be
highly unreliable in a places where digging
of roads is frequent and where roads have
poor pavement, Mimbela LEY et al. (2000)
2.2 Infra-red sensors
Infra red sensors are of two types:
● Passive infra-red sensors-
They detect temperature changes and are
commonly used as motion detectors.
● Active infra-red sensors-
This uses beam technology which provides
an invisible line which causes a circuit to
count when the line is broken.
The disadvantage of this method is that it
will be affected by changes in the weather,
such as smog. The sensors may operate
using line of sight (LOS) detection. Thus,
vehicles in the LOS system's blind spots
will not get detected. Also, the cost of
maintaining such a system is high.
2.3 Video analysis
A camera connected with sensors and
a processor is placed which gets the live
video stream of the traffic which is
monitored. The video is further processed
and analysed to compute traffic statistics
such as lane occupancy, frequency and
average speed of vehicles.
The drawbacks of this method are, Lanke
N (2013):
● Overall cost of implementation and
maintenance is very high
● Changes in weather conditions such
as smog, fog or heavy rains will
lead to unreliability
● Night time video analysis requires
proper street lighting
● Image processing involves several
problems such as False Alarm Rate
(FAR) and False Rejection Rate
(FRR).
● In a jam-packed traffic scenario,
computer vision gives erroneous
results.
2.4 GPS based FCD
In-vehicle technologies, called Automatic
Vehicle Location (AVL) systems are used in
the Floating Car Data (FCD) method. One
such AVL is the Global Positioning System
 7th International Engineering Symposium - IES 2018
March 7-9, 2018, Kumamoto University, Japan
(GPS). FCD is based on the principle that
real-time traffic data can be collected by
locating vehicles over the entire road
network using technologies such as GPS in
this case. FCD is useful and can help
improving the safety, reliability and
efficiency of any transportation system and
is more inexpensive than other methods.
The disadvantages of this method is that a
limited number of cars are equipped with
GPS and so, it can not be relied on to
provide accurate traffic density. This
method also leads to privacy concerns due
to full time surveillance of vehicles, Kühne
R. et al. (2003)
3. TECHNOLOGIES AND COMPONENTS
3.1 RFID Technology
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) can
automatically identify objects, collect data
about them, and enter the data directly
into databases. Radio waves are used to
realise this. RFID systems consist of three
components, an RFID tag, a reader, and a
database. The tag contains an in-built
antenna to transmit data to the RFID
reader. The reader converts the received
radio waves to a usable form of data. The
received tag information is then stored in a
database and can be further analysed.
Moreover, RFID works on Non LOS method
hence, the tags are easily detected and
there are no blind spots for the RFID
reader. This paper proposes the use of a
passive RFID system operating in the UHF
band, which can offer a range of up to
12m. In a passive RFID system, the reader
sends a radio signal which when detected
by the tag powers it on. The tag reflects
energy back, which gets detected by the
reader and hence the tag is identified. As
passive tags only need an IC and an
antenna, they are cheaper, smaller, and
easier to manufacture than active tags,
which require a power source as well (refer
Table 1). The advantages of using UHF
band over LF and HF are, Weis S. A.
(2007):
● The UHF frequency band (860 -960
MHz) is regulated by a single global
standard called the ECP Global Gen2
(ISO 18000-6C) UHF standard.
3
● UHF has faster data transfer rate
and larger range than High
Frequency(HF) band.
● Passive UHF tags are easier and less
expensive to bulk manufacture than
LF and HF tags.
For the purpose of demonstration, we used
the MFRC-522 module, which is a highly
integrated contact-less RFID reader/writer
IC. The card reader and the tags
communicate using a 13.56MHz
electromagnetic field. The MFRC522 reader
supports ISO/IEC 14443 A/MIFARE and
NTAG. We used the Serial Peripheral
Interface (SPI) host interface which is
supported on the MFRC522 to enable high
speed communication to the host and can
handle data speeds up-to 10Mbits/s. The
MFRC522 acts as a slave during the SPI
communication and receives the SPI clock
signal from the host, which is a Raspberry
Pi micro-controller (refer Fig. 2). Data
communication from the master to the
slave uses the MOSI line. The MISO line is
used to send data from the MFRC522 to
the master. The data must be stable on
the rising edge of the clock and can be
changed on the falling edge, NXP
Semiconductors (2016).
3.2 Vehicular Re-Identification
This is an inexpensive way of getting
vehicular data on road networks such as
density, speed, time of travel, etc. This
method requires sets of detectors mounted
along all roads in the traffic network. A
unique serial number for a device in the
vehicle is detected at one location and
then detected again (re-identified) further
down the road. Direction of motion of the
vehicle, travel times and speed are
calculated by comparing the time at which
a specific device is detected by pairs of
sensors, Kuhne R. D. et al. (1991). We will
discuss vehicle re-identification using the
RFID serial numbers from Electronic Toll
Collection (ETC) transponders for the
purpose of traffic management in this
paper.
3.3 Green Wave Traffic Theory
Adaptive traffic control can get the density
of traffic on all roads in a road network.
This information can be used to recognise
patterns, such as the most frequently
 7th International Engineering Symposium - IES 2018
March 7-9, 2018, Kumamoto University, Japan
travelled routes, that is, routes with
highest traffic density at different times in
a day. Knowing this, the traffic signals
along these routes can be coordinated
such that all the signals have green time
immediately one after the other. This
enables a commuter to travel a long
stretch without encountering a red light.
This will enable continuous flow of traffic
along popular routes which will help
reduce traffic congestion, reduce time of
travel and increase speed of travel. This
method can also control the speed of
traffic in these routes, as the speed will be
dependent on the green time of the signals
along the route, Nagatani T. (2007).
4. IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
In the proposed system (refer Fig.1), each
vehicle is fitted with an RFID tag and RFID
readers are installed at the start and end
of each road between two junctions. Each
of these RFID readers communicates to a
Raspberry Pi. When a vehicle crosses a
reader, the reader picks up the vehicle’s
unique ID, along with a time-stamp from
the particular RFID tag.
4.1 Read and Write into RFID Tags
The first 8 bits of the UID indicates the
type of vehicle. This tells us the weight
and priority of that vehicle. For example, a
car is given a larger weight than a scooter,
as it is a larger vehicle and causes more
traffic congestion. A truck would be given
an even higher weight than a car or a
scooter. The priority bits of a vehicle is
always zero except for emergency vehicles
such as ambulances, fire engines, police
cars, etc. These weight and priority bits in
the UID is written into the RFID tag before
the tag is put on the vehicle. The RFID
tags are read whenever they pass an RFID
reader. Since long range RFID readers are
expensive, the reader could be placed on
the road and the tag underneath the car. A
large loop antenna can be created to cover
one side of the road. This is inexpensive,
serves the purpose well, and short range
readers are enough for this.
4.2 Signal Time at a Junction
Vehicular re-identification is implemented.
When an RFID tag is read, the UID and
time-stamp is collected and uploaded on a
4
database in a central server or computer.
The reader is attached to the Raspberry Pi
micro-controller using the SPI interface.
Communication between server and reader
is established through Wi-Fi on the
Raspberry Pi, but other methods such as
GSM can also be used for this purpose.
When the same RFID tag is read at the
beginning and at the end of the road, we
know the vehicle has left that particular
road, so the UID for that vehicle is deleted
from the database and the corresponding
time-stamps can be used to calculate
various parameters like traffic flow and
speed of vehicles on the road for further
analysis, Al-Khateeb and Johari (2008).
Depending on the weights of the vehicles
on the road, got by analysing the UID of
vehicles on the road, the traffic density on
the road is calculated. This is done for
each road at a junction on the central
server or computer and then appropriate
green time is allotted to the roads at a
junction according to the ratio of their
traffic densities. The road with highest
density of traffic gets the longest green
time. The red signal and yellow signal time
for every road is just the calculated green
time subtracted from the total time period
of signal. This is called density based
signal control. For demonstration
purposes, green time is calculated and
traffic lights are updated every 30
seconds. This number should be modified
for real-world scenarios. The traffic lights
are updated by using another Raspberry Pi
at the traffic signal which controls the
lights in a real world scenario. In the
model (refer Fig. 2), the traffic lights are
wired to a Raspberry Pi which is also
connected to an RFID reader, to save on
resources. This micro-controller receives
signal time for red and green light for
every road at the junction from the central
server which is then used to modify the
actual traffic signal (refer Fig. 3). The
information of traffic density and time-
stamp can be further analysed to detect
busy routes and the traffic signals can be
tweaked to accommodate a green wave in
the traffic network.
4.3 Priority Vehicles
When a priority vehicle enters a road
network, the RFID reader which first reads
 7th International Engineering Symposium - IES 2018
March 7-9, 2018, Kumamoto University, Japan
the UID of the vehicle will automatically
detect that it is a priority vehicle by
reading the priority bits in the UID. Once
detected as a priority vehicle, the reader
immediately sends this information to the
server which then sends a message to the
next traffic light along the road on which
the priority vehicle is. When the traffic
light receives a priority message from the
server, it will automatically turn green
along the road of the priority vehicle. This
process will continue along every road the
vehicle enters, thus providing a green
wave for the priority vehicle. This process
will stop when the vehicle reaches its
destination, and has to be done manually
by the driver of the priority vehicle by
clicking a button in the vehicle, which will
send a signal to the central server
indicating end of trip of the priority
vehicle. Furthermore, there is a backup
solution, in case the driver forgets to end
the priority green wave. This is done by
comparing time-stamps in the database. If
vehicles which entered a long time after
the priority vehicle, say 1 minute or
longer, get detected at the other end of
the road, we can conclude that the priority
vehicle has stopped somewhere in the
middle of the road and hence the priority
green wave is terminated. Else, if no
vehicle enters the road for 1 minute after
the priority vehicle, which means traffic
flow on road is really low, and yet the
priority vehicle does not exit the road after
a significant amount of time, the priority
green light is terminated.
5. CONCLUSIONS
This proposed concept can form the basis
for the development of a more advanced
traffic management system using RFID. It
is seen that a green wave flow and traffic
prioritisation can be implemented with just
the information from the RFID tags. The
RFID system may prove to be
revolutionary in traffic management if it is
allowed to be properly deployed. This
would require a number of decision making
authorities to combine efforts and work
towards creating a comprehensive
solution. One of the main features of this
RFID methodology is the ability to control
any location of the road network from a
central server from the headquarters or
5
any other subsidiary control station by
using the internet or GSM. Moreover, the
system saves valuable data on a database
which can be further analysed using
machine learning algorithms to make the
traffic management much more efficient.
RFID technology can also help in enforcing
traffic rules. For example, the RFID
readers on the roads can automatically
detect a vehicle which jumps a signal. This
will improve road safety.
REFERENCES
[1] Al-Khateeb, K. A., Johari, J. A., & Al-Khateeb, W.
F. (2008). Dynamic traffic light sequence algorithm
using RFID. Journal of Computer Science, 4(7), 517
[2] Kuhne, R. D. (1991). Freeway control using a
dynamic traffic flow model and vehicle reidentification
techniques (No. 1320).
[3] Kühne, R., Scbäfer, R. P., Mikat, J.,
Thiessenhusen, K. U., Böttger, U., & Lorkowski, S.
(2003). New approaches for traffic management in
metropolitan areas. IFAC Proceedings Volumes,
36(14), 209-214.
[4] Lanke, N. et al (2013), Smart Traffic Management
System, International Journal of Computer
Applications Volume 75– No.7, August 2013
[5] Mimbela, L. E. Y., & Klein, L. A. (2000). Summary
of vehicle detection and surveillance technologies
used in intelligent transportation systems.
[6] Nagatani, T. (2007). Vehicular traffic through a
sequence of green-wave lights. Physica A: Statistical
Mechanics and its Applications, 380, 503-511.
[7] NXP Semiconductors (2016), MFRC522 Product
data sheet
[8] Parida, P., & Gangopadhyay, S. (2008, August).
Estimation of fuel loss during idling of vehicles at
signalized intersections in Delhi. In Journal of Indian
Roads Congress (pp. 61-70).
[9] Studer, L., Ketabdari, M., & Marchionni, G.
(2015). Analysis of adaptive traffic control systems
design of a decision support system for better
choices. JOURNAL OF CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING, 5(6), 1-10.
[10] Weis, S. A. (2007). RFID (radio frequency
identification): Principles and applications. System,
2(3), 1-23.
Table 1. Active and Passive RFID Tags
Tag Type Passive Active
Power Harvesting RF Battery
Source energy
Communic- Response only Respond or
ation initiate
Max Range 10 M > 100 M
Relative Least Most
Cost expensive expensive
Example EPC, Proximity Livestock
Application cards tracking
 7th International Engineering Symposium - IES 2018
March 7-9, 2018, Kumamoto University, Japan

Fig. 1 Block Diagram of the Proposed System

Fig.2 Working Model with Raspberry

Pi, MFRC522 and Traffic Lights

Fig.3 Working of Adaptive

Controlled Traffic Lights

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