DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF AN AUTOMATIC STREET

LIGHT SYSTEM

BY

OGEH JEFFREY JEREMIAH

 ABSTRACT

This project is about the design and construction of an automatic street light system for the

reduction in power consumption. The street lights will turn on only at night while but remain

in a dim mode for visibility and the street light will fully illuminate when a vehicle is detected

with an ultrasonic sensor. An Arduino Nano board is used for the microcontroller to be

interface with the sensor, LDR which senses day and night and LED. This proposed system

will overcome the problem that has been faced with the previous systems.

This project consists of the introduction to the project, motivation for study, problem statement

aims and objectives. A review of related literature is stated. It describes in details the

components to be used and describe the processes and methodology in steps and sections of

the operation carried out to achieve the project’s status

The testing results and analysis of the projects are carried out at the end of the design to check

if the project is designed and constructed according to the specification of the desired output.

The report also is concluded with the experiences and recommendation concerning this projects

application as it works as required and can be modified for future advancements.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATIONS ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
ABSTRACT v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LIST OF FIGURES viii
TABLE OF FIGURES ix
CHAPTER ONE 1
INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY 1
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM 2
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES 3
1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY 3
CHAPTER TWO 5
LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1 OVERVIEW OF AUTOMATIC STREET LIGHT 5
2.2 HISTORY OF STREET LIGHT 5
2.3 THE AUTOMATIC STREET LIGHT 6
2.4 AREAS INTELLIGENT LIGHT CONTROL ARE APPLIED 7
2.5 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK 7
2.6 PRESENT METHOD 11
2.7 CONCLUSION 13
CHAPTER THREE 15
MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY 15
3.1 INTRODUCTION 15
3.2 DESIGN BLOCK DIAGRAM 15
3.3 DESIGN ANALYSIS 16
3.3.1 Design of the Power Supply Circuit for the automatic Street light System. 16
3.3.2 Transformer 17
3.3.3 Rectifier: 18

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 3.3.4 Capacitive filter 18
3.3.5 Resistors 19
3.3.6 Voltage regulator 19
3.3.7 Light-emitting diode (LED) 20
3.4 INPUT ELEMENTS 20
3.4.1 Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) 20
3.4.2 Ultrasonic Sensor 21
3.5 THE MICROCONTROLLER 22
3.5.1 Arduino Nano board 22
3.5.2 Features of the Microcontroller 23
3.5.3 Microcontroller specification 26
3.5.4 Pin Configuration 26
3.5.5 Sensors 27
3.6 METHODOLOGY 29
3.7 DESIGN PROCEDURE 30
3.8 FABRICATION TECHNIQUES 30
3.8.1 Mechanical Fabrication 31
3.9 CONNECTIONS 31
3.10 PICTURE OF ACTIVITIES CARRIED OT DURING DESIGN 32
CHAPTER FOUR 34
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 34
4.1 INTRODUCTION 34
4.2 CONSTRUCTION 34
4.3 TESTING 34
4.4 RESULTS 34
4.5 TROUBLESHOOTING 35

4.6 CONCLUSION 35
CHAPTER FIVE 36
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 36
5.1 INTRODUCTION 36
5.2 BENEFITS 36

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5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS 36
5.4 CONCLUSION 37 REFERENCES 38

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2. 1: Percentage of power consumption by street light throughout the day 7

Figure 3. 1: Block diagram 15

Figure 3. 2: Power supply 17

Figure 3. 3: Circuit diagram of a 5V DC power supply 17

Figure 3. 4: Transformer 18

Figure 3. 5: Resistor 19

Figure 3. 6: Voltage regulator 19

Figure 3. 7: Light Emitting Diode 20

Figure 3. 8: Light-dependent Resistor 21

Figure 3. 9: Ultrasonic Sensor 21

Figure 3. 10: Microcontroller 26

Figure 3. 11: Pin Configuration of Atmega328/P 26

Figure 3. 12: The Block Diagram on the Internal Structure of the AVR Microcontroller 27

Figure 3. 13: Circuit diagram for the automatic street light system 31

Figure 3. 14: The wooden road frame 32

Figure 3. 15: The LED’s pole on the wooden frame 32

Figure 3. 16: Ultrasonic sensors attached to the side of the board 32
Figure 3. 17: Ultrasonic sensor placed before a section of LED’s 33
Figure 3. 18: Painting of the road wood frame 33

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 TABLE OF FIGURES
Table 1.1: Arduino Nano Specifications 22

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 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Today electricity is a major concern worldwide and most of the power generation stations are

based on conventional fuels like coal but we have limited sources of these non-renewable fuels.

To minimize the dependence on these sources, we have to move on to new and renewable

sources like solar and wind, etc. However proper usage of electricity could also be one of the

effective tools for saving conventional fuels. Street lights are one of the most crucial parts for

public lighting systems which consume a major part of the generated electricity. The

conventional or manual controlled street lighting system has demerits like high power

consumption, high cost and absence of an effective monitoring system.

Street lights can be used to promote security in urban areas, street lights also improve safety

for drivers, riders, and pedestrians. Driving outside of daylight is more dangerous, only a

quarter of all movement by car drivers is between the hours of 8 am and 7 pm, yet this period

accounts for over 40% of fatal and serious injuries to the same group also, pedestrians and

vulnerable road users suffer from decreased visibility in the dark. The idea of designing a new

system for the street light that does not consume a huge amount of electricity and illuminate

large areas with the highest intensity of light is concerning each engineer working in this field.

Providing street lighting is one of the most important and expensive responsibilities of a city.

Lighting can account for 10–38% of the total energy bill in typical cities worldwide. Street

lighting in particular is a critical concern for public authorities in developing countries because

of its strategic importance for economic and social stability.

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Inefficient lighting wastes significant financial resources every year, and poor lighting creates

unsafe conditions. Energy-efficient technologies and design mechanism can reduce the cost of

the street lighting drastically.

Manual control is prone to errors and leads to energy wastages and manually dimming during

midnight is impracticable. Also, dynamically tracking the light level is manually impracticable.

Today the introduction of an automatic street light system is developed to control and reduce

the energy consumption of a town's public lighting system when there is no vehicle movement.

Street lighting is one of the important parts of a city’s infrastructure where the main function

is to illuminate the city’s streets during dark hours of the day. Street lamps were controlled

manually, where a control switch is set in each of the street lamps. It is called the first

generation of the original street light. After that, another method that was been used was optical

control method. This method uses a high-pressure sodium lamp in their system. It can be seen

that this method is widely used in the country nowadays. This method operates by setting up

an optical control circuit. It lights up automatically at dusk and turns off automatically after

dawn in the morning.

The proposed system utilizes the latest technology for the sources of light as LED Lamps

instead of generally used street lamps such as High-Pressure Sodium Lamps, etc. The LED

technology is preferred as it offers several advantages over other traditional technologies like

energy saving due to high current luminous efficiency, low maintenance cost, high colour

rendering index, rapid startup speed, long working life etc. High-intensity discharge lamp

(HID) presently used for urban street light are based on the principle of gas discharge, thus the

intensity is not controllable by any voltage reduction.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Existing methods like switching on/off the light manually are time-consuming & require

manpower. The new method automatic ON/OFF without human intervention is easier when
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compared to the existing system. High-intensity discharge lamp (HID) presently used for urban

street light are based on the principle of gas discharge, thus the intensity is not controllable by

any voltage reduction method as the discharge path is broken.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

Aims of this project are

i. Automatic Switching / Dimming of Street lights.

ii. Intensity Control of LEDs on Detection of a vehicle or human movement/Dimming of

street lights.

iii. Reduction of light pollution and CO2- emission. iv. Increases security through

visibility at night.

Objectives of this project are

To design an automatic lighting system which targets energy saving and the autonomous

operation on an economical level for the streets.

Build an energy-saving, automatic lighting system with integrated sensors and controllers.

Design an automatic lighting system with modular approach design, which makes the system

adaptable, expandable and compatible with other commercial product and automation systems,

which might include more than lighting systems. Moreover, errors which occur due to manual

operation can also be eliminated as all Street Lights can be switched ON/OFF automatically

and no labour is required for switching. Doing all these in turn increases the performance and

life of the lamps.

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1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY

Moving with the new and renewable energy sources, this system will serve the same purpose

of automatically controlling the street lights “switch ON and OFF” alternate lights during late-

night while saving energy “power consumption”, and by doing so we would be able to lighten

few more houses. This system also reduces human resource and increase the lifetime of the

street light making it deployable on any street light circuit.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 OVERVIEW OF AUTOMATIC STREET LIGHT

We need to save or conserve energy because most of the energy sources we depend on, like

coal and natural gas can't be replaced. Once we use them up, they're gone forever. Saving power

is very important, instead of using the power in unnecessary times, it should be switched off.

In any city “street light” is one of the major power-consuming factors. Most of the time we see

street lights are ON even after sunrise thus wasting a lot of energy. Over here we are avoiding

the problem by having an automatic system which turns ON & OFF the street lights at a given

time or when the ambient light falls below a specific intensity. Each controller has an LDR

which is used to detect the ambient light. If the ambient light is below a specific value, the

lights are turned ON. The ultrasonic sensor is used to detect movement of vehicle or human

which is interfaced with the microcontroller which is the brain of the automatic system. The

microcontroller responds by giving a command to the LED to turn ON to their full brightness

and it gets restored to the dimming brightness.

2.2 HISTORY OF STREET LIGHT

Street light is a source of light that is raised above the ground level on the edge of a road or

walkway, which is used to provide illumination during dusk, dawn, or the onset of dark

weather. Following the invention of lanterns with glass windows, which greatly improved the

quantity of light. This Lanterns were suspended from a cord over the middle of the street at a

height of twenty feet and were placed twenty yards apart. A much-improved oil lantern, called

a réverbère, was introduced between 1745 and 1749. The first widespread system of street

lighting used piped coal gas as fuel. Stephen Hales was the first person who procured a

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flammable fluid from the actual distillation of coal in 1726 and John Clayton, in 1735, called

gas the "spirit" of coal and discovered its flammability by accident. William Murdoch was the

first to use the flammability of gas for the practical application of lighting.

The first electric street lighting employed arc lamps, initially the 'Electric candle', developed

by the Russian Pavel Yablochkov in 1875. This was a carbon arc lamp employing alternating

current, which ensured that both electrodes were -consumed at equal rates.

2.3 THE AUTOMATIC STREET LIGHT

Automatic street lighting refers to public street lighting that adapts to movement by pedestrians,

cyclists and cars. Automatic street lighting works with systems intelligence also referred to as

adaptive street lighting, dims when no activity is detected but brightens when movement is

detected. This type of lighting is different from traditional, stationary illumination, or

dimmable street lighting that dims at pre-determined times.

The first patent requests for automatic street lighting started from the late 1990s but it wasn’t

until April 7, 2006, that Europe experienced the first large scale implementation of a control

network in a street lighting application. The implementation took place in Oslo (Norway) and

it was expected to reduce energy usage by 50 per cent, improve roadway safety, and minimize

maintenance costs.

The Oslo project triggered interest from other cities in Europe and formed the basis for other

sustainability initiatives, such as the E-Street initiative. This research group focused on ways

to reduce energy usage in outdoor lighting systems in the European Union (EU). The E-Street

group strongly influenced EU standards and legislation for intelligent outdoor lighting systems.

Street lights can be made intelligent by placing cameras or sensors on them, which enables

them to detect movement. Additional technology enables the street lights to communicate with

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one another. Different companies have different variations to this technology. When a passer-

by is detected by a camera or sensor, it will communicate this to neighbouring street lights,

which will brighten so that people are always surrounded by a safe circle of light. The

technology behind this intelligent street light is also applicable generally in light control.

Automatic light control provides opportunities to enrich the user experience and increase value.

Lighting can also be integrated into other system topologies such as security systems or

automation and control. Aesthetically, lighting control supports custom mood lighting designs

which can vary brightness, colour and colour temperature across large lighting arrays.

Figure 2. 1: Percentage of power consumption by street light throughout the day

2.4 AREAS INTELLIGENT LIGHT CONTROL ARE APPLIED

The system can be widely applied in all places which need timely control such as streets,

stations, mining, schools, and electricity sectors and so on.

2.5 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK

Automatic Street Light Control System Using Microcontroller; manual operation of the

lighting system is eliminated; two sensors are used which are Light Dependent Resistor LDR

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sensor to indicate a day/night time and the photoelectric sensors to detect the movement on the

street the microcontroller PIC16F877A is used as the brain to control the street light system,

where the programming language used for developing the software to the microcontroller is C-

language. (Leccese and Leonowicz, 2012).

Richu Sam Alex et al., (2014) proposed a system which reduces the power consumption of the

street lighting system about 30% compared to conventional design. This system is fully

automated. It also uses ZigBee so that the control station can also analyse all the performances

of the system.

Daeho Kim et al., (2011) worked on smart LED lighting system by using Infrared and

Ultrasonic sensors together. Here they proposed a model which continuously tracks the human

motion. Output based on the human tracking data which is obtained by these sensors is

responsible for determining the On-Off control of the LED lighting. The previously existing

system fails in continuously monitoring the motion of an object by using each sensor

separately. For the same reason, the efficiency of the existing system is low. By the hardware

implementation, they developed a model to improve the efficiency which helps in smart

lighting. The proposed approach makes use of sensors in which IR sensor sends the sensed data

to the MCU board which in turn sends the same data to the LED control layer.

Depending on the results of the sensed data LED control layer turns on the lighting system.

The human presence is detected by the IR sensor and continuous tracking is possible by the

Ultrasonic (US) sensor. As before the sensed values are sent to the MCU board by US sensor

which controls the On-Off of the lighting. US-IR positioning based system has to be studied in

future.

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Subramanian et al., (2013) have developed a model which provides a smart lighting system on

streets which is mainly solar-based. The people work for late nights and also most of the

criminal activities occur during nights. Under these situations, to provide security, controlling

and monitoring of street light is developed together with GUI. Even the usage of a solar panel

helps save power and money. At the PC side, graphical user interface (GUI) takes part in

controlling the street light. For monitoring and controlling the lamps on the streets, ZigBee

technology is used. More power and energy is saved by using LDR and IS sensors.

This proposed model works on the two operational modes. They are Auto and Manual mode.

In Auto Mode On-Off of the light are done by using LDRs which measures the intensity of

light. Controlling is by use of relays. In the Manual mode, the controlling and monitoring of

the street lights are made successful by using the specially designed GUI and by using the

ZigBee technology. This proposed system is helpful to provide the street lighting in the rural

and urban areas where the traffic is low at times. This system maintains the user satisfaction

and is versatile.

Raja R et al., (2014) worked on the energy-saving concepts. Here, smart sensor networks in

DC electrical appliances like lighting helps for monitoring of energy usage. Conventional

lamps are powered by AC grid but for LED DC supply is sufficient. Dimming of light can also

be achieved by using appropriate protocol helps in energy saving. Replacing the traditional

lamp by LED makes 44% energy saving.

Michele Mango et al., (2015) proposed a low cost, wireless, adaptable sensor-based smart

lighting system which makes use of PIR sensors and motion sensors. It helps control the light

intensity and power consumption using LED light. Dimming of light is achieved using PIR

sensor only in presence of obstacles around. The main advantage of this system is energy

conservation.

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Sudhakar et al., (2013) designed an Automatic Street light that controls the power

consumptions on the streets and eliminating manpower. This includes controlling a circuit of

street lights with specific Sensors, LDR and Microcontrollers. During the daytime, there is no

requirement of street lights so the LDR keeps the street light off until the light level is low or

the frequency of light is low the resistance of the LDR is high. This prevents current from

flowing to the base of the transistors. Thus the street lights do not glow.

Saad et al., (2013) worked on an Automatic Street Light Control System Using Microcontroller

designed and executed an advanced development in embedded systems for energy saving of

street lights. Nowadays, human has become too busy and is unable to find time even to switch

the lights wherever not necessary. Solution for electrical power wastage and manual operation

of the lighting system is eliminated. Two sensors are used which are Light Dependent Resistor

LDR sensor to indicate a day/night time and the photoelectric sensors to detect the movement

on the street. The microcontroller PIC16F877A is used as a brain to control the street light

system, where the programming language used for developing the software to the

microcontroller is C-language.

Rajput et al., (2013) proposed an Intelligent Street Lighting System Using GSM; Conventional

street lighting systems in areas with a low frequency of passers are on the road most of the

night without purpose. The consequence is that a large amount of power is wasted

meaninglessly. With the broad availability of flexible-lighting technology like light-emitting

diode lamps and everywhere available wireless internet connection, fast reacting, reliably

operating, and power-conserving street lighting systems become reality. This work describes

the Intelligent Street Lighting (ISL) system, a first approach to accomplish the demand for

flexible public lighting systems.

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GSM based smart street light monitoring and control system (Natu and Chavan, 2014) is an

automated system designed to increase the efficiency and accuracy of an industry by

automatically timed controlled switching off street lights they are two modules which include

the client-side and the server-side. The client-side consists of GSM modem which is further

connected to the microcontroller which is further connected to the relay circuit; the server-side

consists of GSM modem connected to the Monitoring and Control Application.

2.6 PRESENT METHOD

The present design consists of an ATmega328/P microcontroller-based intelligent street light

control system which will have LED’s, ultrasonic sensors and LDR sensors. The entire system

will run only in the evening before the sunsets and they are switched OFF the next day morning

after there is sufficient light on the road which is achieved with the LDR sensor indicating

day/night time. Using ultrasonic sensors this system maintains the constant intensity of street

lights depending on the presence “movement” of a person or vehicle(s) in its detection range

and will automatically increase while automatically decrease whenever the person moves out

of the detection range. To make the system more efficient the intensity of successive street

lights will increase when the person reaches the end of the first lamppost range. The system

allows substantial energy savings with increased performance and maintainability. By using

this system, the manual works will be reduced to a great extent.

(Hengyu and Minli, 2010) the core technology of the street light control system is an AT89S52

single-chip microcomputer. It integrates a power circuit, a fault detect circuit, a photosensitive

detection circuit, an infrared detect circuit, an LCD circuit, a street light control circuit, an

alarm circuit, a pressed key control circuit and so on. This system can automatically tum on or

off the lights and controls the switches according to traffic flow. It expands the fault detect

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circuit and the corresponding a1ann circuit. It also has a convenient and flexible button control

circuit to switch on and off fictions mentioned above.

(GongSiliang, 2010) describes a remote street light monitoring system based on wireless sensor

network. The system can be set to run in automatic mode, which controls street light according

to Sunrise and Sunset Algorithm and light intensity. This control can make a reasonable

adjustment according to the latitude, longitude and seasonal variation. Also, this system can

run in a controlled mode. In this mode, we can take the initiative to control street lights through

a PC monitor terminal. Also, the system integrates a digital temperature-humidity sensor, not

only monitoring the street light Real-time but also temperature and humidity. The system is

equipped with the high-power relay output and can be widely applied in all places which need

timely control such as streets, stations, mining, schools, and electricity sectors and so on.

(Gustavo W. Denardin, 2012) the use of LEDs is being considered a promising solution to

modern street lighting systems, due to their longer lifetime, higher luminous efficiency and

higher CRI. The proposed control network enables disconnection of the street lighting system

from the mains during the peak load time, reducing its impact in the distributed power system,

automatically consumption decreases and management while monitoring the status information

of each street lighting unit. To meet the system requirements, a wireless sensor network based

on the IEEE 802.15.4TM standard is employed. Its network layer is implemented using a

geographic routing strategy, which provides slow overhead and high scalability features.

However, due to well-known drawbacks of the existing techniques, a novel routing algorithm

is proposed. Simulations show that this algorithm leads to a significant improvement in routing

performance when applied to sparse large scale scenarios, which is the case of a street lighting

system. Field tests have been performed on IEEE 802.15.4-compliant wireless control units.

The obtained experimental results show that the proposed control network can meet the

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requirements of a LED street lighting system. It mainly deals with safer roadways with an

intelligent light system to reduce power consumption. This system has automatic street light

intensity control based on the vehicular movement and switching ON and OFF of street lights

depending on the light ambience. This will help in reducing power consumption during hours

of meagre road usage. The street light module is installed consequently for every certain

distance.

(A.C. Kalaiarasan, 2012) solar energy-based street light with an auto-tracking system for

maximizing power output from a solar system is desirable to increase efficiency. To maximize

the power output from the solar panels, one needs to keep panels aligned with the sun. As such

a means of tracking the sun is required. This is a far most cost-effective solution than

purchasing additional solar panels. It has been estimated that the yield from solar panels can

be increased by 30 to 60 per cent by utilizing a tracking system instead of a stationary array.

This paper describes an automatic tracking system which will keep the solar panels aligned

with the sun to maximize efficiency. The sun tracking sensor is the sensing device, which

senses the position of the sun at the time to time continuously and it gives the sensing output

to the amplifier based on the light density of the sun. Here the sun tracking sensor is LDR (light

dependent resistor). The amplifier unit is used to amplify the LDR signals, which makes the

low-level signal into high-level signals and this output is given to the comparator. The LM324

IC is used as an amplifier. A comparator compares the signals and gives the command to the

AT89C51 microcontroller.

(RadhiPriyasree, 2007) power consumption of street lights can be reduced by avoiding

inefficient lighting which wastes significant financial resources each year. This is done by

dimming the lights during fewer traffic hours. For this purpose, a PIR sensor is used which

detects any movement. This work also aims at reducing the fatal crashes and road accidents

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caused due to alcohol consumption. This is done using skin sensors placed in vehicle doors and

also using breadth sensors inside the vehicle.

2.7 CONCLUSION

This proposed system, which is described in the paper, can effectively save energy by reducing

the power consumption as per requirement. Since this is a sensor-based system, it is self-

controlled and an automated system. However, at the same time, this system is also flexible for

any modification or further expansion such as interfacing of new sensors and connecting

surveillance camera for security purposes etc. It is a cost-effective, realistic, eco-friendly and

a safe way to save energy by replacing the conventional bulbs with LEDs and automatic

switching/dimming of LEDs as and when required. The project has

applications in various areas like lighting in bus shelters, parks and parking lots of shopping

malls or market areas etc.

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 CHAPTER THREE

MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses the details processes and the method employed in the design of an

automatic street light control system. The method includes the design of the power supply,

microcontroller (programming with c language), ultrasonic and LDR sensor.

3.2 DESIGN BLOCK DIAGRAM

The block diagram of fig 3.1 shows the sections of the automatic street light system and how

the sections are connected to achieve an automatic system for light control

Figure 3. 1: Block diagram

The automatic street light system has the following components, which are as follows;

1) A 220/5V Transformer

2) A bridge rectifier

3) A voltage regulator (L7805)

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 4) Microcontroller

5) A light-emitting diode (LED)

6) Light-dependent resistor (LDR)

7) Capacitive filter (1000uF and 10uF)

8) Ultrasonic sensor

9) Resistor

The automatic street light system has four major sections, which are as follows

1) Power supply

2) Input (sensors)

3) Microcontroller

4) Output (LED)

3.3 DESIGN ANALYSIS

3.3.1 Design of the Power Supply Circuit for the automatic Street Light System. The AC

input 220V from the mains supply is step-down by the transformer to 12V and fed to a rectifier.

The output obtained from the bridge rectifier is a pulsating DC voltage. To get a pure DC

voltage, the output voltage from the rectifier is incorporated with a capacitor filter to remove

any AC components present even after rectification. This voltage is sent to a voltage regulator

to reduce the circuit input voltage to 5V which is a pure constant dc voltage.

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 Figure 3. 2: Power supply

Figure 3. 3: Circuit diagram of a 5V DC power supply

3.3.2 Transformer

Transformers convert AC electricity from one voltage to another with little loss of power.

Transformers work only with AC and this is one of the reasons why mains electricity is AC.

Step-up transformers increase voltage, step-down transformers reduce voltage. Usually, D.C.

voltages are required to operate various electronic equipment and a 5V is required in this

project, however, these voltages cannot be obtained directly. Most power supplies use a step-

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down transformer to reduce the dangerously high mains voltage 220V to a safer low voltage.

Transformers waste very little power so the power out is (almost) equal to the power in. Note

that as the voltage is stepped down current is stepped up.

Figure 3. 4: Transformer

3.3.3 Rectifier:

A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which periodically

reverses direction, to direct current (DC), current that flows in only one direction, a process

known as rectification. The output from the transformer is fed to the rectifier. It converts AC

into pulsating D.C. The rectifier may be a half-wave or a full-wave rectifier. In this project, a

bridge rectifier is used because of its merits like good stability and full-wave rectification.

3.3.4 Capacitive filter

The capacitive filter is used in this project. It removes the ripples from the output of the rectifier

and smoothens the D.C. Output received from the regulator and mains voltage is maintained

constant.

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The simple capacitor filter is the most basic type of power supply filter. The use of this filter is

very limited.

3.3.5 Resistors

A resistor is a two-terminal electronic component that produces a voltage across its terminals

that is proportional to the electric current through it by Ohm's law. Resistors of various ratings

are used in this circuit. Resistance is used in front of led to drop the voltage from 5v which is

coming from the microcontroller to 3v which is required by the led to glow.

Figure 3. 5: Resistor

3.3.6 Voltage regulator

It regulates the input applied to it. A voltage regulator is an electrical regulator designed to

maintain automatically a constant voltage level. In this project, the power supply of 5V is

required. To obtain these voltage levels, 7805 and 7812 voltage regulators are used.

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 Figure 3. 6: Voltage regulator

3.3.7 Light-emitting diode (LED)

Light-emitting diodes are elements for light signalization in electronics. They are manufactured

in different shapes, colours and sizes. For their low price, low consumption and simple use,

they have almost completely pushed aside other light sources bulbs at the first place. They

operate similar to common diodes with the difference that they emit light when current flows

through them. It is important to know that each diode will be immediately destroyed unless its

current is limited.

Figure 3. 7: Light Emitting Diode

3.4 INPUT ELEMENTS

3.4.1 Light Dependent Resistor (LDR)

The LDR is a resistor whose resistance changes with the intensity of incident light. The working

principle of the light-dependent resistor is the photoelectric effect. A light-dependent resistor

is made of a high resistance semiconductor. If the energy of the incident light is greater than

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the bandgap of the semiconductor, electron-hole pairs are generated. The photogenerated

electron-hole pair transits the device giving rise to photoconductivity.

The essential elements of a photoconductive cell are the ceramic substrate a layer of

photoconductive material, metallic electrodes to connect the device into a Circuit and a

moisture-resistant enclosure.

LDR’s are applied in areas where human vision is a factor such as street light control or

automatic iris control for cameras. LDR’s or Light Dependent Resistors are very useful,

especially in light/dark sensor circuits.

Figure 3. 8: Light-dependent Resistor

3.4.2 Ultrasonic Sensor

Ultrasonic sensors are divided into three broad categories: transmitters, receivers and

transceivers. Transmitters convert electrical signals into ultrasound, receivers convert

ultrasound into electrical signals, and transceivers can both transmit and receive ultrasound.

Ultrasonic sensors are used in systems, which evaluate targets by interpreting the reflected

signals. For example, by measuring the time between sending a signal and receiving an echo,

the distance of an object can be calculated.

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 Figure 3. 9: Ultrasonic Sensor

3.5 THE MICROCONTROLLER

The input elements are connected to the microcontroller, the microcontroller is connected to an

LDR, ultrasonic sensor and an LED. The microcontroller works with a programming language

to perform its operation.

The microcontroller is made up of 28 pins. Each pin has its special function and connection

specification by the microcontroller manufacturer.

3.5.1 Arduino Nano board

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use

hardware and software. It is intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in

creating interactive objects or environments. Arduino can sense the environment by receiving

input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors,

and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino

programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based

on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software

on running on a computer

Arduino Nano is a surface mount breadboard embedded version with integrated USB. It is

small, complete, and breadboard-friendly.

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 Table 1.1: Arduino Nano Specifications

Microcontroller Atmel ATmega168 or ATmega328

Operating Voltage (logic level) 5V
Input Voltage (recommended) 7-12 V

Input Voltage (limits) 6-20 V

Digital I/O Pins 14 (of which 6 provide PWM output)

Analog Input Pins 8
DC Current per I/O Pin 40 mA
16 KB (ATmega168) or 32 KB
Flash Memory (ATmega328) of which 2 KB used by
bootloader
SRAM 1 KB (ATmega168) or 2 KB (ATmega328)
512 bytes (ATmega168) or 1 KB
EEPROM
(ATmega328)
Clock Speed 16 MHz
Dimensions 0.73″ x 1.70″
Length 45 mm
Width 18 mm
Weight 4 G

3.5.2 Features of the Microcontroller

One unique feature of any microcontroller is its crystal oscillator and it is used for clocking

the microcontroller and provides it with the ultra-speed required. Other feature includes the

following;

High Performance, Low Power Atmel® AVR® 8-Bit Microcontroller Family

i. Advanced RISC Architecture

a) 131 Powerful Instructions

b) Most Single Clock Cycle Execution

c) 32 x 8 General Purpose Working Registers

d) Fully Static Operation

30
 e) Up to 20 MIPS Throughput at 20MHz

f) On-chip 2-cycle Multiplier ii. High Endurance Non-volatile Memory

Segments

a) 32KBytes of In-System Self-Programmable Flash Program Memory

b) 1KBytes EEPROM

c) 2KBytes Internal SRAM

d) Write/Erase Cycles: 10,000 Flash/100,000 EEPROM

e) Data Retention: 20 years at 85°C/100 years at 25°C

f) Optional Boot Code Section with Independent Lock Bits

● In-System Programming by On-chip Boot Program

● True Read-While-Write Operation

g) Programming Lock for Software Security iii.

Atmel® QTouch® Library Support

a) Capacitive Touch Buttons, Sliders and Wheels

b) QTouch and QMatrix® Acquisition

c) Up to 64 sense channelsel-42735B-ATmega328/P_Datasheet_

iv. Peripheral Features

b) Two 8-bit Timer/Counters with Separate Prescaler and Compare Mode

c) One 16-bit Timer/Counter with Separate Prescaler, Compare Mode, and Capture

Mode

d) Real-Time Counter with Separate Oscillator

e) Six PWM Channels

f) 8-channel 10-bit ADC in TQFP and QFN/MLF package

● Temperature Measurement

31
 g) 6-channel 10-bit ADC in PDIP Package

● Temperature Measurement

h) Two Master/Slave SPI Serial Interface

i) One Programmable Serial USART

j) One Byte-oriented 2-wire Serial Interface (Philips I2C compatible)

k) Programmable Watchdog Timer with Separate On-chip Oscillator

l) One On-chip Analog Comparator

m) Interrupt and Wake-up on Pin Change

v. Special Microcontroller Features

a) Power-on Reset and Programmable Brown-out Detection

b) Internal Calibrated Oscillator

c) External and Internal Interrupt Sources

d) Six Sleep Modes: Idle, ADC Noise Reduction, Power-save, Power-down,

Standby, and Extended Standby vi.

I/O and Packages

a) Programmable I/O Lines

b) 28-pin PDIP, 32-lead TQFP, 28-pad QFN/MLF and 32-pad QFN/MLF vii.

Operating Voltage:

a) 1.8 - 5.5V viii.

Temperature Range:

a) -40°C to 105°C ix.

Speed Grade:

a) 0 - 4MHz @ 1.8 - 5.5V

b) 0 - 10MHz @ 2.7 - 5.5V

32
 c) 0 - 20MHz @ 4.5 - 5.5V

x. Power Consumption at 1MHz, 1.8V, 25°C

a) Active Mode: 0.2mA

b) Power-down Mode: 0.1μA

c) Power-save Mode: 0.75μA (Including 32kHz RTC)

3.5.3 Microcontroller specification

The ATmega328/P is a low-power CMOS 8-bit microcontroller based on the AVR enhanced

RISC architecture. By executing powerful instructions in a single clock cycle, the

ATmega328/P achieves throughputs close to 1MIPS per MHz. This empowers system designer

to optimize the device for power consumption versus processing speed.

Figure 3. 10: Microcontroller

3.5.4 Pin Configuration

The pin configuration for ATmega328/P is given in figure 3.11 and 3.12

33
Figure 3. 11: Pin Configuration of Atmega328/P

34
Figure 3. 12: The Block Diagram on the Internal Structure of the AVR Microcontroller

3.5.5 Sensors

With our complete line of advanced ultrasonic sensors, we have the most versatile, accurate

and effective solutions for the toughest applications and challenges. Ultrasonic sensors use

sound waves and this makes them ideal for problematic clear material sensing applications.

Ultrasonic sensors also effectively sense liquids and targets in dirty environments. Ultrasonic

35
sensors are inherently impervious to colour differences, high reflectivity and glare, all of which

are application challenges for photoelectric sensors.

Ultrasonic sensing technology is based on the principle that sound has a reasonably constant

velocity. The time it takes an ultrasonic sensor’s beam to strike a target and return is directly

proportionate to how far away the object is. As a result, ultrasonic sensors are often used in the

measurement of distances.

Ultrasonic sensors are similar to AIR sensors in how they work, but this sensor detects

ultrasound waves. When an object appears in the detection zone, the length and frequency of

the waves change, which leads the LED lamps to turn on. This trigger and echo are connected

several pins on the microcontroller. An individual sensor controls every section of the LED

lamps. The ultrasonic sensor is placed before the LED’s and spaced properly so that the lamps

are already turned on before the vehicle gets under the lamp.

3.5.5.1 Types of the ultrasonic sensor

1. Active Ultrasonic Sensors

Active ultrasonic sensors use high-frequency sound waves (you cannot hear them) that work

like a boomerang: These waves are sent out and then return to the sensor, reporting any

suspicious interruptions in the sound waves (in other words, a human body obstructing the

ultrasonic path).

2. Passive Ultrasonic Detectors

Instead of actively sending out sound waves, these detectors wait passively for a Sound event,

like shattering windows. The sound waves emitted by such an Occurrences are what trigger a

passive ultrasonic detector.

36
3.5.5.2 Arrangement of sensors

An array of sensors arranged in a straight row pattern is attached by the size of the road. Any

number of sensors can be used depending on the number of lamps. Each lamp ultrasonic

sensor is assigned to a set of LED’s making several areas of the road lighting independently

only when motion is detected. However, it may require complex programming for the

microcontroller and more hardware. The distance between sensors depends on.

1. Number of sensors

2. Length of the road

3.6 METHODOLOGY

The system is capable of detecting the approximate area where the vehicle may exist on the

road and intelligently dim the light anywhere it doesn’t detect the vehicle.

Fundamentally the system can detect the presence of sunlight and automatically switch off all

the street light. It does this with the aid of and LDR

Using an ultrasonic sensor, it can estimate a portion of the road where vehicles might be. If the

distance that sensor A reads as the width of the road is 10 meters on a vehicle passing the front

of this sensor, that distance will temporarily change detecting the instance that the vehicle is

passing and turn on the lights. This process goes on i.e., as the vehicle moves forward, the

street lights ahead of it glows and the trailing lights go back to its original off state. In this

mode of operation, the transition of street lights from dim to bright state occurs.

When no vehicle is sensed, all the street lights will be in a dim state. This is achieved by the

use of pulse width modulation through the program stored in the microcontroller. When a

vehicle is not present on the highway, then the street lights are made to glow. Thus, we get

37
street lights with less brightness. When a vehicle is sensed, the street lights are illuminated

again.

On a street/road, lights L1, L2 and L3 are constantly on by default as the start of the system.

When sensors which are place at intervals before every section of lights are triggered,

Sensor A is triggered and lights L4, L5 and L6 are turned on,

Sensor B is triggered and lights L7, L8 and L9 are turned on while L1, L2 and L3 are made

dim,

Sensor C is triggered and lights L10, L11 and L12 are tuned on while L4, L5 and L6 are made

dim

This process continues till the end of the street or road.

3.7 DESIGN PROCEDURE

A. According to the circuit diagram, all components required in the project are bought and

made available.

B. These components are assembled on the Vero board according to the circuit diagram.

C. Solder the components on the Vero board which have been assembled.

D. Hardware is made with several connections to various components which solely lies on

the microcontroller for operation command.

E. The working circuit is mounted on a wooden frame or plywood.

38
3.8 FABRICATION TECHNIQUES

The fabrication techniques used in this project can be broadly classified into; Mechanical

Fabrication, consisting of mechanical design i.e. board, street, light poles etc. and Electrical

Fabrication, consisting of electrical design i.e. Soldering.

3.8.1 Mechanical Fabrication

i. Plywood is cut out neatly into measured sizes for the fabricated road.

ii. Smaller pieces of wood are drilled into the edge of the plywood as LED’s poles.

iii. The ultrasonic sensors are attached to the side of the road at a reasonable distance from

each other

3.9 CONNECTIONS

The output of the power supply which is 5v is connected to pin (VCC) of microcontroller and

ground is connected to pin (GND). The sensor is connected to the input port of the

microcontroller while LED’s are connected to the output pins.

39
 Figure 3. 13: Circuit diagram for the automatic street light system

3.10 PICTURE OF ACTIVITIES CARRIED OT DURING DESIGN

Figure 3. 14: The wooden road frame

40
 Figure 3. 15: The LED’s pole on the wooden frame

Figure 3. 16: Ultrasonic sensors attached to the side of the board

Figure 3. 17: Ultrasonic sensor placed before a section of LED’s

41
Figure 3. 18: Painting of the road wood frame

42
 CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses the testing of the constructed circuit and ensuring that the results show

efficient functionality.

4.2 CONSTRUCTION

The design of the automatic street light system involved the soldering of the various

components/materials on the Vero board as designed in the circuits in chapter three. The

circuits are powered by 220/5V from the source stepped down to 12V by the transformer. This

12V is reduced to 5V by passing through a voltage regulator which is the desired output. The

full-wave rectifier converts the 12V AC to 12V pulsating DC, the LM7805 is used to regulate

this 5V output to the other circuits.

4.3 TESTING

Several conditions were tested to know how the circuit would respond and necessary

modifications to the design of the project.

i. Continuity test was carried on the circuit to ensure proper connection.

ii. The LDR was also tested to ensure proper functionality when operating in the dark and

when under a light.

4.4 RESULTS

After a successful build and design of this project work, the microcontroller has been able to

communicate with every other component interfaced to it. There are two modes of operation

which include the day mode and night mode. The desired result was gotten.

43
i. During Day mode, the LDR is the main component in this mode and when there is Day

light all the lights are switched off this is the desired result in this mode.

ii. During Night mode, the LDR initializes the circuit and the street lights come on

4.5 TROUBLESHOOTING

i. If all the lights do not work check 220V AC connection to the transformer to confirm if

a voltage is coming into the circuit.

ii. If the Arduino board does not get power on, check the power cable with a multimeter, or

check is there any soldering problem or not

iii. If the light does come ON during the Day time change the LDR.

4.6 CONCLUSION

Based on the testing and results attained, the device can successfully turn on when there is

motion or vehicles are sensed reducing power consumption throughout the period the street

light is on.

44
 CHAPTER FIVE

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

5.1 INTRODUCTION

The automatic street light system has been designed and constructed. This promises reduction

in power consumption from street lights.

5.2 BENEFITS

The benefits of this project are;

i. To provide a cost-effective and reliable system of lighting that does not

consume much power at night.

ii. To provide a solution to the high rate of energy from non-used lamps or

lights at night when vehicle traffic.

iii. To provide lots of benefit from its use in various areas of application, which

include; bus stop lighting home lighting and other areas where the light is to be

controlled.

5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS

This project has performed as desired according to the design objectives. Hereby the following

recommendations for improving this project for further studies on it.

i. For a larger load capacity, the number of pins on the microcontroller should be

increased

45
 ii. An uninterrupted power supply can be implemented in the system to enhance and

improve its efficiency when there is power shutdown due to faults or any form of

the shutdown so that users of the road can still see at night.

iii. In the automatic street light system, this project work could be improved by

incorporating a camera image processing system for security.

Due to the inconveniences encountered in the search of these project materials, it is

recommending that the institution should make available some of these vital components

like temperature sensors, ultrasonic sensors, ICs and lots more, to reduce the constraints of

travelling to distant places to get components.

5.4 CONCLUSION

A general view of the different types of street light control system has been presented. It is

observed that the benefits offered by the automatic street light system (which is mainly for

streets) can be implemented in several lighting operations or control.

The automatic street light system was designed, analysed and tested. Based on the test

results, the whole system performed according to the designed aim and objectives of the

project. The automatic street light system was able to turn the lights on and off when the

motion detector senses motion, remain dim to reduce power consumption when there is no

motion or vehicular traffic and can be of great use on high ways when at night traffic is low.

The system to work independently without human interference in switching the lamps on and

off at night

The ideology behind this project looked very unrealizable due to the encountered challenges
but results obtained proved otherwise.

46
The challenge of obtaining the right values of components to be used. The construction of the

power supply so that 5V can power the microcontroller. Placing of the LED’s on their holder

above the ground caused several tries so that they remain firm

47
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