CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Introduction of Street Light Control System

Nowadays, street lighting is essential for all areas whether urban or rural since
people know that street light is an alternative during the day night in order to keep the
safety of the road users. Street lights management control is quite simple yet as the
urbanization, the number of streets increased rapidly. Computer control and
information system technology is applied widely in most of the process industry,
because it may produce significant technical and economic benefits. Process control
information systems assist operating personnel in producing the required output of
products with minimum quality variations, least consumption of the raw material and
energy and maximum efficiency. Centralization process control combined with
increased mechanization has resulted in improved productivity. Now a day’s
advanced control systems like PLCs are extensively used in the industries. Different
control techniques have been proposed for street lighting controller during seasonal
variation. It is common to use relays to make simple logical control decisions. The
relays allow power to be switched on and off without a mechanical switch. The
development of low cost computer has brought the most recent revolution, the PLC.
With the advent of the PLC, it has become the most common choice for
manufacturing controls. A PLC is a digital operating electronic apparatus which uses
a programmable memory for internal storage of instruction for implementing specific
function such as logic, sequencing, timing, counting and arithmetic to control through
analog or digital input/output modules various types of machines or process. There
are different types of PLC’S used for various applications. Street lighting provides an
important function; keeping pedestrians and drivers safe. The main consideration in
the present field technologies are automation, power consumption and cost
effectiveness. Automation is intended to reduce man power with the help of
intelligent systems. Power saving is the main consideration forever as the source of
the power are getting diminished due to various reasons. The main aim of the research
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is automatic street power saving system with Light Dependent Resistor (LDR); this is
to save the power. The system want to save power automatically instead of doing
manual. So it’s easy to make cost effectiveness. This saved power can be used in
some other cases. So in villages, towns etc. the system can be designed intelligent
systems for the usage of street lights. The main consideration in the present field
technologies are automation, power consumption and cost effectiveness. Automation
is intended to reduce man power with the help of intelligent systems. Power saving is
the main consideration forever as the source of the power are getting diminished due
to various reasons. The main aim of the project is automatic street power saving
system with LDR; this is to save the power. The system want to save power
automatically instead of doing manual. So it’s easy to make cost effectiveness. This
saved power can be used in some other cases. In order to reduce the amount of
electricity used, several techniques have been developed. Street lights are large
consumers of energy because of high hours-of-use. In the current scenario, the street
lights are such that as the intensity of sunlight falling on a sensor on the street light
crosses a threshold level, the light automatically turns on or off. This research aims to
automate the street lights by using embedded systems. The system application in
street light control for each lamp will reduce in street light electricity and maintenance
cost, and increase availability of street light. The existing street lighting control
system used timer and photocell. Meanwhile, photocell reacts based on the presence
of light or electromagnetic energy. In a rainy day or when the light intensity is low,
the photocell will energize the contact and automatically turn on the street lights. This
system is quite inefficient since the condition of day and night is uncertain. At
present, street lighting control at most of the places is only by manual control, a
control switch set in each of the street lights, it is the so-called first generation of the
original street light control, which is inefficient and a waste of manpower, and
cumbersome to operate street light opening and closing time. Or using optical-control
method, set up optical control circuit, changes the resistance by using of light-
sensitive device to control street lights. Which light up automatically in the evening
after dark, turn off automatically after dawn in the morning, but the low reliability of
the method, vulnerable to interference, night street lighting is too bright and is a waste
of energy and other issues [08Cap].
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A well- designed street light system should permit vehicles and pedestrians to
travel at night with good visibility, in safety and comfort while reducing many
malfunctions that occur during night and enhance the appearance of the
neighborhood. Conversely, poorly designed lighting systems can lead to poor
visibility which may not be helpful for any pedestrian or vehicle passing by that
street. 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. In the most of the time, street lights are ON even after sunrise thus
wasting lot of energy. Each controller has a LDR which is used to detect the ambient
light. The PIR sensor which is used to detect the movement on the road. If the
ambient light is below, a specific value the lights are turned ON. Now a day’s
advanced control systems like PLC are extensively used in the industries. Different
control techniques have been proposed for street lighting controller during seasonal
variation. It is common to use relays to make simple logical control decisions. The
relays allow power to be switched ON and OFF without a manual switch. With the
advent of the PLC, it has become the most common choice for manufacturing
controls. A PLC is a digital operating electronic apparatus which uses a
programmable memory for internal storage of instruction for implementing specific
function such as logic, sequencing, timing, counting and arithmetic to control through
analog or digital input and output modules various types of machines or process.
There are different types of PLC’s used for various applications. In the present
work, an FX2N- 20MT Mitsubishi PLC is used to control the street lighting system.
This system can effectively work in areas where electricity is used in huge amount
especially, during night time in corridors of hostels, hospitals etc. The proposed PLC
based system will remain OFF when there is no presence of human being and will
activate upon the presence of human being in highlighted area. This presence will be
sensed by sensor at input side. One of the biggest utility concerns is the fact that by
sensing the presence of person whenever enters in the area of corridor of premises, the
light will remain in ON state, otherwise it will remains OFF. The switching action of
light will take place by using relay. This entire process is controlled by programmable
controller. Since, this system works in real time application, the power will be utilized
efficiently [97Lia].
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This system is an ideal application for campus and village street lighting.
Principal areas of usage include industrial lighting, street lighting, hostel lighting,
commercial lighting, the automatic room light control. This project is developed to
control the street light automatically. The main modules in this project are PIR sensor,
LDR sensor and PLC .The PLC programs are written in ladder diagram. This will be
very useful in industries. In future, this can be implemented with artificial
intelligence. Overall block diagram of automatic street light control system using PLC
is shown in Figure 1.1.

PIR SENSOR 1 LDR STREET LIGHT 1

RELAY

PIR SENSOR 2 STREET LIGHT 2

PLC

PIR SENSOR 3
STREET LIGHT 3

Figure 1.1. Block Diagram of Automatic Street Light Control System

The overall block diagram of automatic street light control system has
been designed in Figure 1.1. In this system, 220VAC is supplied to the PLC as the
AC main power. 24VDC from the PLC is supplied to the PIR sensors and LDR
sensor are applied to the input sides of the PLC. Each 24VDC relays is used as a
switch and 220VAC is supplied to the lamps.

1.1.1. System Architecture of Street Light Control System

Technical devices and methods that are offered by technical progress will be
necessary obviously for the realization of adaptive lighting. The tender documentation
states the goals of the E-street Project and the ways of their implementation. It
describes the system structure and the technical requirements towards its subsystems:
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roadside equipment, power system, local control system, central supervisory system
and communication network. The content and project requirements for the
implementation of adaptive street lighting - project management, quality assurance
and installation requirements are given [05Far].
1.2. Aim and Objectives of Thesis
The aim of this thesis is to design street lights monitoring and control system
with the centralized sever.
 To know the design procedure of automatic street light control system using
PLC
 To study different electrical parts and elements
 To reduce the energy consumption
 To study about PLC
 To study PLC program ladder language
 To dissect about the PIR sensors and LDR
 To control the street lighting system ON/OFF without manual operation
 To prevent loss of current unnecessarily during day time
 To design for the perfect usage of street light in any place

1.3. Implementation Plan

There are various types of sensors such as proximity sensors, inductive
sensors, capacitive sensors and many other sensors. But PIR motion sensor and LDR
sensor are used in this thesis because these have many advantages. PIR sensor is used
for motion detection. Sensitivity range of PIR motion sensor is better than the other
motion sensors. So, PIR motion sensor is used in this thesis. LDR sensor is used for
light detection. Mitsubishi PLC is chosen for this thesis. Ladder language is written
by GX Developer software. These Mitsubishi PLC is cheaper than the other PLC
type. This thesis construct the PLC interface circuit for PIR motion sensor and LDR
sensor and make relay control circuit for light ON and OFF.

1.4. Scope of Thesis

This automatic street light control system is using FX2N-20MT Mitsubishi
PLC, LDR sensor and PIR sensors to switch on and off the street light. The
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program is designed as per the requirements to fulfil the aim of project. The
research is to find out the most suitable application for street light control system.
The research includes simulation of the program using GX Developer PLC
software and the performance of the proposed system is evaluated and compares
the results with the associated properties.
1.5. Outline of Thesis
This dissertation is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the
overview of the proposed analysis. Chapter 2 is about literature reviews on the
development of Automatic Street Light Control System. The components and
device of the Street Light is described in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, the selected
method and algorithm for the GX Developer simulation of the Street Light are
implemented and the test and results of the research. In Chapter 5, the discussions,
conclusion and further recommendation is described.

1.6. Summary
This chapter describes street light control introduction. In this chapter, aim and
objectives of the thesis, scope of thesis, implementation plan, thesis organization and
summary has been presented.