DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF AN AUTOMATIC STREET LIGHT SYSTEM
BY
DEKE MARKUS
U14CM1011
SUPERVISOR
Engr. ELVIS OBI
A PROJECT PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ELCTRONICS
TELECOMMUNICATIONS ENGINEERING AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA.
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE AWARD OF BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
(B.ENG) DEGREE IN ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
ENGINEERING
JULY, 2019.
ABSTRACT
This project proposal presents a low cost design of street light system with the aim of energy
saving and automation operation with the use of embedded system, the design of the hardware
and also integrating it with the software to be able to control the ON/OFF function. This project
makes use of a light dependent resistor (LDR) and an infrared sensor (IR sensor) to serve as the
sensory unit of the circuit by feeding a microcontroller with some input data so as to be able to
control the functionality of the street light system.
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND
The conveniences of our daily lives depend on a constant ready supply of energy. Home power
consumption makes up the largest part of energy consumption in the world. In particular, the
power consumption of lamps in a typical street is also a factor which cannot be ignored. But,
these street lights are not properly controlled manually or by humans. These factors cause energy
or power waste. Therefore, some power management of light control in a street light is necessary
in order to save energy. In this project, i propose a design for street light employing sensors for
detection and a microcontroller for automatic control. This project shifts the control of street
lights from manually to automatic control by sensing the light falling on earth using Light
Dependent Resistor (LDR).
As lights used for street lights are classified into many types as incandescent light, mercury
vapour light, metal halide light, high pressure sodium light, low pressure sodium light,
fluorescent light, induction light, compact fluorescent light and LED light. In this zone of new
technology sources of light, light emitting diode (LED) light will be perfect solution as it offers
many benefits. LED light is mainly taken into consideration because it is very energy efficient
and it has good life span. Where LED’s have about 110° light emission angle, where
conventional lights have 360° and also need a reflector to make the light go the direction which
we need. So LED is best option (Khalid et al, 2018).
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1.2 PROJECT DEFINITION
The main motivation behind this project is the need for the reduction of the energy consumption
in the country where street lights are left on throughout the day without turning them of at the
rise of sun light or at dawn. Also, the need to also reduce the cost of energy that is being
consumed by street light and the use of physical operator at the main supply office to turn
ON/OFF the lighting system.
Accidents are occurring frequently in highly traffic areas .Drivers drive vigorously without
caring the traffic as well as to see the road properly at night when they are driving to assist them
and also, the pedestrians who use the road at night are prone to one form of accident or the other.
All these factors can be reduced by the help of it using automatic technology with the help of
embedded system and sensors. Human has become too busy, and is unable to find time even to
switch the lights wherever not necessary. The present system is like the lights will be switched
on in the evening before the sun sets and they are switched off the next day morning after there is
sufficient light on the outside. But the actual timing for these lights to be switched on are when
there is absolute darkness. Without this, the power will be wasted up to some extent. This project
gives the best solution for electrical power wastage. Also the manual operation of the lighting
system is completely eliminated
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of the project is to design and implement an automatic street light
control system using light dependent resistor and relay. The objectives are as follows:.
1. To design the hardware of the street light system.
2. To develop the software for the control unit.
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3. To integrate the hardware and software to the circuit.
4. To test the workability of the circuit.
1.4 SCOPE OF PROJECT
This project entails the design of the electronic circuit and the design and programming of the
microcontroller.
1.5 PROJECT OUTLINE
This project proposal is composed of four Chapters. Chapter one gives a brief introduction to the
project proposal as a whole, Chapter two contains the literature review of the project, Chapter
three contains the proposal methodology that was carried out to actualize the project and Chapter
four gives the proposal summary to the project.
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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
This Chapter contains two different sections which are the review of fundamental concept and
the review of previous works on the design of street light system.
2.2 REVIEW OF FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT
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 lot of energy. Over here we are avoiding the
problem by having an automatic system which turns ON & OFF the street lights at 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.
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2.2.1 Proposed System Block Diagram
The proposed block diagram for the system is shown in Figure 2.1.
Figure 2.1: Block Diagram of A Street Light System
2.2.1.1 Power Unit
The power unit is composed of various subsystems like the solar panel (power), charge controller
and battery cell. This unit is itemized as follows.
1. Solar Power/Energy
Conversion of sun energy known as sunlight into electrical energy known as electricity describes
solar power. This can be done either directly using photovoltaic (PV) or indirectly using
concentrated solar power. Solar panels are mounted along with the object so that at the time of
supplying energy, solar panels are used. In this project, we are using solar energy instead of
electrical power supply which is a good alternative. When rays of the sun fall on the solar panel,
it starts charging and the charge is stored and passed on to charge controller. The required
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amount of energy is supplied to battery and the rest is stored in charge controller itself. From
battery, energy is supplied to LED and thus it glows producing light
2.2.1.2 Control Unit
The control unit is the unit that entails the control functions of the street light system. The control
unit is connected to the power source and the control unit is composed of the microcontroller and
transistors.
1. Microcontroller Unit
A Microcontroller is a Microcomputer in a single Chip. That means that a microcontroller
chip includes a microprocessor (CPU) as well as some often used peripherals. A controller is
used to control some of the process of the system. The microcontroller is integrated alongside the
other peripherals and then coded using the C++ programming language so as to be able to carry
out the some commands of switching ON/OFF of the LEDs (Omit et al, 2018) . Figure 2.4 and
2.5 shows the structure of a microcontroller and its pin configuration respectively.
Figure 2.4: Diagram of A Microcontroller (microcontrollerlab.com)
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Figure 2.5: Structure of The Pin Configuration of a Microcontroller (microcontrollerlab.com)
2. Transistors
A transistor is semiconductor device which is used to amplify and control electronic signals with
electrical power. Transistors have three terminals so as to connect to our circuit. Transistor can
act as amplifier and as switch as well. In this project, the use of a transistors would be employed
which would be mounted near an LDR so that whenever we want the LED to light up, a signal
would be passed to the transistor and the switch will be in ON position which will allow LDR to
work and thus our circuit will be completed which will result in current flow and thus LED will
turn ON.
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2.2.1.3 Sensor Unit
Sensors are sophisticated devices that are frequently used to detect and respond to electrical or
optical signals. A sensor converts the physical parameters (for e.g. temperature, blood pressure,
humidity, speed, etc.) into a signal which can be measured electrically. The sensor unit is
composed of the light sensor and the IR sensor which are explained below.
1. Light Dependent Resistor
Light sensor is used to sense the amount of the ambient light so as to carry out a function of
sending a signal to the microcontroller signifying the presence of light or darkness. Because it is
cheap in price, easily available in market and can be easily interfaced with microcontroller to
sense intensity of light. The structure of an LDR is shown in Figure 2.6 below. An LDR has a
property to change its resistance according to intensity of light. If light is high, LDR will have
low resistance and if light is low, LDR will have high resistance. So microcontroller can easily
read this resistance in the form of voltage and which can be back converted into proportional
value of light.
Figure 2.6: Diagram of an LDR (embetronix.com)
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2. IR Sensor
An electronic sensor used for measuring the infrared light radiation emitted from object in its
field of view is called an IR sensor or pyro electric sensor. IR detects the infrared radiations
which are emitted by every object having temperature above absolute zero which are not visible
to human eye (Omit et al, 2018).
The IR sensor or infrared sensor is an electronic device that is used as a proximity sensor that
detects the presence of a nearby object and sends a message to the microcontroller to carry out a
specific function of turning ON the LEDs and if there is no object in sight, the LEDs remain in
the OFF-state. Figure 2.7a and 2.7b shows the structure and circuit diagram of an IR sensor
respectively.
Figure 2.7a: Diagram of an IR Sensor (electronicshub.org)
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Figure 2.7b: Circuit Diagram of an IR Sensor. (electronicshub.org)
2.3 REVIEW OF RELATED WORK
Dheeraj et al., (2015) also designed a street light system by developing a small silicon
area chip having a very high driving power. This chip can be used for high power LED dimming
in smart city lighting systems, providing stable current to drive a LED and to avoid EMI or
Electromagnetic Induction. However, the chip design is highly complicated and makes this
technique expensive.
Mihir et al., (2015) designed a project of smart power consumption solar system which
is a cost effective, eco-friendly and the safest way of utilization of solar energy. It clearly tackles
the two problems that the world is facing today, saving of energy & global warming, very
efficiently. According to statistical data we can save more that 70 % of electrical energy that is
now consumed by the street light. Initial cost and maintenance were the draw backs that this
project encountered during implementation.
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Ruchitha et al., (2016) method of independent power network was designed for use in
remote areas, where the classic systems are expensive. This method used LDR and PIR sensors
to facilitate automatic operation of street light. It also used Zigbee to avoid wastage of energy.
This enables the street light to function at two working conditions, i.e. ON and OFF, thus making
it less power efficient. The limitation of this work that the aim of the work which was to develop
an energy efficient system was not met and as such it was a limiting factor to the objective of the
project.
Neelakshi et al., (2016) designed a system called sun-seeker or tracker that enabled
hardware implementation of auto light intensity and auto switching system for Smart Street
lighting system. This method uses solar energy efficiently but due to the constant movement of
sensing system the stability analysis is very difficult to ascertain and also the calibration of the
system to keep track of sunlight reduced the performance of these work.
Vismita et al., (2017) designed a street lighting monitoring system which reports the
details of the energy consumed which are displayed periodically. This would alert the population
about the increase in the consumption of electricity. However, the volume of data that needs to
be handled is quite large and is not in a standardized manner which makes its implementation
difficult.
Khalid et al., (2018) designed a street light system to reduce the power consumption of
street lights by avoiding inefficient lighting which wastes significant financial resources each
year. This is done by dimming the lights during less traffic hours. For this purpose PIR sensor
which detects any movement. His work also aimed at reducing the fatal crashes and road
accidents caused due to alcohol consumption. This was done using skin sensors placed in vehicle
doors and also using breadth sensors inside the vehicle. By implementing this death rates due to
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drunk driving can be reduced to a great extent. The limitations to his work were the fact that the
entire system was complex as well as the calibration for the alcohol sensor which was not
effective to actually discern the drunken state of an individual and it was not cost effective. Also,
the implementation of such systems has to work with mainly automated cars which cannot be
adopted for every type of vehicle.
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CHAPTER THREE
MATERIALS AND METHODS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter entails the materials and the methods that would be used to actualize the design and
construction of the street light system.
3.2 MATERIALS
1. PIC16F877A Microcontroller
2. IR sensor
3. Light sensor (LDR)
4. LED
5. Charge controller
6. Transistor
7. Battery
8. Solar panel
3.3 METHODS
The methodology that would be used to implement this project is itemized as follows:
1. The control unit will be designed according to the specifications.
2. The designed control circuit will be simulated using PROTEUS 8 and its
characteristics will be observed.
3.
The finalized design of control circuit will be fabricated after choosing appropriate
components.
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4. The design of the power unit is done after the simulation has been conducted using
the PROTEUS 8 software to simulate the proposed circuit for the system.
5. The sensory unit and display unit is also implemented by connecting them to the right
ports of the microcontroller.
6. The microcontroller is also programmed using the C++ programming language so as
to perform the system required specification.
The complete schematics block diagram and circuit diagrams is shown in Figure 3.1 and 3.2
Figure 3.1: Complete Schematic Block Diagram of Proposed System
SUN RAYS
SOLAR PANEL
LDR
IR Sensor
LED
Microcontroller
CHARGE
CONTROLLER
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Figure 3.2: Proposed Circuit Diagram of Street Light System.
The flow chart of the program for the microcontroller is shown in Figure 3.4.
Microcontroller
Figure 3.4: Flow Chart for the Microcontroller Program
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CHAPTER FOUR
PROPOSAL SUMMARY
The principle of operation of the proposed system was explained in Chapter two and three. Basic
techniques that would be employed in the construction were also enumerated. The aim and
objectives of the project which is to be able to develop the hardware part of the system and also
integrate it with the software part of the design would also be carried out.
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REFERENCE
Dheeraj et al. (2015). A SENSOR-LESS AND ENERGY EFFICIENT STREET LIGHT
CONTROL SYSTEM. International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,
Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering.
Mihir, et al. (2015). Smart Power Consumption Street Light That Glows On Detecting Vehicle
Moment Utilizing The Solar Power –An Energy Saving Approach. IOSR Journal of
Electronics and Communication Engineering (IOSR-JECE).
Nagnath, et al. (2016). Street Light Energy Conservation System using PIR Sensor. GRD
Journals- Global Research and Development Journal for Engineering, Volume 1, Issue 5.
Neelakshi, et al. (2016). DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATIC ADJUSTMENT
OF STREET LIGHT INTENSITY. International Journal of Advanced Research in
Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering.
Ruchitha, et al. (2016). Design and Development of Automatic Adjustment of Street Light
Intensity. International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and
Instrumentation Engineering.
Vismita, et al. (2017). Intelligent Automatic Street Light Control System. IJSRD.
Khalid,et al. (2018). Automatic Street Light Intensity Control and Road Safety Module Using
Embedded System. IJIRT volume 4.
Komal. ( 2018). Automatic Street Light Control System. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
ADVANCE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING TRENDS.
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Omit, et al. (2018). A Project on "Vehicle Motion Based Auto Street Light and Speed Detector
with Alarm System..
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