International Journal of Reconfigurable and Embedded Systems (IJRES)

Vol. 14, No. 1, March 2025, pp. 48~59

ISSN: 2089-4864, DOI: 10.11591/ijres.v14.i1.pp48-59  48

Design and implementation of smart traffic light controller with

emergency vehicle detection on FPGA

Nor Shahanim Mohamad Hadis, Samihah Abdullah, Muhammad Ameerul Syafiqie Abdul Sukor, Irni
Hamiza Hamzah, Samsul Setumin, Mohamad Nizam Ibrahim, Azwati Azmin
Electrical Engineering Studies, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Pulau Pinang, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

Article Info ABSTRACT

Article history: Increased traffic volumes resulting from urbanization, industrialization, and
population growth have given rise to complex issues, including congestion,
Received Apr 5, 2024 accidents, and traffic violations at intersections. In the absence of a
Revised Aug 14, 2024 functional smart traffic light system, traffic congestion occurs due to
Accepted Aug 30, 2024 imbalanced traffic flow at intersections. Current traffic management lacks
provisions for ensuring the unobstructed movement of emergency vehicles,
even a small delay for which can have significant consequences. This paper
Keywords: presents a smart traffic light controller developed using Verilog hardware
description language (HDL) in Quartus Prime 21.1 and Questa Intel field
Altera DE2-115 programmable gate array (FPGA) Starter Edition 2021.2, and implemented
Emergency vehicle detection on an Altera DE2-115 FPGA. The controller is designed specifically to
Field programmable gate array detect emergency vehicle at four-way intersections for inputs radio
Hardware description language frequency identification (RFID) readers and infrared (IR) sensors. The RFID
Traffic light controller readers and IR sensors are managed through slide switches on the FPGA
Verilog board. The smart traffic light controller contains three sub-modules: clock
division, counter, and finite state machine (FSM) operation, enabling it to
manage traffic in scenarios with emergency vehicles, high traffic density,
and low traffic density. This proposed system can alleviate intersection
congestion by controlling access and allocating time effectively. In
conclusion, the project ensures the smooth passage of emergency vehicles by
continuously monitoring their presence and giving them priority in traffic
flow.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license.

Corresponding Author:
Samihah Abdullah
Electrical Engineering Studies, College of Engineering
Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Pulau Pinang
Permatang Pauh Campus, 13500 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Email: [email protected]

1. INTRODUCTION
Traffic has increased dramatically because of urbanisation, industrialisation and population
development. According to Malaysia Transportation Statistics 2022, total number of land transportation in
Malaysia for year 2022 is recorded as 35,092,737 [1]. In Malaysia, land transportation includes motorcycles,
cars, buses, taxis, lorries and other vehicles including emergency vehicles [1]. Traffic lights play a crucial
role in traffic control. Traffic lights are signaling devices that are positioned at intersections and used to
manage the flow of traffic on the road [2], [3]. The vast majority of traffic lights worldwide run on a
predefined timed circuit [2]. Vehicles on the red light side must occasionally wait for the green light even
there is little or no traffic. It leads in a waste of valuable time. Ambulances, fire trucks and police patrols
among others cannot afford to lose time waiting at traffic lights. With the increase in traffic comes the

Journal homepage: http://ijres.iaescore.com

Int J Reconfigurable & Embedded Syst ISSN: 2089-4864  49

emergence of a slew difficulties such as traffic congestions, accidents and violations of traffic rules at busy
intersections. Congestion is a major issue in many places throughout the world today. Traffic congestion is a
major element in the delay in the utilisation of emergency vehicles [4], [5]. This type of traffic congestion
was most common near traffic light intersections [4], [5]. Congestion develops when there is no functioning
smart traffic light controller system. The problem arises as a result of an imbalance in traffic circulation at the
crossings resulting in substantial congestion in the affected directions [6]. The existing traffic management
method does not include a provision for guaranteeing the smooth passage of emergency vehicles [7].
These emergency vehicles require a system that will allow them to cross the traffic lights safely and
without delay [8]. Badiruzaman et al. [8] published a research article that reviews the performance of
emergency response teams (ERT) in Malaysia. Existing emergency vehicle priorities system in Malaysia
unable to alleviate traffic congestion issues [8], [9]. The article put forward a recommendation to enhance the
emergency response system, with the goal of aiding emergency providers in meeting international standards
for emergency response times [8]. The issue of emergency vehicles being obstructed may be avoided by
establishing a traffic light system that has the capability of detecting emergency vehicles and controlling the
traffic light conditions. There are a lots of research on the traffic light controller investigated for multiple
junctions traffic light such as three-junctions (T-junction) [10]–[12] and four-junctions [13]–[19].
In 2021, Shamsuddin et al. [20] published a research paper about traffic light controller (TLC) using
DE-10 Nano integrated with ESP 8266 Wi-Fi module for internet of things (IoT) implementation. The
controller detects emergency vehicle using audio and video, while emergency vehicle driver can view the
intersection status using Blynk Apps to guide driver either save to pass through the intersection or not.
However, the details on how the audio and video detection for emergency vehicle is not clearly presented.
Han and Lin [21] has developed an intelligent traffic light controller (ITLC) using Verilog hardware
description language (Verilog HDL) that saves time by dispersing signal timing based on road width.
However, there is no provision to detect the presence of an ambulance to ensure smooth ambulance
transportation. Dilip et al. [22] developed an innovative traffic light controller based on field programmable
gate array (FPGA) that controls traffic lights based on traffic density. This paper, however, does not provide
an acceptable duration for the green signal depending on the density. A condition for two or more roads have
the same volume of traffic was not fully considered. Sabri et al. [6] has created a traffic light controller
system that utilises FPGA technology to control and allocate effective periods of time to various users with
the goal of reducing or eliminating difficulties at junctions. The system represents a slight advance over the
current basic fixed-time approach traffic light controller, it only converts to a flexible-time based traffic light.
Singh and Daniel [23] created an FPGA implementation of a 24-hour advanced traffic light controller system
based on road intersection congestion. However, the technology to detect traffic and allocate time for each
signal at traffic lights was not presented. The time zone is also based on assumptions.
Humayun et al. [24] introduced an emergency vehicle management solution (EVMS) that utilizes
IoT sensors, GPS, 5G, and cloud computing to determine an efficient vehicle-passing sequence, prioritizing
emergency vehicles at junctions to minimize delays while minimizing the impact on regular traffic.
Hosseinzadeh et al. [25] presents a traffic control scheme, with both centralized and decentralized
approaches. The research aimed at mitigating congestion in a network of interconnected lanes/roads,
prioritizing efficient routing for emergency vehicles, and through simulations, demonstrates significant
reductions in emergency vehicle travel times of up to 50% for the centralized scheme and up to 30% for the
decentralized scheme without causing congestion in other lanes. This paper introduces EMV light, a
decentralized reinforcement learning framework that simultaneously optimizes dynamic routing and traffic
signal control for emergency vehicles in real time, significantly reducing travel times for both emergency
vehicles and non-emergency vehicles while outperforming traditional transportation engineering techniques
and existing reinforcement learning-based signal control methods in experiments [26].
In this paper, a smart traffic light controller with emergency vehicle detection is designed using
Verilog HDL and implemented on Altera DE2-115 FPGA. FPGA is superior to microcontroller in terms of
input and output port count, improved performance, high speed, and design flexibility [22]. This designed
system detects a single emergency vehicle at a four-way traffic light intersection and controls the traffic light
conditions for smooth traffic flow. The design’s functionality was verified using QuestaSim’s timing
simulation diagram and an Altera DE2-115. The smart traffic light controller for emergency vehicle detection
will priorities the emergency vehicle going through the traffic light. If the emergency vehicle is given
precedence, the outcome will be drastically different. More lives can be saved, and people's safety can be
guaranteed. Next, the original role of a traffic lights is to ensure the smooth functioning of the road flow and
the safety of the road user. This project improves present operations while also ensuring the safety of road
users.

Design and implementation of smart traffic light controller with … (Nor Shahanim Mohamad Hadis)
50  ISSN: 2089-4864

2. METHOD
The proposed smart traffic light controller for emergency vehicle detection can identify the presence
of a single emergency vehicle as well as the traffic congestion on a four-way traffic light intersection.
Figure 1 depicts the layout of the four-way traffic light intersection installed with infrared (IR) and inputs
radio frequency identification (RFID) readers. The location of traffic lights, IR sensors, RFID readers as well
as the distance between them shown in the layout. Road intersection with four lanes is labelled as North,
East, South, and West. This project employs four traffic lights, four RFID readers and eight IR sensors. The
red square box represents the traffic light, the yellow square box represents the IR sensor, and the green
square box represents the RFID reader. RFID readers can identify the presence of an emergency vehicle
within a 100 meter radius, while the number of active IR sensors detects the traffic density. Once the RFID
reader detects the emergency vehicle’s unique RFID tag, the green light for the detected lane will be turned
on for at least 50 seconds to allow emergency vehicle to pass by. While for the IR sensor, the number of
activated sensors on each lane will determine the timing duration for the green light for that lane as tabulated
in Table 1.

Figure 1. Four-way traffic light intersection with sensors

Table 1. Green light timing duration based on the number of activated IR sensors
No. of activated IR sensors Timing duration for green light (second) Traffic density
0 0 Zero density
1 15 Low density
2 30 High density

The top level with internal architecture of smart traffic light controller for emergency vehicle
detection is shown in Figure 2. The top level represents the block diagram of the traffic light controller
system with RFID readers and IR sensors used as inputs while light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are used as
outputs. Each lane is equipped with one RFID reader, two IR sensors and three LEDs: green, yellow, and red.
Another important inputs included in the smart traffic light controller is clock input which used to
synchronised the controller operations and reset input which used to reset the operation to initial state. A
clock frequency of 50 MHz from the Altera DE2-115 FPGA is used in this design as a master clock input.
The 50 MHz master clock is reduced to 1 Hz by the clock division sub-module. The generated 1 Hz clock is
used by other sub-modules such as counter and finite state machine (FSM) operation. The 7-bit counter sub-

Int J Reconfigurable & Embedded Syst, Vol. 14, No. 1, March 2025: 48-59
Int J Reconfigurable & Embedded Syst ISSN: 2089-4864  51

module counts up at every rising edge of clock and provides the counted output value to the FSM operation
sub-module. The FSM operation sub-module also will incorporate the RFID and IR inputs. This project
exclusively utilizes RFID and IR technology concepts. In contrast, this prototype replaces RFID and IR
sensors with FPGA board slide switches. The FSM operation will conduct the operation and generate output
conditions based on the input received. The output created by the FSM operation will be sent to the FPGA
board's LEDs.

Figure 2. Top level with internal architecture of smart traffic light controller for emergency vehicle detection

Table 2 presents corresponding IR and RFID bits segmentation according to lane (North, East,
South, and West). Eight IR inputs represented by 8-bits binary input while four RFID inputs represented by
4-bits binary number. Each bit of a 4-bit RFID represents an individual emergency vehicle on its lane. RFID
bit 0 corresponds to the North Lane, RFID bit 1 corresponds to the East Lane, RFID bit 2 corresponds to the
South Lane, and RFID bit 3 corresponds to the West Lane. While each 2-bits of an 8-bits IR input were
assigned to each four-lane segment to describe the road's density, IR bits 0 and 1 correspond to North Lane,
IR bits 2 and 3 correspond to East Lane, IR bits 4 and 5 correspond to South Lane, and IR bits 6 and 7
correspond to West Lane.

Table 2. IR and RFID bits segmentation according to lane

Bits segmentation (by Lane)
Input signals
West Lane South Lane East Lane North Lane
8-bits IR IR [7] IR [6] IR [5] IR [4] IR [3] IR [2] IR [1] IR [0]
4-bits RFID RFID [3] RFID [2] RFID [1] RFID [0]

Figure 3 depicts the project's flowchart. This flowchart shows the project's operating flow, which
begins with detecting the RFID tag (emergency vehicle installed with RFID tag) at all lanes, beginning with
North, followed by East, South, and finally West. The presence of an emergency vehicle will be detected by
an RFID reader. If an RFID reader detected emergency vehicle at one lane, the traffic light for the detected
lane will turn green for 50 seconds and the other lanes will turn red for the same period. If no emergency
vehicle is present, the traffic light controller will control the traffic light condition based on the traffic density
(detected using IR sensors). Each lane has installed with two IR sensors. As indicated in Table 1, the number
of activated IR sensors on each lane indicate the traffic density and are used to determine the timing duration
of the green light for the lane. The duration of the green light on a high traffic density is 30 seconds, while on
a low traffic density it is 15 seconds. If the North traffic light lane has a high traffic density, the North traffic
light lane will turn green for 30 seconds and the other lanes will turn red for the same length of time. If the
North traffic light lane has a low traffic density, the North traffic light lane will turn green for 15 seconds and
the other lanes will turn red for the same length of time. Then, if the North lane is empty, the IR sensors will
examine the following lane. The checking order start from North, then East, then South, and finally West.
Upon completion of each action, the system will continuously loop back to the RFID reader detection,
indicating that it is continuously monitor the presence of emergency vehicle.

Design and implementation of smart traffic light controller with … (Nor Shahanim Mohamad Hadis)
52  ISSN: 2089-4864

Figure 3. Flowchart of smart traffic light controller for emergency vehicle detection

FSMs are sequential circuits used in a wide range of digital systems to manage system behavior and
data flow routes [27], [28]. The FSM employed in designing the FSM operation sub-module is responsible
for determining and storing the operation states. Figure 4 illustrates the FSM for the smart traffic light
controller. The operation starts in the check RFID state. If an emergency vehicle (EV) is detected
(RFID≠0000), the lane with the EV is turned green for at least 50 seconds. Once the 50 seconds have elapsed,
and if the EV is no longer detected, the light transitions to yellow for 5 seconds before returning to the check
RFID state. If no EV is detected (RFID=0000), the system moves to the check IR state. Here, traffic is
evaluated sequentially for the North (N), East (E), South (S), and West (W) lanes. Depending on traffic
density, the green light is activated for either 30 seconds (for low traffic density) or 15 seconds (for high
traffic density). After the designated green light duration, the lane turns yellow for 5 seconds before reverting
to the check RFID state. While a lane is green, the RFID status is continuously monitored. If an EV is
detected in any lane during this period, the current green lane will switch to yellow for 5 seconds and return
to the check RFID state. The system then immediately activates the green light for the lane with the detected
EV, ensuring that emergency vehicles always receive priority.

Figure 4. FSM of smart traffic light controller for emergency vehicle detection

Int J Reconfigurable & Embedded Syst, Vol. 14, No. 1, March 2025: 48-59
Int J Reconfigurable & Embedded Syst ISSN: 2089-4864  53

As depicted in Figure 5, the hardware of the smart traffic light controller for emergency vehicle
detection is implemented utilizing an Altera DE2-115 board. On a breadboard, four traffic lights modules are
attached to the FPGA board to simulate the traffic light controller at a four-way traffic light intersection,
namely North, East, West, and South. The function of the push button is to reset the operation. Switch 0 to
switch 7 on the board are used to represent eight IR sensor inputs, whereas switch 14 to switch 17 are used to
represent the four RFID inputs. One push button is used as reset input and all lights (leds) are connected via
40 pin GPIO expansion header.

Figure 5. Hardware implementation of smart traffic light controller for emergency vehicle detection

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1. Simulation result
The code for the smart traffic light controller, designed for detecting emergency vehicles, has been
synthesized using Quartus Prime 21.1. In Figure 6, you can see the RTL schematic diagram, which illustrates
the connections of inputs, outputs, and wires linking the clock division, counter, and FSM operation sub-
modules.

Figure 6. RTL schematics diagram of smart traffic light controller for emergency vehicle detection

The simulation was carried out using Questa Intel FPGA Starter Edition. Figures 7 to 10
demonstrate the simulation outcomes for various sensor activation circumstances. The activation time for the
yellow light is always 5 seconds, however the activation times for the green and red lights vary based on the
traffic density. The waveform when no RFID tag is detected and the IR sensors are active is depicted in
Figures 7 and 8.
Figure 7 demonstrates that high traffic density (IR=11 11 11 11) on all lanes without the presence of
an emergency vehicle. The North Lane turns green for 30 seconds while the other lanes turn red, and then the
North green turns yellow for 5 seconds while the other lanes remain red. The East Lane then goes green for
30 seconds, while the North Lane yellow turns red and the remaining lanes remain red. Then, East green
turns yellow for 5 seconds while the other lanes remain red. The sequence continues for South Lane, and

Design and implementation of smart traffic light controller with … (Nor Shahanim Mohamad Hadis)
54  ISSN: 2089-4864

lastly for West Lane. The waveform thereby confirming the green light permissible time for high traffic
density. The sequence of active green light for this traffic light is North > East > South > West, with turn for
a lane having no or zero traffic density will be skipped.

Figure 7. High traffic density on all lanes without an emergency vehicle

Figure 8 demonstrates that random traffic density (IR=01 01 00 11) on all lanes without the presence
of an emergency vehicle. IR=01010011, which indicates that the North Lane has a high traffic density, the
East Lane has no vehicle, and the West and South Lane have a low traffic density. The North Lane should
turns green for 30 seconds due to high traffic density while the other lanes turn red. Suddenly, at time 165
second, IR condition changes to 11010011 and obviously the condition of the lights will change based on the
new IR condition. The sequence of active green will still maintain where North Lane maintain green until
reach 30 seconds, and then the North Lane turns yellow for 5 seconds while the other lanes remain red. Next,
East Lane should take it turn, but there is no vehicle (zero density) detected on East Lane. Therefore, it will
proceed to the next lane, the South Lane. The South Lane then goes green for 15 seconds due to low traffic
density while the other lanes turn red. Then the South Lane turns yellow for 5 seconds red. At this time, the
condition of IR is still same, the North Lane take turn where the North Lane turns green. The North green
light should turn on for 30 seconds due to the high traffic density. However, at time 255 second, the RFID
status change to 0010 which indicate that there is an emergency vehicle at South Lane. The present of the
emergency vehicle automatically change the North Lane to yellow for 5 seconds although the green light not
completely turn on for 30 seconds. This shows that an emergency vehicle is always given priority.

Figure 8. Random traffic density on all lanes without an emergency vehicle

Int J Reconfigurable & Embedded Syst, Vol. 14, No. 1, March 2025: 48-59
Int J Reconfigurable & Embedded Syst ISSN: 2089-4864  55

The waveform when emergency vehicle is detected (RFID≠0000) is depicted in Figures 9 and 10.
The permissible time for the green light on a road with the presence of an emergency vehicle is 50 seconds.
Figure 9 demonstrates that high traffic density (IR=11 11 11 11) on all lanes with the presence of an
emergency vehicle at West Lane (RFID=1000). Before the detection of the emergency vehicle, the North
Lane is on green condition. After 20 seconds turn green, emergency vehicle detected on West Lane and West
Lane automatically turns yellow for 5 seconds. Then, West Lane becomes green for 50 seconds while the
other lanes turn red to allow emergency vehicle to pass by the junction. After that, if the emergency vehicle is
not detected anymore (indicate that the emergency vehicle successfully passed by the junction), the traffic
condition will follow normal traffic sequence (North > East > South > West). Then, North Lane take turns
which turn green for 30 seconds due the high traffic density and continue normal traffic light operations.
Figure 10 demonstrates a random traffic density (IR=11 01 00 11) on all lanes with the presence of
an emergency vehicle at East Lane (RFID=0010). The IR condition indicates that the West and North Lane
have a high traffic density, the East Lane has a zero traffic density, and the South Lane has low traffic
density. Before the detection of the emergency vehicle, the traffic light operates in a normal condition with
the green light timing is controlled by the traffic density. At time 269 seconds, an emergency vehicle detected
on East Lane which automatically interrupt the traffic light operation. North Lane which was just turn green
for 4 seconds at that time, automatically turn yellow for 5 seconds. Then, the East Lane turns green for
50 seconds (remaining lanes turn to red) to allow the emergency vehicle to pass the junction.

Figure 9. High traffic density on all lanes with an emergency vehicle

Figure 10. Random traffic density on all lanes with an emergency vehicle

Design and implementation of smart traffic light controller with … (Nor Shahanim Mohamad Hadis)
56  ISSN: 2089-4864

3.2. Hardware (FPGA) implementation result

Figures 11 and 12 show the traffic light conditions (prototyping using Altera DE2-115) of the smart
traffic light controller for different input conditions. Figures 11(a) to (d) demonstrate low traffic density on
all lanes (IR=01010101) without the presence of an emergency vehicle. The North Lane turns green for
15 seconds while the other lanes turn red as in Figure 11(a), and then the North Lane turns yellow for 5
seconds while the other lanes remain red as in Figure 11(b). The East Lane then goes green for 15 seconds,
while the North Lane turns red and the remaining lanes remain red as in Figure 11(c). Then, East Lane turns
yellow for 5 seconds while the other lanes remain red as in Figure 11(d). Next, the South Lane then goes
green for 15 seconds, while the East Lane turns red and the remaining lanes remain red.

NORTH NORTH
H H
EAST EAST
WEST WEST
SOUTH SOUTH

RFID [3]
RFID [2]
RFID [1]
RFID [0]
RFID [3]
RFID [2]
RFID [1]
RFID [0]

IR [7]
IR [6]
IR [5]
IR [4]
IR [3]
IR [2]
IR [1]
IR [0]

RESET
RESET
IR [7]
IR [6]
IR [5]
IR [4]
IR [3]
IR [2]
IR [1]
IR [0]

(a) (b)

NORTH NORTH
H H
EAST EAST
WEST WEST

SOUTH SOUTH
RFID [1]
RFID [3]
RFID [2]

RFID [0]

RFID [3]
RFID [2]
RFID [1]
RFID [0]
RESET
IR [7]
IR [6]
IR [5]
IR [4]
IR [3]
IR [2]
IR [1]
IR [0]

IR [7]
IR [6]
IR [5]
IR [4]
IR [3]
IR [2]
IR [1]
IR [0]

RESET

(c) (d)

Figure 11. Traffic light condition of prototype for IR=01010101 and RFID=0000; (a) North Lane green,
others lane red, (b) North Lane yellow, others lane red, (c) East Lane green, others lane red, and (d) East
Lane yellow, others lane red

Figure 12 demonstrates the condition for low traffic density (IR=01 00 00 00) with the presence of
an emergency vehicle at East Lane (RFID=0010). As a result, the current lane, which is the South Lane,
completes its green light counting and becomes yellow for 5 seconds, as seen in Figure 12(a). The South
Lane is subsequently followed by the West Lane, however there is an emergency vehicle in the East Lane,
thus the East Lane turns green for 50 seconds while the other lanes turn red as in Figure 12(b), and then the
East green turns yellow for 5 seconds while the other lanes remain red as in Figure 12(c). Figures 12(a)-(d)
demonstrate that now the North, East, and South Lanes are now devoid of any vehicles, whereas only the
West Lane has vehicles present, as the IR is now 01000000. There is no RFID detection as in
Figures 12(c) and (d) because the emergency vehicle has passed, so that after the East Lane turns yellow, the
West Lane will turn green.

Int J Reconfigurable & Embedded Syst, Vol. 14, No. 1, March 2025: 48-59
Int J Reconfigurable & Embedded Syst ISSN: 2089-4864  57

NORTH NORTH
H H
EAST EAST
WEST WEST
SOUTH SOUTH
RFID [3]
RFID [2]
RFID [1]
RFID [0]

RFID [3]
RFID [2]
RFID [1]
RFID [0]
IR [7]
IR [6]
IR [5]
IR [4]
IR [3]
IR [2]
IR [1]
IR [0]

IR [7]
IR [6]
IR [5]
IR [4]
IR [3]
IR [2]
IR [1]
IR [0]

RESET
RESET

(a) (b)

NORTH NORTH
EAST EAST
WEST WEST
SOUTH SOUTH

RFID [0]
RFID [3]
RFID [2]
RFID [1]
RFID [3]
RFID [2]
RFID [1]
RFID [0]

IR [7]
IR [6]
IR [5]
IR [4]
IR [3]
IR [2]
IR [1]
IR [0]

RESET
IR [7]
IR [6]
IR [5]
IR [4]
IR [3]
IR [2]
IR [1]
IR [0]

RESET

(c) (d)

Figure 12. Traffic light condition of prototype for IR=01000000; (a) RFID=0010-South Lane yellow, others
lane red, (b) RFID=0010-East Lane green, others lane red, (c) RFID=0000-East Lane yellow, others lane red,
and (d) RFID=0000-West Lane green, others lane red

4. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the Verilog HDL-designed and FPGA-implemented smart traffic light controller for
emergency vehicle detection's objective of identifying the presence of emergency vehicles and traffic
congestion at certain intersections has been met. The project guarantees that emergency vehicles pass
smoothly by constantly checking for the presence of an emergency vehicle and prioritising the road with the
emergency vehicle. The design’s functionality was analyzed with the Questa timing simulation diagram and
the Altera DE2-115 board and functioning as intended. For future work, it is suggested to incorporate true
RFID and IR sensors as opposed to using them as switches. Therefore, we can confirm that RFID and IR
technology can be implemented on FPGA. It is then suggested that more IR sensors be added to improve the
effectiveness of monitoring the traffic density. Another improvement is to make it possible to simultaneously
detect the presence of many emergency vehicles.

REFERENCES
[1] Ministry of Transport Malaysia, “Malaysia Transportation Statistics 2022,” 2022. [Online]. Available:
https://www.mot.gov.my/en/Statistik Tahunan Pengangkutan/Transport Statistics Malaysia 2022.pdf.
[2] H. Singh, K. Kumar, and H. Kaur, “Intelligent traffic lights based on RFID,” International Journal of Computing and Business
Research, vol. 2012, pp. 1–10, 2012.
[3] L. Mei, L. Zhang, and L. Wang, “Intelligent traffic light based on PLC control,” IOP Conference Series: Earth and
Environmental Science, vol. 94, no. 1, p. 012073, Nov. 2017, doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/94/1/012073.
[4] S. Amir, M. S. Kamal, S. S. Khan, and K. M. A. Salam, “PLC based traffic control system with emergency vehicle detection and
management,” in 2017 International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Instrumentation and Control Technologies (ICICICT),
Jul. 2017 , pp. 1467–1472, doi: 10.1109/ICICICT1.2017.8342786.
[5] I. Tomar, I. Sreedevi, and N. Pandey, “State-of-art review of traffic light synchronization for intelligent vehicles: current status,
challenges, and emerging trends,” Electronics, vol. 11, no. 3, p. 465, Feb. 2022, doi: 10.3390/electronics11030465.
Design and implementation of smart traffic light controller with … (Nor Shahanim Mohamad Hadis)
58  ISSN: 2089-4864

[6] M. F. M. Sabri, M. H. Husin, W. A. W. Z. Abidin, K. M. Tay, and H. M. Basri, “Design of FPGA-based traffic light controller
system,” in 2011 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Automation Engineering, Jun. 2011, vol. 4, pp. 114–
118, doi: 10.1109/CSAE.2011.5952814.
[7] S. Kaur, V. Varshitha, J. Siddharth, V. S. Tejus, and H. P. Kumar, “Adaptive traffic light controller using FPGA,” in 2018 3rd
IEEE International Conference on Recent Trends in Electronics, Information and Communication Technology, RTEICT 2018 -
Proceedings, 2018, pp. 1612–1617, doi: 10.1109/RTEICT42901.2018.9012263.
[8] A. Badiruzaman, R. Mohamad, and N. KokMun, “Emergency vehicle response time and priorities system in Malaysia: a review,”
Journal of Electrical & Electronic Systems Research, vol. 21, pp. 45–53, 2022, doi: 10.24191/jeesr.v21i1.007.
[9] M. Eom and B. I. Kim, “The traffic signal control problem for intersections: a review,” European Transport Research Review,
vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1–20, 2020, doi: 10.1186/s12544-020-00440-8.
[10] A. Devipriya, H. Girish, V. Srinivas, N. A. Reddy, and D. Rajkiran, “RTL design and logic synthesis of traffic light controller for
45nm technology,” in 2022 3rd International Conference for Emerging Technology, INCET 2022, 2022, pp. 1–5, doi:
10.1109/INCET54531.2022.9824833.
[11] N. F. Hamizan, C. Uttraphan, and L. E. Kan, “Smart traffic light controller for UTHM main entrance,” Evolution in Electrical and
Electronic Engineering, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 318–329, 2021.
[12] B. B. Manjula, S. Manasa, S. Gowtham, D. Pushkar, A. Ghosh, and S. K. Sanjay, “Design and implementation of Verilog traffic
light switching system for t-intersection on FPGA,” in International Conference on Recent Advances in Science and Engineering
Technology, ICRASET 2023, 2023, pp. 1–4, doi: 10.1109/ICRASET59632.2023.10420158.
[13] A. Banerjee, “Intelligent traffic light controller using Verilog and Xilinx Spartan-3e,” arXiv, 2024, doi:
10.48550/arXiv.2401.13345.
[14] M. Ali, M. A. F. Hossain, M. I. Sukanya, and R. Chakraborty, “Real-time density-based dynamic traffic light controller using
FPGA,” in Proceedings of 2021 IEEE International Women in Engineering (WIE) Conference on Electrical and Computer
Engineering, WIECON-ECE 2021, 2021, pp. 25–28, doi: 10.1109/WIECON-ECE54711.2021.9829691.
[15] P. K. Das, “Implementation of traffic light controlling system for a simple intersection with VHDL using Quartus II,”
International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology, vol. 1, pp. 111–117, 2023, doi: 10.32628/ijsrst5231046.
[16] A. N. Kabir and K. M. A. Salam, “Implementation of an intelligent traffic control system: the use of FPGA and Verilog HDL,”
Journal of Modern Science and Technology, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 154–162, 2016.
[17] J. X. Tang and C. U. E. Kan, “Smart traffic light controller with flexible light period,” Evolution in Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 359–368, 2023.
[18] G. Z. Wei and S. H. Ruslan, “Design of VLSI based power-saving streetlight system and automatic traffic controller with
automatic transfer switch,” Journal of Electronic Voltage and Application, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 45–53, 2022, doi:
10.30880/ijie.2022.03.01.004.
[19] M. P. Jothi, M. Srivatsan, P. K. Kumar, P. Prakash, and P. Kasthuri, “Fully automated traffic light controller system for a four-
way intersection using Verilog,” in 2022 IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Computing and Communication
Technologies, CONECCT 2022, 2022, pp. 1–5, doi: 10.1109/CONECCT55679.2022.9865755.
[20] N. A. Shamsuddin, S. L. M. Hassan, I. S. A. Halim, and A. Saparon, “FPGA-based emergency traffic light controller system with
IoT application,” ELEKTRIKA-Journal of Electrical Engineering, vol. 20, no. 2–2, pp. 103–107, 2021.
[21] T. Han and C. Lin, “Design of an intelligence traffic light controller (ITLC) with VHDL,” in IEEE Region 10 Annual
International Conference, Proceedings/TENCON, 2002, vol. 3, pp. 1749–1752, doi: 10.1109/tencon.2002.1182673.
[22] B. Dilip, Y. Alekhya, and P. D. Bharathi, “FPGA implementation of an advanced traffic light controller using Verilog HDL,”
International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering & Technology, vol. 1, no. 7, pp. 1–6, 2012.
[23] P. K. Singh and P. Daniel, “Advanced real traffic light controller system design using Cortex-M0 ip on FPGA,” in Proceedings of
2014 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Communication, Control and Computing Technologies, ICACCCT 2014, 2015,
pp. 1023–1026, doi: 10.1109/ICACCCT.2014.7019251.
[24] M. Humayun, M. F. Almufareh, and N. Z. Jhanjhi, “Autonomous traffic system for emergency vehicles,” Electronics
(Switzerland), vol. 11, no. 4, p. 510, 2022, doi: 10.3390/electronics11040510.
[25] M. Hosseinzadeh, B. Sinopoli, I. Kolmanovsky, and S. Baruah, “MPC-based emergency vehicle-centered multi-intersection
traffic control,” IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 166–178, 2023, doi:
10.1109/TCST.2022.3168610.
[26] H. Su, Y. D. Zhong, B. Dey, and A. Chakraborty, “EMVLight: a decentralized reinforcement learning framework for efficient
passage of emergency vehicles,” in Proceedings of the 36th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AAAI 2022, 2022, vol. 36,
no. 4, pp. 4593–4601, doi: 10.1609/aaai.v36i4.20383.
[27] G. De Micheli, “Synthesis and optimization of digital circuits,” Choice Reviews Online, vol. 32, no. 02, pp. 32-0950-32–0950,
1994, doi: 10.5860/choice.32-0950.
[28] S. Baranov, Logic Synthesis for Control Automata, Springer Science and Business Media, 1994, doi: 10.1007/978-1-4615-2692-6.

BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS

Nor Shahanim Mohamad Hadis obtained her diploma in electrical (electronics)

engineering from Universiti Teknologi MARA in 2002, bachelor (Hons) in electrical
engineering from Universiti Teknologi MARA in 2005, M.Sc. in microelectronics from
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 2006 and Ph.D. in nano-material and device fabrication
from University Sains Malaysia in 2018. Her main interests are microelectronics device
fabrication and characterization, bio-sensor, internet of things, and embedded system. She can
be contacted at email: [email protected].

Int J Reconfigurable & Embedded Syst, Vol. 14, No. 1, March 2025: 48-59
Int J Reconfigurable & Embedded Syst ISSN: 2089-4864  59

Samihah Abdullah received her degree in B.Sc. of electrical and electronics

engineering (Hons) at Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia (UNITEN) in 2002 and M.Sc. of
Electronics System Design Engineering (ESDE) at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in 2008.
She completed her Ph.D. in RFID from University Sains Malaysia (USM) in 2018. She is
currently working as a senior lecturer at the Electrical Engineering Studies, College of
Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Cawangan Pulau Pinang. Her research
interest is in the areas of RFID, antenna design, and wireless system. She can be contacted at
email: [email protected].

Muhammad Ameerul Syafiqie Abdul Sukor graduated with a diploma in

electrical (electronics) engineering from Universiti Teknologi MARA in 2019 and a bachelor
of engineering (Hons) in electrical and electronic engineering from the same university in
2022. He is currently employed by Intel Product (M) Sdn. Bhd. as a system validation engineer
graduate trainee. His current role involves validating Intel FPGA products, and he is eager to
learn everything he can about FPGAs. He can be contacted at email: [email protected].

Irni Hamiza Hamzah obtained her B.Eng. (Hons) in electrical and electronic
engineering in 1998, M.Sc. electronics system and design engineering in 2005 and Ph.D. in
BioMEMs sensors in 2013, which all had been obtained from School of of Electrical and
Electronic Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia. She is currently a senior lecturer
in Electronic Engineering Department, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi
MARA, Penang Branch Campus, Malaysia. Her research interests include biosensors,
BioMEMs, neural networks, and renewable energy. She is a registered Board of Engineers
Malaysia (BEM) Professional Engineer. She can be contacted at email:
[email protected].

Samsul Setumin received a B.Eng. degree (Hons.) in electronic engineering from

the University of Surrey, in 2006, and an M.Eng. degree in electrical-electronic and
telecommunication from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, in 2009. He obtained his Ph.D.
degree from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2019 in the imaging field. Since 2010, he has been a
Lecturer with the Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. He was a Test Engineer with Agilent
Technologies (M) Sdn. Bhd., and the Industrial Attachment staff at Intel Microelectronics (M)
Sdn. Bhd., for one year. His research interests include computer vision, image processing,
pattern recognition, and embedded system design. He can be contacted at email:
[email protected].

Mohammad Nizam Ibrahim obtained his B.Eng. (Hons) in electronic

engineering from University of Portsmouth, UK in 1997, M.Sc. in electronic system design
engineering from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2004 and Ph.D. in electrical from University of
Adelaide, Australia in 2012. His main interests are transmission lines protection, sensitivity
and uncertainty analysis, fault monitoring and simulation, and web applications. He can be
contacted at email: [email protected].

Azwati Azmin graduated diploma in electrical engineering (electronics), and

bachelor's (Hons.) in electrical engineering from UTHM Johor in 2007 and 2010, then
completed her M.Sc. in telecommunication and information engineering at UiTM Shah Alam
in Mac 2012. Currently, she was serving as senior lecturer at the School of Electrical
Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Pulau Pinang.
Her extensive research interests encompass on telecommunication and wireless
communication, mobile networks, antennas, and microwaves. Now, she has expanded her
research focus to BioMedical engineering in the application of medical internet of things
(MIoT) and big data in healthcare. She can be contacted at email: [email protected].

Design and implementation of smart traffic light controller with … (Nor Shahanim Mohamad Hadis)