Algorithm to Manage Traffic Light Control to Prioritize Emergency Vehicles

Rapid increase in number of vehicles on the roads as well as growing size of cities have led to a plethora of challenges for road traffic management authorities such as traffic congestion, accidents and air pollution. This work focuses on the particular problem of traffic management for emergency services, for which a delay of few minutes may cause human lives risks as well as financial losses. The goal is to reduce the latency of emergency services for vehicles with minimum unnecessary disruption to the regular traffic, and preventing potential misuses. In this work, we propose STLO (Short Time Less Obstacles) algorithm, which itself describes to bring the patient in a short time to hospital by avoiding unnecessary or necessary stops/halts. Proposed system specially designed for an emergency vehicle, thereby introducing Application Unit (AU), messages passing and also by assigning a specified region or boundary. Whenever an emergency vehicle enters into specified area, the Application Unit detects presence of emergency vehicle. Emergency vehicle passes Vehicle ID, its direction related to traffic signal, average speed, and destination location to AU. Then AU passes massage to the traffic signal controller. Traffic signal control is already equipped with historical data and road patterns to calculate shortest path. Traffic signal turns the traffic light to green so that emergency vehicle passes through the traffic signal intersection. Pre-emption is active until the emergency vehicle passes through the intersection.