See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/262352965

Smart street light system with energy saving function based on the sensor
network

Conference Paper · January 2013

DOI: 10.1145/2487166.2487202

CITATIONS READS
13 44,777

4 authors, including:

Noriaki Yoshiura Naoya Ohta

Saitama University Gunma University
64 PUBLICATIONS   170 CITATIONS    81 PUBLICATIONS   799 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Perceptions of Aging and Disability among College Students in Japan View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Noriaki Yoshiura on 18 September 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Smart street light system with energy saving function
based on the sensor network
Yusaku Fujii Noriaki Yoshiura Akihiro Takita
Department of Electronic Engineering Department of Information and Department of Electronic Engineering
Gunma University Computer Sciences Gunma University
1-5-1 Tenjin-cho Saitama University 1-5-1 Tenjin-cho
Kiryu, Gunma Japan 255 Shimo-ookubo Sakura-ku Kiryu, Gunma Japan
fujii@el.gunma-u.ac.jp Saitama City, Japan takita@el.gunma-u.ac.jp
yoshiura@fmx.ics.saitama-u.ac.jp

Naoya Ohta
Department of Computer Science
Gunma University
1-5-1 Tenjin-cho
Kiryu, Gunma Japan
ohta@cs.gunma-u.ac.jp

ABSTRACT huge waste of energy in the whole world and should be

changed.
Our project for developing a smart street light system is reviewed.
In this project, the street light system, in which lights on when There are some attempts, in which the energy wastes of the
needed and light-off when not needed. street lights are reduced. A sensor light, which is controlled
by the brightness sensor and the motion sensor, is
Currently, in the whole world, enormous electric energy is sometimes used [1]. It only turns on for w while when the
consumed by the street lamps, which are automatically turn on motion is detected in front of the light and it is dark.
when it becomes dark and automatically turn off when it becomes However, it usually is too late to turn the light on when a
bright. This is the huge waste of energy in the whole world and person or a car comes in front of it. The light should turn on
should be changed. before a person or a car comes.
Our smart street light system consists of a LED light, a brightness On the other hand, some companies and universities have
sensor, a motion sensor and a short-distance communication developed centrally-controlled smart street light systems
network. The lights turn on before pedestrians and vehicles come with the host computers [2,3]. They might be suitable for
and turn off or reduce power when there is no one. It will be being applied to a large area or a newly developed area
difficult for pedestrians and drivers of vehicles to distinguish our based on the total plan. However, they might not be
smart street lamps and the conventional street lights, since our suitable for being applied to a small area.
street lamps all turn on before they come.
We propose an autonomous-distributed-controlled light
The present status and the future prospects of our smart start light system, in which the lights turn on before pedestrians come
project will be reviewed. and turn off or reduce power when there is no one by
1. INTRODUCTION means of a distributed-installed sensor network.
Currently, in the whole world, enormous electric energy is
consumed by the street lights, which are controlled by 2. PROPOSED SYSTEM
means of the embedded brightness sensors. They are Figure 1 shows the components, with which our smart
automatically turn on when it becomes dark and street light system is realized.
automatically turn off when it becomes bright. This is the (a) Lamp unit:
Conference’04, Month 1–2, 2004, City, State, Country. It consists of power-adjustable LED array, the brightness
Copyright 2004 ACM 1-58113-000-0/00/0004…$5.00. sensor, the motion sensor, the communication device, such
as ZigBee module, and the controller. It turns on for
several minutes under the conditions that a motion is
detected in the defined area by the sensors including its
own sensor. Then, it sends the message to other units. It
 turns off or reduced power under the condition that any Figure 2. The components for the smart street light
motion is not detected in the defined area.
(b) Sensor unit: As for communication devices, a power-saving short-
It consists of the motion sensor, the communication device distance device, such as ZigBee, is appropriate for our
and the controller. It sends out the message to other units system. As for the position information, each controller has
under the condition that motion is detected. This unit is plural addresses, which correspond to the adjacent different
placed to many locations, such as at electric poles, at house networks.
gates, at house fence and inside or outside of the door, to Figure 2 shows an example of our smart street light system.
ensure that every street light turn on before pedestrians The street lights turn on before the pedestrians come and
notice that. As for power supply, the solar battery can be a turn off or reduce power when there is no one by means of
good option. a distributed-installed sensor network.
(c) Access point:
3. DISCUSSIONS
It consists of the communication device and the controller. The targets of our development are as follows,
It is used in the case that the distance between the lamp
units and the sensor units are too large to communicate ! Easy installation and extension: Each unit can be
each other. installed one by one to the network by setting the
parameters. The system is autonomous-distributed
controlled. No host computer is needed.
! Low cost: Only the parts of mass production are used.
! Easy update: The firmware of each unit can be updated
easily. The control algorisms should be developed for
the situations, such as a quiet residential area, a
shopping street, a part, a main road and a mountain
road.
! Self-diagnosis: The worst event is that the light does
not turn on when the pedestrian come. Each unit
records the failures, in which the motion is detected in
front of it without the advanced notification from the
other units.

4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific
Research (B) 24300246 (KAKENHI 24300246).

5. REFERENCES
[1] Velaga, R. and Kumar, A. 2012. Techno-economic
Figure 1. The components for the smart street light
evaluation of the feasibility of a smart street system: A
case study of rural India. Procedia Social and
Behavioral Sciences. 62, 1220-1224.
[2] Echelon Corp.
https://www.echelon.com/applications/street-lighting/
[3] Bruno, A., Di Franco, F. and Rasconà, G. 2012. Smart
street lighting. EE Times
http://www.eetimes.com/design/smart-energy-
design/4375167/Smart-street-lighting
[4] The e-JIKEI Network Promotion Institute, et al. Smart
street light system with communication means.
Published unexamined patent application in Japan
P2011-165573A (in Japanese).

View publication stats