Article
Design and Implementation of an Intelligent Green Corridor System for Emergency Vehicle Preemption
Urban traffic congestion remains a primary impediment to emergency medical services, where critical delays in ambulance transit times directly correlate to increased mortality rates. Research indicates that a one-minute reduction in response time can improve patient survival outcomes by 7% to 10%. This paper proposes a decentralized Emergency Vehicle Preemption (EVP) system designed to establish an instantaneous “Smart Green Corridor” using a heterogeneous microcontroller framework. The system architecture utilizes an ESP32 microcontroller at the transmitter (TX) node, integrated within the emergency vehicle, and an Arduino Uno at the receiver (RX) node to manage the Traffic Signal Control (TSC) logic. Wireless communication is established via the Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.4) protocol, providing a low-power, high-reliability data link that operates effectively in high-interference urban environments. The TX unit, powered by the dual-core processing of the ESP32, transmits road-specific priority signals which are intercepted by the RX unit’s Arduino Uno. Upon signal reception, the TSC executes a preemptive interrupt algorithm that overrides the standard four-phase traffic cycle, immediately transitioning the requested lane to a "Green" state while holding conflicting manoeuvres at "Red." Experimental validation of the prototype demonstrates a significant reduction in the Average Waiting Time (AWT) for ambulances, achieving near-zero delay at signalled intersections. By utilizing a costeffective combination of ESP32 and Arduino Uno, this research contributes a scalable, low-latency solution for intelligent transportation systems that operates independently of centralized cloud processing or line-of-sight dependent infrared sensors
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