International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 4, Issue 6, June 2014 1

ISSN 2250-3153

RFID Based Automated Toll Plaza System

AungMyint Win1, Chaw MyatNwe2, KyawZinLatt3
123
Department of Electronic Engineering, Mandalay Technological University (MTU), Myanmar

Abstract- This research paper describes the automated toll toll gate on every single row where vehicles are passed. The
collection system for toll gate based on RFID technology. Most reader contains an RF module, which acts as both transmitter and
of the toll collection systems commonly used in Myanmar is receiver of radio frequency signals. The reader generates the
manual transaction. Nowadays, streams of traffic are increased signal to receive the data from tag. The received signals send to
and toll gate on highways are congested. It will cause the traffic the computer system which contains Graphical User Interface
jam and waste time. The objective of this journal paper is to (GUI) and the database of all users. The ID number from the tag
transform manual transaction to automated toll collection with checks with the recorded database and deduces the toll tax. The
the help of RFID technology. There are three portions in toll computer and microcontroller are connected with USB cable. So,
collection system. They are RFID system, balance deduction the PIC 18F4550 microcontroller is very compatible for system.
system in host computer and toll gate control system. For the The microcontroller will display the amount of deposits on LCD
RFID system, 13.56 MHz passive RFID reader and tag pairs are and the gate will open. The IR sensor senses the vehicle motion
used. The balance deduction system is implemented by Microsoft for closing gate automatically.
Visual Studio and Microsoft SQL Server as IDE. C# language is
used to implement this system. The PIC microcontroller is also
used to control the stepper motor and display the deposit on the II. RELATED WORK
LCD. The authorized person at the toll gate can check the ID In [3], the author mentioned that the micro simulation model
numbers, vehicle numbers and the amount of balance with the for the automated toll plaza system using RFID technology. The
database on PC. The new user can register and update the amount 8051 microcontroller is used for the control system. The signal is
of balance via Graphical User Interface (GUI) easily. The sent to the PC via RS-232 cable from PIC. In this system, the
amount of deposits will also update simultaneously at the two microcontroller is the main part of the system because of the
database of the toll gate because of LAN network. By using this signal is sent to PC and the output results showed on the LCD
system, it will save time, i.e. by avoiding long queue as no need display. And then, the microcontroller sent the signal to the
to stop the vehicle and no need of manual transaction at the toll motor driver for opening the traffic gate. The author also
gate. described the GSM modem to update the information about the
database of user account.
Index Terms- RFID, Microsoft Visual Studio, Stepper Motor, In [5], the author explained that the RFID based automatic
Database toll gated system. The frequency 928 MHz is used for the
communication between RFID system and the control system.
The microcontroller was programmed using the C programming
I. INTRODUCTION language and Visual Basic was used in the serial communication

N owadays, increasing traffic volume causes congestions

commonly around the toll gate of highway. Therefore, the
new technique is urgently required to reform the problem of
between the computer and the RFID as well as with the PIC. The
database was developed using Microsoft Access because it can
contain up to 32768 records of objects. The RS-232 cable is also
congestions. Automated toll collection system is one of the used for the connection between PIC and PC.
methods to solve the above conditions. The automated system is
composed of several subsystems. The RFID technology,
computer database, power supply, microcontroller, motor and III. DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION FOR THE SYSTEM
inferred device are included. Automated system can bring the In order to design and implement the automated toll
several sectors for toll gates as saving time and reducing the collection system, it should be divided into two main systems.
human workers. Develop the prototype model, which reproduces They are hardware design for the system and software
the operation states of various toll gate systems: passing time and implementation for the system.
waiting time.
The RFID tag and RFID reader are contained in RFID A. Hardware Design for the system
technology. RFID means Radio Frequency Identification that The automated system using RFID technology can be
consists of the tags which can be either active or passive tag. classified into two modules. They are vehicle module and base
Passive tag do not have own power supply, much cheaper to module. The vehicle module consists of passive RFID tag. The
manufacture and small coil antenna is used. On the other hand, RFID reader, host computer system and gate control system are
active tag must have own power supply. It has longer range and composed as the base module. The general RFID based toll tax
larger memories. It can store additional information sent the image in figure1 and the block diagram of automated toll
RFID reader.RFID reader is an interrogator. It is placed at the collection system is described in figure2.

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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 4, Issue 6, June 2014 2
ISSN 2250-3153

Figure1.General RFID based toll tax image

Figure2.Block diagram of the Toll gate System (Base module)

10k

vcc LCD display

5V vcc
32 11 1
2 D+ 24 1
11121314 7 8 9 10 4 5 6 3 2
RS R/W E
D4 D5D6 D7
19 RD0
D- 23 20
3 RD1
21
RD2
22
RD3
27
RD4
22p 28
RD5
14

8MHz 10k
IR sensor
13 33 Output
RB0 GND

37 RB4
22p VCC
38 RB5
39
RB6
40 RB7 16 12V
18 11 31 Motor
15 Rectifier circuit AC
VUSB VSS VSS 14

13
ULN2003A

Figure3. Circuit Diagram of Gate Control System

 PIC 18F4550 microcontroller

The major components of the gate control system are as follow:

 Motor driver
3. Stepper Motor

 Stepper motor
The stepper motor is an electronic device that converts

 LCD display
digital pulses into mechanical shaft rotation. The most significant

 555 timer
advantage of stepper motor is its ability to be accurately

 IR sensor
controlled in an open loop system. The advantages of stepper
motor are –
 Power supply unit  Low cost and high reliability
 High torque at low speeds and a simple
1. PIC 18F4550 microcontroller  Rugged construction that operates in almost
The PIC 18F4550 a is 16 bit microcontroller which contains any environment
a program memory of 32-kbytes, data memory of 256 byte,
version 2.0 USB compliant, DC operating frequency of 48MHz, There are two types of stepper motor. They are unipolar
10bit A/D module (13 channels) and wide operating voltage stepper motor and bipolar stepper motor.The unipolar stepper
range (2.2V to 5.2V). The main reasons of using PIC 18f4550 are motor is used for this system because its winding is made
compliant of USB connection, many I/O ports and having relatively simple with the communication circuit than bipolar
interrupt pin for IR sensor (RB0). stepper motor in open loop system. The supply voltage for motor
2. Motor Driver is 12V. This motor is used to open the traffic gate at the toll gate
The ULN2003A driver IC is used for this system. An station.
ULN2003A is a high-voltage, high-current Darlington transistor 4. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
array features continuous load current rating to 500mA for each This module used for display the present status of the
of the seven driver. High output voltage is 50V. Its input is system. This is interface to 4 bit mode with LM016L
compatible with various types of logic.

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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 4, Issue 6, June 2014 3
ISSN 2250-3153

microcontroller LCD screen consists of two lines with sixteen transmitter is designed for 38kHz frequency. The 555 timer is
characters each. used as an astable state. The variable resistor can adjust upto a
certain frequency. The transmitter circuit diagram is designed as
5. 555 Timer shown in figure4.
The 555 timer IC is an integrated circuit (chip) used in a The frequency oscillation of the astable operation for 555
variety of timer, pulse generation, and oscillator applications. timer is
The 555 can be used to provide time delays, as an oscillator, and
as a flip-flop element. The supply voltage is usually between 3
and 15V depending on the variation. The 555 timer has three
operation modes : f = frequency (Hz), R2 = variable resistor (8.123k
(a) Monostable operation mode ohms), C1 = capacitor (0.002 uF).
In this mode, the 555 functions as a "one-shot" pulse
generator.Applications include timers, missing pulse (ii) Receiver section
detectionfrequency divider, capacitance measurement, pulse- The receiver section is designed to pick up the tramsmitted
width modulation (PWM) and so on. frequency. The 555 timer is also used in the receiver circuit as
the monostable state. The output condition of the 555 timer IC is
(b) Astable operation mode need to stable and send these signal to the PORTB (RB0) of the
The 555 can operate as an oscillator.Uses include LED and PIC 18F4550 microcontroller. TSOP 1738 IR sensor is used for
lamp flashers, pulse generation, logic clocks, security alarms, the system because of the transmitted frequency is 38kHz. The
pulse position modulation and so on.The 555 can be used as a TSOP 1738 is a standard IR remote control receiver.

 Photo detector and preamplifier in one package

simple ADC, converting an analog value to a pulse length. The features of TSOP 1738 IR sensor are as follows.

 Internal filter for PCM frequency

 Improved shielding against electrical field
(c) Bistable operation mode
The 555 can operate as a flip-flop, if the DIS pin (pin7) is

 TTL and CMOS compatibility

not connected and no capacitor is used. Uses include bounce-free disturbance

 Output active low

latched switches.

 Low power consumption

 High immunity against ambient light
6. Infrared Sensor (IR Sensor)

 Continuous data transmission possible (1200 bit/s)

The IR sensor is a detection device for motion and other
devices. There are two portions for object detection. They are –
(i) Transmitter section  Suitable burst length is 10 cycles/burst
The transmitter section sends out a wave at a certain
frequency such as 38kHz or other frequencies. The frequency
choosing depends on the receiver IR sensor. In this system, the

The receiver circuit diagram using TSOP 1738 IR sensor is shown in figure4.

Figure4.(1) Transmitter circuit for 38 kHz frequency using IR LED, (2) Receiver circuit using TSOP 1738 IR sensor

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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 4, Issue 6, June 2014 4
ISSN 2250-3153

operating systems, as well as web sites, web applications and

7. Power Supply Unit web services. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software
The DC power supply unit is vital component in modern development platforms such as Windows API, Windows Forms
electronic devices as they need a wide range of DC voltages for applications, Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows
their operations. The purpose of a power supply is to provide the Store. This IDE can connect with database by using query
required amount of power specified voltage from primary source. language. The C# language is used to write the program.

 C# language
B. Software Implementation for the system
To accomplish the system, the choosing of software is very
important. The Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft Visual C sharp is a programming language that is designed for
Studio 2010 are used as Integrated Development Environment building a variety of applications that run on the .NET
(IDE). The C# language and mikroC language are also used to Framework. C# is simple, powerful, type-safe, and object-
implement the system. The C# language is familiar with many oriented. The many innovations in C# enable rapid application
users and suitable for GUI design. The PIC microcontroller is development while retaining the expressiveness and elegance of
programmed with the PIC kit2 programmer device. C-style languages.

 Microsoft SQL Server  Flow Chart of the System

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management The system can be seen clearly by showing the flow chart of
system developed by Microsoft. As a database, it is a software each program. The overall flow chart of the toll collection system
product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as is illustrated as follow. The RFID reader reads the ID number
requested by other software applications, be it those on the same from the RFID tag and then will check with the recorded
computer or those running on another computer across a network database in host computer system. If the users are not register,
(including the Internet). they need to create register and the authorized person at the toll

 Microsoft Visual Studio

gate get user information from them. The user can update the
balance at the user updating form. Moreover, if the user quit
Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development from using this system, the recorded information can be deleted
environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop on the database. The flow chart of user deletion form and IR
computer programs for Microsoft Windows superfamily of section are as follow.

Figure5. Overall flow chart for toll collection system and User registration flow chart

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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 4, Issue 6, June 2014 5
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Figure6. flow chart for (1) User updating form, (2) User deleting form and (3) IR section for gate control

is implemented are described. In the database, the userID, owner

IV. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF THE name, car number, driver licence, car model and deposits are
SYSTEM constructed as the table. The database table is shown in figure7.
Before constructing the automated toll collection system, the
database construction and simulations are needed. Therefore the
simulation results and experimental results of the system which

Figure7.Recorded database in SQL Server

The main window form of the toll collection, user

registration, user updating and user deletion window forms are as
follow.

Figure8. Main window form of the toll collection system and Balance deducing from the user amount

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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 4, Issue 6, June 2014 6
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The user’s RFID number read from the RFID tag, send these for the system can delete from the database on the user deletion
number to the textbox of the GUI for checking with the recorded form.
database. Then, if the balance enough, the amount of deposit will The simulation of the USB connection between host
show on the LCD and allow the vehicle. If not, the message will computer system and PIC microcontroller using Proteus software
show on the LCD as “Wait”. For the new user, the user need to is shown in figure9.
create register on the GUI easily. If the balance is not enough, the
balance can update in the user updating form. The unwanted user

Figure9. User registring on the registration form, Updating amount on the user updating form and User deletion form

oscilloscope. The output of the TSOP 1738 IR sensor is also

The output frequency of the IR transmitter circuit is input to the 555 timer. The condition between IR transmitter and
measured with the oscilloscope. This experimental result of the receiver circuit without motion is shown in firuge10(b) and the
IR transmitter output is shown in figure10(a). The output of the object detection condition is shown in figure6(c).
IR receiver circuit is input to the PIC 18F4550 microcontroller.
The output results of the IR receiver is also mesaured with the

Figure6. (a) The output frequency (38kHz) mesaurement of the IR transmitter circuit and the outputcondition of the IR
receiver circuit (b) no object detected (c) object detected

The prototype construction of the automated toll collection

system is shown in figure13. V. CONCLUSION
This system mainly reviewed the research and development
work for toll collection at the toll gate on highway with the help
of passive RFID technology. By developing this system, the
knowledge of RFID system, PIC 18F4550 microcontroller, the
database construction, GUI design and USB connection between
PC and PIC using c# language are realized. Moreover, the
designs of IR transmitter and receiver circuits are convenient for
this system. So, these results can use for another IR sensing
application. For this system, passive tags are better than the
active tags because of low cost, low power consumption and also
radio signals environmental factors. By using RFID based
automated toll collection system, the vehicle can check for
security with the passing time, save the time for toll collection
Figure6. Prototype design and circuit construction diagram and reduce traffic congestion at the toll plaza. Therefore, the

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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 4, Issue 6, June 2014 7
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RFID based toll collection system is the best way for toll [6] Sewon Oh, Joosang Park, Yongioon Lee, "RFID-based Middleware System
for Automatic Identification", IEEE International Conference on Service
collection at the toll plaza. Operations and Logistics, and Information, 2005.
[7] Shi-Cho Cha Kuan-Ju Huang Hsiang-Meng Chang, " An Efficient and
Flexible Way to Protect Privacy in RFID Environment with Licenses ",
ACKNOWLEDGMENT IEEE International Conference RFID, April 16-17,2008.
[8] Raj Bridgelall, Senior Member, IEEE, "Introducing a Micro wireless
The author would like to thank his supervisor,head and all of architecture for Business Activity Sensing ", IEEE International Conference
his teachers from Department of Electronic Engineering, RFID, April 16-17,2008.
Mandalay Technological University who gave good suggestions, [9] Rahman, Rohisyam (2007-07-23). "Case Study: Malaysian Smart Shelf".
guidance and supervision for supporting this research. http://www.rfidasia.info/2007/07/case-study, Malaysian – smart – shelf-htm
Retrieved 2007-08-03.
[10] Y. Duan and J. Canny, "Protecting User Data in Ubiquitous Computing,"
Privacy EnhancingTechnologies, LNCS 3424, Springer, 2004, pp. 273–
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