Lamp driver & failure detector for incandescent lamps in traffic signal systems

Abstract

The design and implementation of a low cost solid-state lamp driver and failure detector (LD/FD) for incandescent lamps is described. The design is directly targeted for the signal lamp heads in highway traffic signal systems. This is entirely hardware oriented and can be used to replace the relay systems currently used without doing any modification to control signals. The incorporated lamp failure detection circuitry enhances the features of the design by activating a feedback signal to indicate lamp failures. This feature enables us to develop an automated maintenance scheme in a centralized traffic control system such as the emerging Advanced Traffic Control System (ATCS).