Design and Development of Microcontroller Based
Electronic Queue Control Systems
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attachment=25070]
Abstract-
In this work, low-cost, portable microcontroller based
electronic queue control (EQC) systems have been developed for
the purpose of controlling queue in banking, hotel reservation
counter, ticket counter, insurance company, customer service
center etc. The aim of the designed systems is to maintain a queue
with order and efficiency. Two different queue control systems
have been implemented with slightly different features. In EQC
system-I, a general display has been used for displaying token
number and service counter number whereas in EQC system-2,
each token number has been displayed individually in each
service counter with separate displays. In the both systems, each
customer has to collect a token and then will be served whenever
the token number is displayed. The systems were designed
around a 16F72 IC, a low-cost 8-bit PIC microcontroller and
entirely software controlled. The control programs have been
developed using the PIC assembly language. Finally, the systems
have been tested under different conditions to evaluate their
performance.
Keywords- Microcontroller, Electronic Queue Control System,
Display, PIC assembly language.
I. INTRODUCTION
In daily life, Customer service orientated companies and
institutions frequently face the problem of lengthy queues and
unpredictable waiting causing tension and stress among both
customers and employees which result in efficiency decline.
The solution is a microcontroller based electronic queue
management system. It is nothing but a customer service
management system that enables the confident treatment of
administration, which is often essential; customers do not
stand end to end any more. Instead of standing in long queues,
customers may sit down and might learn some useful
information concerning the services of the company. Any
customer-orientated institution, like customer care centers of
different telecommunication companies, banks, hospitals,
insurance companies, local government offices, post offices,
etc. will improve their services providing a more favorable
image and text. There are many manufacturers all over the
world which supply electronic equipments to control queue
but those equipments are very costly. This work is intended to
design low cost equipment with locally available materials.
Here, two different electronic queue control systems with
minor difference in features named i) Electronic Queue
Control (EQC) System-l and ii) Electronic Queue Control
(EQC) System-2 have been developed. In the designed
systems, four customer service counters can be served at a
time in First-In-First-Out (FIFO) basis.
II. OVERVIEW OF THE DESIGNED SYSTEMS
The service scenario of the proposed systems can be
described as follows: Each customer will be given a token
when he enters the room. Generally the token is a printed
paper containing a number. If the token number that the
customer collected is displayed on any service counter screen,
then instantly he or she is allowed to get service from that
service counter. Otherwise he/she has to wait in customer's
waiting seat until the counters display his/her token number.
Push Button Switches
Custo",ers r st seats
In EQC system-I, a single display for the whole system to
show token number and corresponding counter number is used
[Fig. 1 ] but in case of EQC system-2, each service counter has
individual screen [Fig.2] and the display of each service
TSllWMCEOP178 978-1-4244-8943-5/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 48
counter indicates which customer will be served from that
Push Button Switches
Customers rest .S8at&
counter.
III. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE SYSTEMS
The design of electronic queue control systems highly
depends on the purpose and place where it will be used. The
system design can even become more complex with the
addition of new facilities. A simple system may have a display
unit, token collection unit, calling unit and control unit and
wiring cables.
A. Design and Development - EQC System-l
The system design comprises both hardware & software
design and development stages.
1) Hardware design.·The hardware design process is
divided into three subsections like Switch Debouching
Section, Display Section, and Control Section.
a) Switch Debouching Section.To avoid the effect of
mechanical jittering of push button switches, we use
Monostable Multivibrator (MY) which will generate a
constant short duration pulse to be transmitted to the
microcontroller regardless of how long the operators press the
switch. CD4047BE Astable/ Monostable multivibrator IC has
been used here as the monostable muItivibrator [2] (Fig 3).
Two external resistor ® and capacitor © set the defined
short pulse period. In our case, time period is only one ( 1 )
second. The schematic diagram of switch debouching circuits
for EQC system-l is shown in Fig. 4 where each arrow
indicates output of MY which is individually connected to 4
pins of PORTA of the microcontroller [3].
b) Display section.·This section consists of following
units 1 . BCD (Binary Coded Decimal) counters. 2.
DecoderlDriver unit, 3. LED Seven Segment Display Units.
BCD COUNTER: This section is designed as a MOD-99
counter by cascading two DM74LS90 decade and binary
counter ICs [5]. The CLK input of the first counter IC is
connected to MCU but second counter IC is clocked by the
MSB (QD) of first counter IC [ 1 ] [Fig 5]. When a button is
pressed, the MCU generates a pulse that increases the content
of the counter. This counter unit orders the token number of
the customers and displays it on 7-segment display. The
determination of the corresponding counter number where the
customer is being served will be recognized by the
microcontroller.