In this paper, we present an energy-saving controller that is capable of shaping the light output of an LED lighting system autonomously based on data received from sensors. We implement an optimized smart algorithm on a controller to process the sensor feedback and employ pulse width modulation dimming to vary the brightness of the luminaire. A wireless sensor module was designed to provide accurate sensor feedback to the controller. A purpose-built smart luminaire complete with an LED driver was designed and constructed to study the performance of the control system. We validate the energy saving potential of the designed controller under different real world situations. It is shown experimentally that the controller achieved 55% energy savings in a continuous usage pattern environment and 62% energy savings in a discrete usage pattern environment under our test conditions. A cost analysis showed that the proposed energy-saving system is 32% more cost-effective than a near-equivalent commercial system while promising greater energy savings through the use of additional energy-saving techniques. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.