Multisensory System for Obstacle Detection and Location Estimation on Railways

Rail inspection is a vital task in preventing accidents. The inspection of rails by human operators will be a slow and tedious process. In order to prevent this problem, a new technique is employed here. The project describes a multisensory system consisting of infrared (IR) and ultrasonic (US) sensors, that ensures safety and efficiency on railways. Here a system for obstacle detection and train location estimation is proposed. The system consists of a microcontroller which is interfaced with the GPS module, GSM modem, and an ultrasonic and infrared sensor for fetching the data from the GPS module. Once the sensor senses the obstacle, it assumes an accident. The sensor sends the information to the centralized server and to the display unit in the train. From the server the information is send to the station near the train. For estimating the location of trains, the train number is send via GSM to a server and a reply message is send indicating the position of train. GPS receiver receives train position latitude and longitude from satellite through GPS antenna. GPS receiver is interfaced with the microcontroller through RS232 converter. Then position information signal is transmitted to the mobile through GSM network.