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Automated Railway Gate Controlling System

Article in International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology · September 2015

DOI: 10.14445/22312803/IJCTT-V27P101

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 International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – volume 27 Number 1 – September 2015

Automated Railway Gate Controlling System

Saifuddin Mahmud, Ishtiaq Reza Emon, Md. Mohaimin Billah
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology
Khulna, Bangladesh

Abstract—This paper aims to provide an automatic operation of the gate. To avoid the accidents, sensors
railway gate at the level crossing replacing the gates placed at some distance from the gate detect the
operated by the gate keeper by detecting train and stuck on departure of the train. The signal about the departure
the level crossing, generating corresponding alert signal is sent to the microcontroller, which in turn operates
and controlling the gate. The solution is provided by
developing a train detection module, stuck detection
the motor and opens the gate. Thus, the time for
module, signal light module, alarm module, railway gate which the gate is closed is less compared to the
controller and a controller module. There are only four manually operated gates since the gate is closed
ultrasonic sensors in the train detection module and one depending upon the telephone call from the previous
ultrasonic sensor in stuck detection module. Both, train station. Also reliability is high, as it is not subjected
detection and stuck detection module generate high to manual errors.For the railway, research on
frequency signal through the ultrasonic sensors and detect automatic gate controller systems has traditionally
the presence of object if the echo is received back by the focused on two main areas: information transmission
sensors. Then the controller unit determines whether the and gate controlling. Problems related to information
obstacle is train or stuck and takes necessary steps by
controlling the gate, alarm generator and signal lights.
transmission concern train detection and fast
Experimental studies show that the proposed methodology transmission of this information to the control unit.
provides a more cost effective, reliable and simpler railway Problems those are related to the gate controlling very
gate controller than existing dominant work. sophisticated and challenging. They comprise
presence of train, immediate closing and opening of
Keywords— Ultrasonic Sensor, Train Detection, Stuck gates. The existing solutions have many complexities
Detection, Alarm generator, Level Crossing and require research for supporting railway.

This paper proposes the design and implementation

I. INTRODUCTION issues of an automated railway gate controlling
system. The system detects the train and stuck by
Railways being one of the safest and cheapest analyzing the reflected waves, produces alarm,
modes of transportation are preferred over all the controls light signal and gate. When the whole train
other means of transport. So, it is essential to passes the level crossing then the gate is opened,
maintain and improve the current level of safety. A alarm generator stopped and indicator light switched
safe railway is more efficient and also a more on green signal. If there is a stuck on the level
attractive transport choice, enabling society to crossing the stuck signal is switched on The lesser
address the environmental and economic challenges equipment, reduced cost, simpler design and high
of the 21st century. Railway safety is a crucial aspect efficiency of the proposed system prove the
of rail operation over the world. When we go through effectiveness over existing work.
newspapers, we come across many railway accidents
occurring at different railway level crossings and The organization of this paper is as follows:
many people are dying. The place where rail track Section 2 describes the related work of the proposed
and highway/road intersects each other at the same system. Section 3explains the construction and
level is known as “level crossing”. Bangladesh operation of the proposed system. The experimental
Railway said at least 201 people were killed and 349 analysis and comparison of specification and
others injured in 264 accidents at different level accuracy are shown in Section 4. Finally, concluding
crossings in last seven years till 2013[1]. This is remarks are drawn in Section 5.
mainly due to the carelessness in manual operations
or lack of workers at level crossing. There is an II. RELATEDWORK
inherent unreliability in the present manual system.
Recently, many automatic railway gate controllers
Automatic railway gate control system is an with advanced technology are introduced to make the
arrangement of physical components which sense the level crossing risk free. Al-Zuhairi et.al concentrated
arrival of the train and make the gate pull up and pull on unmanned level crossing which caused frequent
down automatically. As a train approaches at the accident[2]. For this, they proposed a Microcontroller
railway crossing from either side, the sensors placed based Railway Gate and Crossing Control system. In
at a certain distance from the gate detect the their system they used IR sensor and Microcontroller.
approaching train and accordingly controls the In their system IR sensor sense the presence of train

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 International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – volume 27 Number 1 – September 2015

and send the signal to Microcontroller. Based on the messages the controller device decides whenever the
signal Microcontroller controls the gate of the railroad crossing gate will close or open. This system
crossing. The main limitation of this system is low is also complex and costly. Upon realizing the
accuracy. The performance of IR sensor is not importance of automatic railway gate controller in
adequate at open place and light. Subrata Biswas et.al India Acy M. Kottalil el.al proposed Automatic
proposed pressure sensor based swift response anti- Railway Gate Control System gate[8]. The objective
collision system for an automatic railway gate control of their system is to provide an automatic railway
system[3]. The pressure switches which have been gate at a level crossing replacing the gates operated
integrated in this system detect the condition whether by the gatekeeper. The system reduces the time for
any vehicle gets stuck at the level crossing or not. IR which the gate remains closed. The system works on
sensors have been used to detect the arrival and a microcontroller based control. Their proposed
departure of the train.. The system is little bit system uses ATmega 16A microcontroller. With the
complex and due to use of IR sensors performance is help of IR sensors the arrival and leaving of the
not satisfactory. Sandya Goutam et.al concentrated system is monitored and the gate is operated
on predicting the major cause of railway accidents accordingly. Anti Collision and Secured Level
that is collision on the same track[4]. For this Crossing System was proposed by K. Vidyasagar
purpose a technology used to identify train positions, et.al[9]. Their proposed model presents an automatic
collision detection as well as the points at where rail gate control system at level crossing positions
collisions may occur has been used. The primary and accident prevention mechanism. Two vibration
goal of this paper is anti-collision system to sensors are used to control the open and close state
identify such collision points and to report the of the gate at level crossing position. An
error cases to main control room, nearby station as ultrasonic sensor is positioned to detect an
well as grid control stations. To build this system, unauthorized object on the track. Open and Close
advanced sensing technology, long distance status of the gate and unauthorized object on the
communication system (RS 485protocol), track will be communicated with the central
microcontroller (8051) and wireless control room using wireless communication
Communication protocol has been used. But this protocol. This system is complex, costly and requires
system is not concerned with the collision between a lot of equipments to implement. The complex
the train and vehicles on the road. J. Banuchandar design, low performance and cost has raised a
et.al proposed and an automated unmanned railway question on the effectiveness of the approaches.
level crossing system[5]. In this system when the
train arrives in a particular direction the transmitter III. PROPOSED RAILWAY GATE
IR senses and generates appropriate signal, then at CONTROLLING SYSTEM
the same time the receiver IR receives the signal
and generates an interrupt. The main problem of this The proposed system uses ultrasonic sensors which
model is low accuracy because the interrupt signal have very high efficiency. These ultrasonic sensors
can be generated even if a small object crosses the IR are placed near the rail line at the both side of the
Sensor. Krishna et.al proposed a model to control the level crossing. These sensors which are placed at
railway tracks by using anti-collision techniques[6]. certain distance from the level crossing detect the
The model of railway track controller is designed by train coming from either direction to the level
using 8952 microcontroller to avoid railway accidents. crossing. Then the information of the train is
When we go through the daily newspapers we come transferred to the control unit and the control unit
across many railway accidents occurring at unmanned switches on the red light, generates alarm and pull
railway crossings. This model is implemented using down the gate immediately. The sensors of the either
sensor technique. They placed the sensors at a certain side determines whether the train passes a certain
distance from the gate detects the approaching train distance or not from the level crossing. If passes the
and accordingly controls the operation of the gate. controller switches on the green light, stops
Also an indicator light has been provided to alert the generation of alarm and pull the gate up. If any
motorists about the approaching train. In their system vehicle gets stuck at the level crossing of the rail-line
they have used anti-collision device which uses GPS is detected by the sensor placed at the level crossing.
for preventing collision between two train and IR Our proposed system is very simple and inexpensive
sensor for gate controlling at level crossing. Sheikh with respect to other system but its performance is
Shanawaz Mostafa et.al proposed “A Radio Based very laudable and excellent.
Intelligent Railway Grade Crossing System to Avoid
Collision”[7]. Their system offers an intelligent The design methodology of the proposed system is
railway crossing control system for multiple tracks shown as follows.
that features a controller which receives messages
from incoming and outgoing trains by sensors. These
messages contain detail information including the
direction and identity of a train. Depending on those

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 International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – volume 27 Number 1 – September 2015

A. The Design Methodology of the Proposed System The flow chart of the proposed system is presented by
following figure.
The proposed system consists of three main
components. These are: i) Ultrasonic sensor ii)
Arduino Uno Start
iii) Alarm Generator iv) Light indicator. The block
diagram of the proposed system is shown in Fig. 1.

Train Detector Generate Green signal

Is Train or No
Stuck Detected?
Ultrasonic Transmitter
Yes
Ultrasonic receiver

Arduino Uno Train Stuck

Stuck Deteor
Ultrasonic Sensor (Control Unit)

Generate alarm, Start Alarm Generation,

Switch on Red Signal Light Switch on Red Signal Light
Ultrasonic Transmitter Pull Down Rail Gate Switch on Stuck Signal Light

Ultrasonic receiver

No
Does train
Ultrasonic Sensor No crosses the Is Stuck
level crossing? Removed?

Gate Stuck Alarm & level Yes Yes

Controller Signal Module crossing Stops alarm generation, Start Alarm Generation,
Switch on Green Signal Light Switch on Red Signal Light
Signal Module Pull Up Rail Gate Switches off Stuck Signal Light

Fig.1. The block diagram of the proposed system

The ultrasonic sensors which are placed at both sides

Continue
of the level crossing detect the train and another Yes Process?
ultrasonic sensor which is placed at the level crossing
detects the stuck of vehicle at level crossing. Once the
ultrasonic sensors are triggered, the sensors will No
generate and transmit ultrasound in the forward End
direction. This ultrasound will be reflected back to the
sensor if any object is present within 3 meter range.
The ultrasonic sensors are triggered at a regular time Fig.2. The flowchart of the proposed system
interval. If the both ultrasonic sensors of the any side
of level crossing receive the reflected sound then the
controller unit decides that a train is coming. If the B. The Train and Stuck detection
ultrasonic sensor place at the middle of the level
crossing receives the reflected sound continuously for The scan angle of the proposed system is set to
a certain period then stuck is detected. If the train is 0˚ because the sensors are placed parallel to the train.
detected, the controller measures the direction of the Ultrasonic signal transmitter and receiver are used for
train, switches on the red lights, and generates alarm detecting the train and stuck on the level crossing in
through alarm generator and pull down the gate this system. Two ultrasonic sensors are located at the
immediately. This situation remains unchanged until left and another two sensors are located at right side
the train passes the both sensors of the other either of the level crossing. The pair of sensors are placed
side. After that the controller pulls up the gate, stops one Km apart from the level crossing and distance
sound generation and switches on the green light between two sensors of a pair is 10m. The transmitter
immediately. When the stuck is detected, the emits the ultrasonic wave simultaneously and the
controller switches on the stuck signal light of the receivers get the reflected wave. By analyzing the
both side of line crossing so that the train operator can reflected wave the object can be detected. In the
take necessary steps to avoid devastating accident. proposed system if two sensors of either side of the
level crossing detects object at a time then it is

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 International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – volume 27 Number 1 – September 2015

assumed that a train is coming because 10m long green signal, stops alarm generation and pull up the
object running through the rail line is generally the gate at a time.
train. Obstacle is calculated using TOF (time of
flight). In the proposed system The Ultra sonic The properties used for the several conditions
sensors are place 1.5m apart from the rail line and it is depending on the presence of train are shown in Table
considered that The maximum operating speed of I.
train of Bangladesh is 100 km/h. The time taken to
travel 1km, the distance between the sensor meter is TABLE I.THE PROPERTIES USED FOR THE SEVERAL
36 seconds. If no obstacle is found then the sensors CONDITIONS DEPENDING ON THE PRESENCE OF TRAIN.

are triggered at the time interval of 1s seconds. If any Conditions for signal and Stuck Alarm Level Gate
obstacle is found by any sensor the system triggers alarm generation signal Genera- Crossing Position
the sensor repeatedly at 0.5s second interval. tor signal
Stuck on the level
On Off Green Up
crossing
Train coming but
C. Detection of Stuck on the level crossing distance between level
crossing and train>1km, Off Off Green Up
When there is a stuck on the level crossing the no stuck on level
ultrasonic sensor which is place at the middle of the crossing
level crossing can detect the stuck. The scan angle of Train coming but
the sensor is set to 60˚. The sensor is triggered in distance between level
every second. The received signal of the receiver is crossing and train>1km On Off Green Up
analyzed in every 10 seconds. If all transmitted but stuck on level
crossing
signals are reflected and received by the receiver then
Train coming but
the controller decides that there is a stuck on the level distance between level
crossing. crossing and Off On Red Down
train<=1km but no stuck
on level crossing
D. Warning and light signal generation Train passing level
Off On Red Down
crossing
When a train is found, the controller starts Train passed level
Off Off Green Up
generating alarm sound, switches off the green signal crossing
and switches on the red signal at both side of the road.
Drivers stop their vehicles as soon as possible Table I. shows that at first stuck on the level
whenever they notice the red signal and alarm sound. crossing is checked and necessary actions are taken.
When a stuck is detected on the level crossing the Secondly the position of the train is considered. If the
controller switches on the stuck signal lights so that train is more than one kilometre apart from the level
the train operators can take decision to avoid collision. crossing, our proposed system does not change any of
its status. But when the distance is less than or equal
to one kilometre then the gate is pulled down, alarm
E. Rail gate controlling is generated and red signal of the level crossing is
switched on. When the train crosses the level crossing
The rail gate at the level crossing is operated then red signal is switches off, green signal is
according to the train coming towards the level switched on, alarm is switched on and get is pull on.
crossing. The gate is always up position and when a
train comes towards the level crossing the rail gate is
pulled down. When the train passes the train a certain IV. EXPERIMENTALANALYSIS
distance from the level crossing then the gate is
pulled up. In our proposed model we have used two This section describes the construction, specification
servo motors. The motor is operated from 0 o to 90o. and experimental results of the prototype of the
Initially the gate is perpendicular to the ground and system.
when the gate is pulled down then it becomes parallel
to the ground. In our proposed system the gate is A. The Prototype of the System
placed two meters apart from the both side of the
level crossing. Gates, signal lights and alarm are The prototype of the system is according to the
synchronised by the control unit. When the train figure as shown in Fig. 3. According to the
comes towards the level crossing the controller specification there are five ultrasonic sensors. At the
switches on red signal lights, starts alarm generation center point of the road which is two meters apart
and pull down the gate at a time. When the controller from the level crossing there is an ultrasonic sensor.
observes the train passed then the level crossing it This sensor detects stuck on the road. Among the four
immediately switches off the red signal, switches on sensors two sensors are placed at the left side and

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 International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – volume 27 Number 1 – September 2015

another two sensors on the right side of the level V. CONCLUSIONS

crossing for train detection. There are two stuck
signal lamp near the each pair of ultrasonic sensor. To save the human life and vehicles from miserable train
There are also two level crossing signal modules and accidents is a challenge of the era of modern science and
two alarm modules. One level crossing signal module technology. The working model was fabricated within the
and alarm module is placed each side f road motorists laboratory premises. The results exhibit that it is one of the
expedient approach for secure railway system. The
about the approaching train. Each side of the level
ultrasonic sensors detect the train and stuck on the level
crossing there is servo motor to control the gate. crossing very quickly and communicate with the control
unit. The control unit takes proper steps which lead the train
and vehicles movements either to move forward or to stop
to avoid collision. Consequently, this is able to play a great
contribution to the railway gate automation with reliability
and lower cost. In future this developed working model will be
equipped with GPS to navigate the position of the train and the
track to avoid collision between two trains.

REFERENCES

[1] Unmanned level crossings a death trap.

http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2014/aug/02/unm
anned-level-crossings-death-trap-0
[2] Ahmed Salih Mahdi, Al-Zuhairi, “Automatic Railway Gate
and Crossing Control based Sensors & Microcontroller”
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology
(IJCTT) – volume 4 Issue 7–July 2013
[3] Subrata Biswas, Rafiul Hoque Bhuiyan, Samiul Hoque,
Robiul Hasan, Tanzila Nusrat Khan, “Pressure Sensed Fast
Response Anti-Collision System for Automated Railway
Fig.3. The prototype of the proposed system Gate Control, " American Journal of Engineering Research
(AJER) e-ISSN : 2320-0847 p-ISSN : 2320-0936 Volume-
02, Issue-11, pp-163-173
TABLE II.THE SPECIFICATION OF THE PROTOTYPE OF THE [4] Sandhya gautam, sandip nemade, teena sakla. simulation of
an anti-collisionsystem on same track for railways.
PROOSED PROPOSED SYSTEM
International Journal of Engineering and Technology, vol.
2(9), page 4832-4837,2010.
System Proposed System [5] J. BANUCHANDAR, V. KALIRAJ, P. BALASUBRAMANIAN, S. DEEPA, N.
THAMILARASI, “AUTOMATED UNMANNED RAILWAY LEVEL
CROSSING SYSTEM”. International Journal of Modern
Detecting Distance / Train Stuck
Engineering Research (IJMER) www.ijmer.com Vol.2,
Range Angle Detector Detector Issue.1, Jan-Feb 2012 pp-458-463 ISSN: 2249-6645
Distance(cm) 200cm 300cm [6] Krishna, Shashi Yadav and Nidhi, “Automatic Railway
Gate Control Using Microcontroller”. ORIENTAL
Angle( o) 0 60 JOURNAL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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Power Supply 5v DC 440
[7] Sheikh Shanawaz Mostafa , Md. Mahbub Hossian,
Khondker Jahid Reza, Gazi Maniur Rashid, A Radio Based
Total Cost $50 Intelligent Railway Grade Crossing System to Avoid
Collision. IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science
Issues, Vol. 7, Issue 6, November 2010. ISSN (Online):
1694-0814
B. Experimental Results and Discussion. [8] Acy M. Kottalil1, Abhijith S, Ajmal M M, Abhilash L J,
Ajith Babu, “Automatic Railway Gate Control System”
International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,
To measure the performance of the proposed Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering Vol. 3, Issue 2,
system we conduct several experiments. We design February 2014
[9] K. Vidyasagar, P. Sekhar Babu, R. RamPrasad, “Anti
different cases like stuck on level crossing, train is
Collision and Secured Level Crossing System”. International
apart from the train detector sensor with no stuck, Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume
train crossing the train detector sensor, train crossing 107 – No 3, December 2014
the level crossing, train passed a certain distance from
the level crossing. Based on these cases the Almost in
every case we get the desired result. The performance
of the system does not depend on the speed of the
train, temperature and weather. The accuracy of the
proposed is very laudable. So our proposed system is
very trustworthy.

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