01-05-2013, 02:40 PM
Microcontroller based Automatic railway gate control
The Present Scenario
Generally the railway crossings are of two types
1.Manned
2.Unmanned
A lot of time is wasted due to this particular system.
Many errors occur due to the manual operation of the entire system.
The Automatic railway gate
The arrival and departure of trains is done by the sensor set.
The automatic railway gate has two main advantages:
1. The reduction of time for which the gate is being kept closed.
2. To provide safety for the road users by reducing the accidents as there is no scope of human errors in this case.
The Detailed Description
Initial Signal Display
Train Arrival Detection
Warning for Road Users
Sensing For Vehicles
Gate Closing Operation
Signal For Train
Train Departure Detection
Gate Opening
Interrupt
Working of the Sensor set
All the above 3 sensors are ANDed together and they form a single sensor set.
So to trigger the entire set, we need to trigger all the above sensors.
The reason why we go for this type of sensor set is to make it triggered ‘only’ by a train thus this increases the reliability of the system.
Microcontroller
This forms the brain of the entire system.
Atmega 328 using arduino platform is used for the programming of this logic.
Microcontroller “Atmega 328” performs
the complete operations of
Sensing
Closing of the gate
Opening of the gate operation done by software code written on the controller.
Algorithm
1: Make initial
settings of the
signals for the
train and road users.
2: Check for the arrival of the train in either direction by the sensors. If the train is sensed go to 3 otherwise go to step 2.
3: Make the warning signal for the road users and set the signal for the train.
4: Check for the presence of any obstacle using sensors. If no obstacle, go to step5 otherwise repeat step4.
Advantages
Prevention of accidents inside the gate.
Reliable machine, which operates the railway gate even without gatekeeper which makes it useful for operation at unmanned crossings.
Power supply for the motor operation and signal lights is required.
Battery which is charged by means of a solar cell can be used in remote areas where the power supply can’t be expected.
Disadvantages
To establish the entire network it is quite a costly task. Since these are the issues of the government cost doesn’t matter a lot.
The Arduino board is a delicate device so it has to be handled carefully.
Conclusion
Avoids manual errors & provides ultimate safety to road users.
Gatekeeper not necessary and automatic operation of the gate through the motor.
The mechanism works on a simple principle.
The Present Scenario
Generally the railway crossings are of two types
1.Manned
2.Unmanned
A lot of time is wasted due to this particular system.
Many errors occur due to the manual operation of the entire system.
The Automatic railway gate
The arrival and departure of trains is done by the sensor set.
The automatic railway gate has two main advantages:
1. The reduction of time for which the gate is being kept closed.
2. To provide safety for the road users by reducing the accidents as there is no scope of human errors in this case.
The Detailed Description
Initial Signal Display
Train Arrival Detection
Warning for Road Users
Sensing For Vehicles
Gate Closing Operation
Signal For Train
Train Departure Detection
Gate Opening
Interrupt
Working of the Sensor set
All the above 3 sensors are ANDed together and they form a single sensor set.
So to trigger the entire set, we need to trigger all the above sensors.
The reason why we go for this type of sensor set is to make it triggered ‘only’ by a train thus this increases the reliability of the system.
Microcontroller
This forms the brain of the entire system.
Atmega 328 using arduino platform is used for the programming of this logic.
Microcontroller “Atmega 328” performs
the complete operations of
Sensing
Closing of the gate
Opening of the gate operation done by software code written on the controller.
Algorithm
1: Make initial
settings of the
signals for the
train and road users.
2: Check for the arrival of the train in either direction by the sensors. If the train is sensed go to 3 otherwise go to step 2.
3: Make the warning signal for the road users and set the signal for the train.
4: Check for the presence of any obstacle using sensors. If no obstacle, go to step5 otherwise repeat step4.
Advantages
Prevention of accidents inside the gate.
Reliable machine, which operates the railway gate even without gatekeeper which makes it useful for operation at unmanned crossings.
Power supply for the motor operation and signal lights is required.
Battery which is charged by means of a solar cell can be used in remote areas where the power supply can’t be expected.
Disadvantages
To establish the entire network it is quite a costly task. Since these are the issues of the government cost doesn’t matter a lot.
The Arduino board is a delicate device so it has to be handled carefully.
Conclusion
Avoids manual errors & provides ultimate safety to road users.
Gatekeeper not necessary and automatic operation of the gate through the motor.
The mechanism works on a simple principle.