Automatic Railway Gate
Control & Track Switching
Present
project is designed using 8051 microcontroller to avoid railway accidents
happening at unattended railway gates, if implemented in spirit. This project
utilizes two powerful IR transmitters and two receivers; one pair of
transmitter and receiver is fixed at up side (from where the train comes) at a
level higher than a human being in exact alignment and similarly the other pair
is fixed at down side of the train direction. Sensor activation time is so
adjusted by calculating the time taken at a certain speed to cross at least one
compartment of standard minimum size of the Indian railway. We have considered
5 seconds for this project. Sensors are fixed at 1km on both sides of the gate.
We call the sensor along the train direction as ‘foreside sensor’ and the other
as ‘aft side sensor’. When foreside receiver gets activated, the gate motor is
turned on in one direction and the gate is closed and stays closed until the
train crosses the gate and reaches aft side sensors. When aft side receiver
gets activated motor turns in opposite direction and gate opens and motor
stops. Buzzer will immediately sound at the fore side receiver activation and
gate will close after 5 seconds, so giving time to drivers to clear gate area
in order to avoid trapping between the gates and stop sound after the train has
crossed.
The same principle is applied for
track switching. Considering a situation wherein an express train and a local
train are traveling in opposite directions on the same track; the express train
is allowed to travel on the same track and the local train has to switch on to
the other track. Two sensors are placed at the either sides of the junction
where the track switches. If there’s a train approaching from the other side,
then another sensor placed along that direction gets activated and will send an
interrupt to the controller. The interrupt service routine switches the track.
Indicator lights have been provided to avoid collisions. Here the switching
operation is performed using a stepper motor. Assuming that within a certain
delay, the train has passed the track is switched back to its original
position, allowing the first train to pass without any interruption. This concept
of track switching can be applied at 1km distance from the stations.
The project is simple to implement
and subject to further improvement.
Gate Control:
Railways being the cheapest mode of
transportation are preferred over all the other means .When we go through the
daily newspapers we come across many railway accidents occurring at unmanned
railway crossings. This is mainly due to the carelessness in manual operations
or lack of workers. We, in this project has come up with a solution for the
same. Using simple electronic components we have tried to automate the control
of railway gates. As a train approaches the railway crossing from either side,
the sensors placed at a certain distance from the gate detects the approaching
train and accordingly controls the operation of the gate. Also an indicator
light has been provided to alert the motorists about the approaching train.
Track Switching
Using the same principle as that for
gate control, we have developed a concept of automatic track switching.
Considering a situation wherein an express train and a local train are
travelling in opposite directions on the same track; the express train is
allowed to travel on the same track and the local train has to switch on to the
other track. Indicator lights have been provided to avoid collisions .Here the
switching operation is performed using a stepper motor. In practical purposes
this can be achieved using electromagnets.
