In Japan, there are a lot of high-density railway lines and along the line the long warning time at level crossings has become a social problem. Particularly, about 600 level crossings have a warning time of more than 40 minutes per hour in rush hour. As a result, the traffic of cars and pedestrians is disturbed for a long time. Eliminating level crossings by making overhead crossings has been attempted, but a lot of time and costs are necessary. Therefore, it is an urgent problem to shorten the warning time for such level crossings.Although a constant warning time control for level crossings has been widely adopted at JR East as a countermeasure against the length of time that the level crossing barrier is closed, it requires a lot of hard work on its design and construction as well as testing because its control logic differs in level crossings. In order to cope with this situation, we employed a new train counting sequence, employing two types of counting logic to replace the track circuits. To realize this logic, we only need two starting points and one stopping point. When a train enters one of the two starting points, the train is counted according to the corresponding type. When the train leaves the stopping point, it is subtracted. Thus, we have achieved a train recognition sequence without track circuits. We can apply this simple sequence to all types of automatic level crossings. We are going to incorporate this logic in PLC (programmable logic controller) as a new microelectronic level crossing controller. It is expected to become a product after passing the field test. By using our development, it is expected to reduce the time for design, construction and testing. Furthermore, it is also expected to reduce the number of relays, which leads to a reduction in cost. By the above-mentioned Computers in Railways XIV 87
East Japan Railway Company (JR-East) widely uses obstacle detection systems at level crossings in order to prevent collision accidents between running trains and passing automobiles. One type is the Three Dimension Laser Radar (3DLR), which uses LiDAR technology and has been installed into more than 800 level crossings in JR-East. As the current specification, 3DLR has a lower threshold of detection height. 3DLR do not detect obstacles from the ground surface to the lower threshold height in order to avoid wrong detection, which comes from surface irregularity such as grass-growing. However, it may also happen that a falling down person at level crossing cannot be detected due to the lower threshold. With an increasing demand for safety at level crossing, even a falling down person needs to be detected. Therefore, we have enhanced the detection functions of 3DLR by implementing two algorithms for the lower threshold. One is to follow up each object even below the threshold height so that a falling down person can be detected. The other is to vary the threshold height along with the shape of the ground surface of level crossing so that every object with more-than-threshold-height size can be detected. We have done the field test for about two years at a level crossing in Nambu Line and confirmed that the enhanced detection function with two algorithms work very well with the ability of detection of a falling-down object. JR-East has plan to start using the enhanced detection function of 3DLR in 2020.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.