FPGA Based SOC for Railway Level crossing Management System
R. Ramachandran1, J. Thomas Joseph Prakash2
1R.Ramachandran, Research scholar, Department of Applied ElectronicsPhysics (Interdisciplinary) Manonmaniam Sundaranr University, Thirunelveli, Tamilnadu, India.
2J. Thomas Joseph prakash Department of Physics, H.H. The Rajah’s College, Pudukkottai – 622001, Tamilnadu, India.
Manuscript received on July 01, 2012. | Revised Manuscript received on July 04, 2012. | Manuscript published on July 05, 2012. | PP: 134-137 | Volume-2, Issue-3, July 2012. | Retrieval Number: C0720052312 /2012©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: It is to develop the FPGA based, System on Chip (SOC) to implement the safety system in Railways for level crossing. For the communication RF module[1] with the coverage of large distance, that is Outdoor line-of-sight: up to 15 miles (24 km) with high gain antenna is used. RF Transceiver has many salient features[2], such as, Advanced Networking & Security, True peer-to-peer (no “master” required) communications, Point-to-point & point-to-multipoint topologies supported, Continuous RF data stream up to 9600 bps, No configuration required for out-of-the-box and Support for multiple data formats (parity, start and stop bits, etc.). An article authored by Mr. R.K. Verma, Chief Engineer, Indian Railways exposes the Corporate Safety Plan [3] of reduction of accidents on Indian Railway (IR) by the year 2012-13. In which, he stated that Collisions of the Trains can be completely eliminated. Derailments can be reduced by 60% and fire accidents by 80%. But, he has not given assurance on possible improvement in level crossing (LC) accidents, as there is no control over the circumstances that lead to such accidents. Train Actuated Warning Device (TAWD) – for sensing an approaching train two kms ahead and to sound an audio-visual warning device at level crossing gates (mainly unmanned ones), helps to reduce accidents at level crossings by giving adequate warning to road users. LC accidents not only dominate in terms of frequency, but can be more severe in their consequences than other types of railway accidents, simply because they can involve injuries and fatalities to railway passengers, as well as, to road vehicle occupants and other users of LCs. Accidents at LCs accounting for 22% of the total accidents on IR were responsible for 49% of total fatalities during the last decade. Increasing road construction and road vehicle population create greater opportunity for LC accidents to happen. Therefore to avoid this, a well designed sophisticated security system is needed. Hence we developed a prototype system using FPGA based SOC to ensure safety, particularly at unmanned level crossing.
Keywords: FPGA, SOC, Level crossing, cyclone II device, EP2C35F672C6