International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)

ISSN: 2278-3075 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-6, April 2020

Automatic Train Protection (ATP) and Signaling

with Accident Avoidance System for Indian
Railways
Sakshi Singh, Jitesh Kumar

Abstract- Automatic Train Protection (ATP) and signaling with Therefore a consistent system is required in order to operate
accident avoidance system for Indian Railways is proposed in this level crossings automatically. The aim of this paper is to
paper which aims to develop p a prototype of a safety system for introduce a economical automatic signaling arrangement for
unmanned level crossing areas and to avoid train accidents due unmanned level crossings that give traffic signal to avoid
to collisions and obstacles. The system consists of two Arduino
accidents and the system also have the provision to stop the
Uno boards, two IR Sensors, two traffic lights on both sides of the
track, servomotor controlled gate and an ultrasonic sensor to stop train if any obstacle or chances of collision is detected.
the train in case of any obstacle in front of running train
.According to the INDIAN RAILWAYS ANNUAL REPORT
AND ACCOUNTS 2014-15 [1] the main cause of accidents were
carelessness on unmanned level crossings and the number of II. EXISTING SYSTEM
injured and killed were maximum due to this reason mentioned
in [1]. The proposed system has automatic traffic light signaling Over the years many researchers have tried to produce a
on both sides of the track which indicates the traffic to stop while system that can automatically handle level crossings. Vinit
the train is moving and the gates on both sides of the track will P. Kharkar in [2] presented a system which uses infrared
automatically close to stop the transport and open after train sensors to senses the movement of train and to control the
crosses the other end. The proposed system will also provide functions Raspberry Pi module is used .The closing and
safety for train collisions. This logic was applied in Embedded C opening of gate is controlled by servo motors.
and programmed to the Arduino Uno.
Xiaomin Zhu and Junyang Li gave a WLAN based
Keywords : Arduino, Unmanned level crossing, IR Sensor,
Microcontroller, Ultrasonic Sensor, Servomotor CBTC(Communication Based Train Control system)for
train protection. This paper gives the studies of general
I. INTRODUCTION structure and modeling of ATP system and establish a model
of brake curve for ATP system which helps in optimal
design of ATP system[4].
Railway is the cheapest and easiest mode of transport for Many mechanical systems have been developed to
a common person but as the population increases it also overcome these problems .Authors in [5] gave a
becomes the most inconvenient and unsafe source. Due to microcontroller based system for unmanned level crossings
the huge burden on railway industry results many problems that control the level crossing gate by instructing the micro-
which includes technical errors and human mistakes at level controller. Whenever train approaches at the sensor, warning
crossings. The area of crossings is a high accidental place is activated for the general population at entryway and the
due to the cross-section of railway track and road intersect gate will be shut. Once the train arrived, this system will
each other .Most of the studies came in to existence to lifts the gate. DC adapted engines are utilized for the
analyze the parameters responsible for mishaps in railways. mechanical operation of gate. They used an installed
In which one of the current studies deals the data of last 16 microcontroller worked on 8051 family for control. The
years that is year 2000-2016 revealed that the major accident microcontroller will follow the instructions to shut or lift the
type was train derailment followed by level crossing gate. This logic was implemented in Embedded C and
accidents. The accident type occurred in Indian Railways uploaded to the Raspberry PI.
over the years followed the trend Derailment >Accidents at Authors in [6] proposed a WSN network model for the
level crossings> Collisions > railway functions which have control centers connected to
Fire in trains > Miscellaneous accidents [3]. It has been the wire lined connection and different wireless sensor
proven in many studies that level crossing accidents and nodes through the rail track. In [7] authors gave a RF tag
collisions are the biggest factors of accidents in railways. system for unmanned level crossings .The proposed system
can also prevent the problem of collisions of trains on
common track by using IR transmitter and receiver system
Revised Manuscript Received on April 30, 2020.
* Correspondence Author at each station. Much research is being done around the
Sakshi Singh*, Department of Electronics & Communication world to address the issue of level crossing. An article in
Engineering, Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad, UP, India. E- this context, proposed in [8], illustrates the use of Ultra wide
mail: [email protected] band technology to Level crossing security and proposes a
Jitesh Kumar, Department of Electronics Engineering,
TeerthankerMahaveer University, Moradabad, UP, India. E-mail: solution related to the combination of UWB connection and
[email protected] optical fibers that continuously integrates all signal
processing processes signal to one remote central unit [8].
© 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/)

Retrieval Number: F4088049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4088.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org
986 & Sciences Publication
 Automatic Train Protection (ATP) and Signaling with Accident Avoidance System for Indian Railways

A system to control railway gate using mechanical and advance for unmanned level crossings. The developed
electrical components has also been published .They uses system provides an audio and visual warning to the traveler
infrared detectors which detects the arrival of train and that warns about an approach of train.
drives the signal to controller. A timer receives the signal In [15] author developed an infrared arrangement for
and displays the remaining time for shutting and opening the ATP. This ATP is the intermittent train protection system
gate according to the situation. which is divided into two parts one is onboard and the other
A motor is used to move an L- shaped cylinder which is is trackside equipment. The equipment also has the receiver
connected from beginning to end to the pinion- rack of infrared which detects and process the train speed, alarm
arrangement. The motion of rack opens or closes the gate and brake. The trackside equipment consists of infrared
without human interference [9]. transmitter that works the transducer.
One another work is proposed by authors in [10] in A. Limitations of Existing System
which railway track occupancy status is detected using 1. These systems do not have the provision to stop the
XBEE module and HC-SR04 (ultrasonic sensor). The train in case of collision or any obstacle.
sensed output of the system gives the Time Difference of 2. Existing system does not have the automatic
Arrival which is used to identify the existence of target. The control on both sides traffic.
detect status is given to the receiver which is placed at level
crossing and it activates the alert mechanism [10]. III. PROPOSEDSYSTEM
Although the system is designed with low cost
components. But the system proposed in this paper is more The proposed system is a microcontroller ATmega328P
cost effective and having more features than any other based system with very low cost. This microcontroller is the
proposed systems. Table I shows the year wise train brain of the system and it is incorporated in a board which is
accidents occur due to different reasons. equipped with some I/O pins which can easily interface with
other circuits. The proposed system has two Arduino boards,
TABLE I-OCCURRENCE OF TRAIN ACCIDENTS IN INDIAN one ultrasonic sensor, and one relay, two servo motors on
RAILWAY FROM YEAR (2000-2016) [11]
both side of the track to close or open the gates of track.
Year Collis Derai Accide Fire Mis Total
ions lment nts at in cella System also has an automatic traffic light signaling system
by s level trains neo on both sides in order to control the traffic .If any obstacle
trains crossin us
g or train comes in front of running train the system will stop
2000-01 20 350 84 17 2 473 the train itself using relay to avoid collision. The
2001-02 30 280 88 9 8 415 methodology flow chart of the developed system is given in
2002-03 16 218 96 14 7 351 figure1.
2003-04 9 202 95 14 5 325
2004-05 13 138 70 10 3 234
2005-06 9 131 75 15 4 234
2006-07 8 96 79 4 8 195
2007-08 8 100 77 5 4 194
2008-09 13 85 69 3 7 177
2009-10 9 80 70 2 4 165
2010-11 5 80 53 2 1 141
2011-12 9 55 61 4 2 131
2012-13 6 49 58 8 0 121
2013-14 4 53 59 7 3 117
2014-15 5 63 56 6 5 135
2015-16 3 65 35 0 4 107
Total 167 2045 1125 120 67 3515
Mean 10 128 70 8 4 220
SD (±) 6.9 89.3 16.4 5.2 2.4 112.9
Authors in [12] investigated an innovative localization
algorithm that centralizes tachometers and inertial
measurement units. In present days, the assessment is done
by an odometry algorithm that formulates on the sensors of
wheel angular speed. The motive of the system was to rise
the accuracy of the odometric assessment, in serious
conditions, for which sensor fusion techniques is used which
is based on Kalman filter theory[12].
Author in [13] designed an alert system that provide alert
to the train operator regarding the traffic at level crossing.
The model has a vehicle locator that detect whether there is
an obstacle stuck at the level crossing. Fig. 1.Flow chart of the proposed system
Authors in [14] designed a system which uses an
upgraded communication between Internet of Things and
Embedded Systems. The system gives a real-time caution in

Retrieval Number: F4088049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4088.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org
987 & Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-6, April 2020

A. Circuit Diagram of Proposed System

The circuit diagram of the whole system is given in figure

2 and figure 3. The figure 2 shows the connection diagram
of the arrangement that will stop the train in case of any
obstacle and figure 3 show the illustration of the system that
automatically controls the level crossing gates.

Fig. 4.Schematic of developed system.

C. Prototype of Developed System

Figure 5 & figure 6 show the images of the prototype of

proposed system. Two Arduino Uno boards are used to
develop the system one board is movable with train and
another board will handle the proper working of traffic
signaling and rotation of servo motors to control the level
Fig. 2.Connection diagram of train control crossing gates .One ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04 is mounted
in front of the train to sense the another coming train or any
obstacle. In case of obstacle found one relay module of 10
A, 1 channel is connected to detach the supply of the train
.Two IR sensors are located near the lane in which one is
placed before the level crossing gate and other is placed
after the level crossing gate to sense the arrival and
departure of the train. Two servo motors SG90 are mounted
to operate the functioning of level crossing gates.

Fig. 3.Circuit diagram to control level crossing gates and

traffic lights.

B. Schematic Figure of Developed System Fig.5. Prototype of proposed system

Another figure 4 shows the schematic of the developed

system. The picture clears the place of all connected
components.

Retrieval Number: F4088049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4088.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org
988 & Sciences Publication
 Automatic Train Protection (ATP) and Signaling with Accident Avoidance System for Indian Railways

circuitry for comparing does the processing and the

indicator LED of green light will light up.
The module has 3 pins GND, VCC and an OUTPUT pin.
It can work on 3.3 to 5V DC voltage. The output pin gives a
low-level digital signal on reflection. The preset of this
module is used to tune the operation. The range of the
effective distance of the sensor is 2cm to 80cm.
D. Relay
A relay is a switch which is electrically operated. It has
inputs terminals to control a single or multiple control
signals, and the circuit will make or break depending upon
the status of input signal. It has normally open (NO) and
normally closed (NC) terminals in which the contacts will
connected.

V. BLOCK DIAGRAM DESCRIPTION

1. The approach of train is detected by the sensor which is
situated on both sides of the level crossing.
Fig.6. Prototype of proposed system 2. Once the train is approached and sensed, the sensed
signal is input to the microcontroller of Arduino board.
IV. COMPONENTS DISCRIPTION 3. According to sensed signal the traffic lights on both
A. Arduino Uno sides of level crossing indicates the road users to stop
Arduino is an open-source electronic hardware board and the motor of level crossing gate start operating by
which consists of hardware and software both which is closing the gate.
handy use. It can read input light on a sensor, can operate
4. The departure of the train is spotted by the sensor which
servo motor and can control traffic light system according to
the given instructions. opens the level crossing gate.
To program this Arduino board one software named 5. In addition one ultrasonic sensor is also connected with
Arduino Software (IDE) is used. the train which senses any obstacle or train collision
The Arduino is a µ-controller board which has further the sense signal is given to microcontroller to
ATmega328P µ-controller. It has 14 digital I/O pins in stop the train for which a relay is connected to make or
which 6 pins can be used as PWM output pins other 6 pins break the connections of train.
connected on other side of the board can be used as analog
input pins, and the board also has 16 MHz frequency which VI. ADVANTAGES OF THE PROPOSED
is generated by a quartz crystal. Board also has a power SYSTEM
jack, a USB point, a reset button to reset the microcontroller 1. Work on real time information processing
and an ICSP header. It consists of appropriate hardware to 2. Automatically train sensing
support the microcontroller and it simply can be connected
3. Less sensitive to vibrations, shock and
to a computer through USB cable or it can be connected to
AC –to-DC adapter or battery to get powered. electromagnetic interference.
B. Ultrasonic Sensor 4. High accuracy in sensing
An ultrasonic sensor is also known as ultrasonic 5. Less operating cost
transducer. HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor is also used in 6. Have the provision to automatically stop
developed system. Sensor’s transmitter transmits an
ultrasonic wave and this wave travels in air and when it gets
strikes to any other material it gets reflected like a VII. RESULT
radar/sonar. The created system has ease of implementation and
Ultrasonic sensor measures the distance travelled by the simple circuitry and the components used for
ultrasonic wave between the emission and reception. It has 4 implementation are also cheap. The system can avoid
pins and a transmitter unit and receiver unit with a control accidents due to train collisions and can handle the
circuit. Pin 1 is used to connect with power supply and pin 4 automatic signaling in crossing areas.
is used to connect the Ground as shown in figure3. Pin 2 is The signals generated by IR sensors instruct the
used as trigger pin and the received signal can be obtained microcontroller to open and close the gate in order to stop
on Pin 3. It can works at maximum of 5V DC supply. The and release the traffic and the second advantage of the
circuit will draw current of 15 mA when the sensor is system is to avoid the collision by stopping the train in case
triggered. The sensor needed an initial 20μs trigger pulse. of obstacle and for this ultrasonic sensor and relay is used to
C. IR (Infrared) Sensor detect the obstacle and cut down the supply of train
IR Infrared Obstacle Avoidance Sensor has two infrared respectively.
LEDs which are used as a transmitting LED and receiving
LED. When the transmitted waves are created ECHOs, then
they will be received by the receiving LED. The processing

Retrieval Number: F4088049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4088.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org
989 & Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-6, April 2020

VIII. CONCLUSION International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Communication

& Convergence, (ICCC-2016).
There is a big challenge to avoid the accidents at the 15. Ahmad Sugiana, MulyoSanyoto, Parwito, M. RachmatGunawan and
positions where there is no one to manage the opening and Key Seo Lee,’’ Infrared System for Intermittent Automatic Train
Protection’’,15th International Conference on Control, Automation
closing of crossing gates of railways. In the developed and Systems (ICCAS 2015)Oct. 13-16, in BEXCO, Busan,
system we are using the servo motor to open and shut the Korea,2015.
crossing gates automatically. The movement of servo motor
is restricted to 90 degrees and it can be rotated anticlockwise AUTHORS PROFILE
or clockwise direction. When the train approaches in a
particular direction the transmitter of the mounted IR sensor Sakshi Singh, is currently an assistant professor in the
Department of Electronics and Communication
senses and it will produces a suitable signal, then at the Engineering, FOE&CS, Teerthanker Mahaveer
same time the receiver of the IR sensor receives the signal University, Moradabad(U.P) India. She is pursuing
and generates an interrupt signal .This signal instruct the Ph.D from UTU Dehradun (Uttarakhand) India. She has
microcontroller to control the servo motor which is about 11 years of teaching experience.
operating the motion of level crossing gates. The traffic light
on both sides of the level crossing gates will stop the road Jitesh Kumar, is currently a Lecturer in the Department
traffic. When the train passes, both the gates will open of Electronics Engineering, University Polytechnic,
automatically and traffic light will indicate to move on the Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad(U.P)
India. He is pursuing Ph.D from UTU Dehradun
traffic. Another important provision is added to the system (Uttarakhand) India. She has about 12 years of teaching
to avoid collisions or accidents due to obstacles for which experience.
ultrasonic sensor is used which can detect the obstacle and a
relay which will act as a switch will stop the train in case of
obstacle is detected. By automating the level crossings in
this way the number of accidents in the level crossings can
be minimized. The system has all the provisions to stop any
possibility of accident.

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Retrieval Number: F4088049620/2020©BEIESP Published By:

DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.F4088.049620 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Journal Website: www.ijitee.org
990 & Sciences Publication