A Study on Intelligent Railway Level Crossing System for Accident Prevention

Accidents at level crossing have large portion on train accidents, and causes economical loss by train delay and operational interruption. Various safety equipments are employed to reduce the accident at level crossing, but existing warning device, and crossing barrier are simple train-oriented protection equipments. In this paper, intelligent railway level crossing system is proposed to prevent and reduce accidents. For train driver's prompt action, image of level crossing and obstacle warning message are continuously provided to train driver through wireless communication in level crossing control zone. Obstacle warning messages, which are extracted by computer vision processing of captured image at level crossing, are recognized by train driver through message color, flickering and warning sound. It helps train driver to decide how to take an action. Meanwhile, for vehicle driver's attention, location and speed of approaching train are given to roadside equipments. We identified the effect of proposed system through test installation at Sea train and Airport level crossing of Yeong-dong line.