Resilient Computing Lab
A railway automatic track warning system based on distributed personal mobile terminals
The objective of the ALARP project is to study, design and develop an innovative more efficient Automatic Track Warning System (ATWS) to improve the safety of railway trackside workers.
ALARP ATWS will able to selectively inform the trackside workers about approaching trains on the track, maintenance events on power lines and/or safety equipment in the concerned tracks that may put at risk workers’ safety (e.g. being hit by a train or by an electric shock) emergencies on tracks and tunnels nearby the workers (e.g. fires in a tunnel, toxic smoke, etc.), escape routes in case of emergencies; keep track of the status and localisation of the workers (and especially those at risk, not responding) and of the operating conditions of devices.
The proposed ALARP concept) will be based on the following main components:
- the track-side train presence alert device (TPAD), able to sense an approaching train on the interested track without interfering with the signalling system;
- a set of distributed, low-cost, wearable, context-aware, robust, trustable and highly reliable, wireless Mobile Terminals (MTs) to inform the workers about possible approaching trains and/or other events that could put at risk their safety.