AUTOMATIC SHUTTLING OF METRO TRAIN BETWEEN

STATIONS
S.Jayachitra1, Santhosh H2, Shivani G3
1
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Electronics department, MVJ College of Engineering,
Bangalore, India
2,3
Electrical and Electronics department, MVJ College of Engineering, Bangalore, India

Abstract Introduction Automatic train control- As

The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate definition, the ATC refers to the whole system
the technology used in driverless metro trains which includes all the other automatic functions.
which are functioning in many developed The overall ATC system must incorporate the
countries. A driverless prototype train is functions of Automatic Train Operation (ATO),
designed using ARM7 microcontroller that Automatic Train Protection (ATP), and
enables the automatic operation of the train Automatic Train Supervision (ATS). These are
from one stop to another. The proposed the three functional areas of the ATC, they can
system aims in reducing the human be briefly described as;
intervention is metro trains to as minimum as  Automated train operation (ATO) - This
possible which in turn reduces the possibility subsystem is responsible for the automatic
of human error. In this project LPC2148 operation of throttle and brake commands
microcontroller has been used as CPU. The to move trains between stations and
automatic stopping of the train is carried out stopping locations.
by RFID reader, which enables the train to  Automatic Train Protection (ATP) – This
stop when the RFID reader senses the RFID subsystem is responsible for the safety-
tags placed in the stations. The door of the critical functions including train
trains is also enabled to operate automatically protection.
and IR sensors are placed near the doors to  Automatic Train Supervision (ATS) – This
count the number of passengers leaving and subsystem is responsible for the centralised
entering the train. The train is also equipped supervision and control of train movements
with an obstacle detecting unit which stops the including office management server
train when it senses an obstacle and the functions associated with train protection.
necessary information are displayed on an Automatic Train Control (ATC) makes use of
LCD. machines to perform all or most of the functions
Keywords: LPC2148, RFID, IR sensors, DC of the train control in the normal mode of
motor, LCD. operation. ATC procurement specifications vary
I. INTRODUCTION
greatly in terms of approach and level of detail;
but the trend in the newer systems is toward a
There has been much advancement in the urban more quantitative form of specifications,
railway transit, starting from the engine to the particularly for reliability, maintainability, and
metro trains and to recent automatic metro trains. availability requirements. Automatic train
Driverless metro train is an intelligent and control reduces the involvement of human in the
innovative mass transit solution. Driverless operation of trains. There exists a need for
technology meets a certain number of objectives effective and efficient transport system with all
involved, including high capacity, speed and the increase in population. The driverless trains
regularity, reduced operational cost, adaptability, provide effective solutions to many issues such
and flexibility in terms of human resources; it as time delay or irregularities, high capacity and
fulfils the idea of new approach to mobility. cost etc. In this project a prototype train is

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enabled with a CPU to perform the regular railways” [6]. This paper gives the idea about the
operations automatically. Arm7 microcontroller terminologies such as Grades of Operations
is used as CPU, it is used to perform the (GoA), and the several types of it. GoA1 is a
automatic operation as well as the automatic manually operated train, GoA2 is an automated
opening and closing of door, the train is equipped train with a driver in it to perform crucial
with a RFID reader which enables the train to operations, GoA3 also has an automated train but
stop automatically when it reads the data from it has a train attendant in the passenger car, GoA4
the RFID reader, IR sensors are placed near the is a fully automatic train which doesn’t require
door to count the number of passengers entering any supervision [4] Yap Kwee Seng, Ng Hon
or leaving the train, the train is also enabled with Wai, Dr Samuel Chan, Leong Kwok Weng wrote
obstacle detecting unit which detects any a paper which give the necessary steps to be
obstacles in front of the train and stops it. taken to ensure the safety availability and,
reliability of the metro trains.
A. Literature review
The “Mythologies, Metro Rail systems and
Thabit sultan Mohammed, Wisam Fahmi Al- Future Urban Transport” [7] by Dinesh Mohan
Azzo, Mohammed Ahmed Akaak and gives reasons as to why the improvement of
Mohammed Laheeb Suroor proposed a concept metro systems is necessary to increase the access
on “Full Automation in Driverless trains” [1]. and mobility in India. It also gives the
The system concept proposes a solution to some information about the History, technology and
of the major challenges related in existing metro urban transportation from the pr-1850 till the
trains systems. They used PIC microcontroller as recent developments. It also addresses the
CPU and to stop the train automatically they used problems such as “sustainable urban mobility”
IR sensors. which were faced during construction of the
The unmanned train operation (UTO) which Indian metro system and how they dealt with it.
doesn’t require a driver’s supervision is not a
recent development. Several other countries such B. Problem in the present system
as France, japan, had been testing out new Rail based ’Mass Rapid Transit System’ has
technologies in this aspect, however there are been widely accepted as a solution for most of
fully functional driverless systems in countries the traffic and environmental pollution related
like Dubai [2], which has the world’s longest problems which major cities are facing
fully automated system .The first driverless throughout the world. With the increasing in
metro in Torino, Italy [3] is also one of the traffic demand, coupled with increasing in
successful metro systems in the world. They used number of vehicles on road, the traffic
the Siemens VAL technology as a key element to congestion has significantly increased over the
implement a fully automated metro system to past years. In order to improve the public
provide a very high level of performance. Their transportation system, the Mass rapid Transit
main aim was to address the traffic congestions Systems have been provided or being planned in
and also to address the structural circulation various parts of the world. Metro rail is a form of
problems. V Sridhar wrote a paper on mass transit public transport system employing
“Automated System Design for metro train” [5], trains.
it provides certain new applications such as The main problems existing in the system are
automated announcement system using voice IC
 Constant need of human interference to
and radio frequency for tracking station data. It
ensure the safe operation.
also mentions the usage of encoded RFID tags
 The implementation requires high cost
which are placed in every station, while the train
and the installation consumes more time.
is equipped with a reader, when the train comes
in contact with the RFID tags the reader receives  Since the current system depends on man
the data and is programmed to stop when power for operation there exits risk of
receiving the data while announcing the station safety and many discrepancies.
details with the help of a voice chip. Judith M.
 Over occupancy is also one of the major
Cohen, Alexander S. Barron, Richard J.
problems in the existing system as it may
Anderson, and Daniel J. Graham wrote the paper
cause train delays and disrupt the
called “Impacts of unattended train operations on
schedule.
productivity and efficiency in metropolitan

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PROPOSED SYSTEM The motion of the prototype is controlled by the
L298H motor driver interfaced with the ARM7
C. Description of System
Our proposed system reduces human microcontroller by controlling the rotation of two
intervention by making the train operation motor. Name of the each station is displayed in
automatic therefore reduces the risk of safety and the LCD as the prototype stops after reading the
availability. RFID tags and the door opens, this operation is
The automatic passenger counting enables to done by L293D motor driver which operates the
point the heavy load point and adjust the door by controlling the rotation of a single motor.
schedule therefore reducing the over occupancy The door closes when the prescribed time is
and also preventing train delaying. The obstacle reached or when the maximum occupancy is
detecting unit prevents from any accidents by reached; the LCD also displays the opening and
sensing any interference to the train movement. closing of door. The passenger counting
operation is done with the help of two IR sensors
The system will also display the necessary placed at the door, one sensor counts the
details about the stations on the LCD display. passengers entering and the other sensor counts
When the train arrives at the stations it reads the the passenger leaving the train. The front of the
8 bit data stored in the RFID tags and the train train is mounted with an IR sensor which is
interfaced to the microcontroller. It acts as an
stops automatically. Two motor drivers are used
in this project, one for the train movement and obstacle detection unit along with the buzzer,
the other one is for door operation. Power supply when the sensor senses any object in front of the
of 12V is used for operation. train, the train stops while the buzzer gives a
warning sound.

Fig. 1
D. Working
The circuit consists of ARM 7 LPC2148 Fig.2
microcontroller, RFID reader, IR sensors, DC
motors, motor drivers, buzzer, battery and LCD.
The heart of this project is ARM 7 controller.
It acts as CPU and the LCD, RFID, IR sensors
and the motor drivers are interfaced to it. The fig
1 shows the block diagram if the circuit where
the microcontroller acts as the CPU and it takes
input from RFID through universal synchronous
and asynchronous protocol (UART). The input
from IR sensors are taken to count the passengers
and also the controller is programmed to stop the
train upon sensing the RFID tags and after
stopping it is programmed to open and close the
Fig.3
door automatically with the help of motor drivers
Components
L293D and L298H, after a prescribed time.
 LPC2148 microcontroller
Microcontroller takes the supply of 12V from the
lead acid battery.  16x2 LCD display
 L298H driver
 L293D driver

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 DC motors  L298H driver- It is a dual H bridge motor,
 IR sensors it can drive two motors simultaneously in
 RFID readers and tags forward or reverse direction. It can work in
 buzzer 5- 35 volts and up to 2 amps per channel.
 L293D motor driver- It is a quadruple Half
 LPC2148- It is a microcontroller based on H Bridge motor driver integrated circuit.
a 32 bit ARMTDMI-S CPU with 8 kB to The motor operations of two motors can be
40 kB of on-chip static RAM and 32 kB to controlled with the pins 2 and 7. Its supply
512 kB of on-chip flash memory. It also voltage ranges between 4.5 to 36 volts. It
has In-System Programming or In- has separate input- logic supply.
Application Programming (ISP/IAP) via
on-chip boot. It consists of Multiple serial  IR sensors- An infra-red sensor is an
interfaces including two UARTs electronic instrument senses certain
(16C550), two fast I2C-bus (400 kbit/s), it characteristics of its surroundings by either
has 64 pins out of which 48 are general emitting or receiving infrared radiation.
purpose and the rest are reserved pins. It The IR sensor consists of IR LED and a IR
has up to 45 of 5 V tolerant fast general photo diode. Its output voltage ranges from
purpose I/O pins in a tiny LQFP64 3 to 5 volts and has a detection range of 2
package. It also has On-chip integrated to 30 cm.
oscillator operates with an external crystal  RFID- RFID stands for radiofrequency
from 1 MHz to 25 MHz. It consists of two identification. It comprises of a small chip
Analog to digital convertors.. CPU with a small antenna and a small integrated
operating voltage range of 3.0 V to 3.6 V circuit. The RFID tags will have 8 bit data
(3.3 V ± 10 %) with 5 V tolerant I/O pads. encoded in them. RFID reader will have
IT also has Two 32-bit timers/external coils and when the RFID tags come in
event counters (with four capture and four range of the reader, it detects the data in the
compare channels each), PWM unit (six tags.
outputs) and watchdog timer and a Low
power Real-Time Clock (RTC) with  Buzzer- piezoelectric buzzer is used to
independent power and 32 kHz clock input alarm when the IR sensors detects any
obstructions to the train.
 LCD- A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a
flat panel display, electronic visual E. Conclusion & Future Scope
display, or video display that uses the light This system can be further improved in future
modulating properties of liquid crystals. by making use of high-speed sensors which
Liquid crystals do not emit light directly. enables fast and more efficient operation. In the
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen is an future this system can be improved by creating a
electronic display module and find a wide highly reliable metro trains with the help of new
range of applications. A 16x2 LCD means automatic train control and protection by the use
it can display 16 characters per line and of communication based train control, by
there are 2 such lines. In this LCD each implementing this the human intervention can be
character is displayed in 5x7 pixel matrix. further reduced as a results it reduces the threats
This LCD has two registers, namely, which are caused by human error.
Command and Data. The command
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