Abstract
Increasing demand for rail transportation results in denser and more high-speed usage of the existing railway network, making new and more advanced vehicle safety systems necessary. Furthermore, high traveling speeds and the large weights of trains lead to long braking distances—all of which necessitates a Long-Range Obstacle Detection (LROD) system, capable of detecting humans and other objects more than 1000 m in advance. According to current research, only a few sensor modalities are capable of reaching this far and recording sufficiently accurate data to distinguish individual objects. The limitation of these sensors, such as a 1D-Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), is however a very narrow Field of View (FoV), making it necessary to use high-precision means of orienting to target them at possible areas of interest. To close this research gap, this paper presents a high-precision pointing mechanism, for the use in a future novel railway obstacle detection system, capable of targeting a 1D-LiDAR at humans or objects at the required distance. This approach addresses the challenges of a low target price, restricted access to high-precision machinery and equipment as well as unique requirements of our target application. By combining established elements from 3D printers and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines with a double-hinged lever system, simple and low-cost components are capable of precisely orienting an arbitrary sensor platform. The system’s actual pointing accuracy has been evaluated using a controlled, in-door, long-range experiment. The device was able to demonstrate a precision of 6.179 mdeg, which is at the limit of the measurable precision of the designed experiment.
Highlights
Existing railway networks are reaching their operational capacities due to rising global demand for rail transportation
We propose to develop a combined camera-Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor system capable of providing accurate and reliable obstacle detection and positioning at large distances
Recorded encoder position values have been converted to the corresponding gimbal attitude in degrees based on the previously described system kinematics and a system calibration obtained from a subset of the measurement points
Summary
Existing railway networks are reaching their operational capacities due to rising global demand for rail transportation Reasons for this include increasing international trade and changing consumer behavior due to raising environmental awareness and changes in personal mobility needs. New railway operation modes require reliable communication between rail vehicles, and continuous, accurate and robust localization (European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 0–2 [1]) of each train, and environmental awareness in the form of Long-Range Obstacle Detection (LROD). Due to the high weight and velocity of rail vehicles, and the lower traction limiting the braking force, long distances are required for safe braking [2] Given these circumstances, obstacle detection systems need to be capable of reliably detecting and positioning possible dangers at long ranges, greater than 1000 m
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