International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research

IJETSR
www.ijetsr.com
ISSN 2394 – 3386
Volume 4, Issue 4
April 2017

Smart Railway Track System using RFID

Rahul P. Kamdi Prasheel Thakre Sandeep Tiwari

ETC department, Electronics & Comm. dept Electronics department
YCCE, Nagpur GRWPY, Yavatmal
RCOEM, Nagpur

ABSTRACT
The Indian Railways is world’s fourth largest railway network in the world. There is a severe problem of collisions of
trains. The train accident generally happens because of human error and failure of the machines. Due to this the Indian
Railways suffer huge losses in terms of money as well as lives of the people. So Indian railway is working in this aspect
to promote the motto of “SAFE JOURNEY”. A RFID based railway track finding system for railway has been proposed
in this paper. In this system the RFID tags and reader are used which are attached in the tracks and engine
consecutively. So Train engine automatically get the data of path by receiving it from RFID tag and detect it. If path is
correct then train continues to run on the track and if it is wrong then a signal is generated and sent to the control station
and as a result of this the engine automatically stops in a minimum time. Another feature of this system is automatic track
changer by which the track jointer would move automatically according to the availability of trains.

Keywords: RFID tags, RFID reader, railways

1. INTRODUCTION
Many train accidents occur annually in India. The train accident generally happens because of human error
and failure of the machines. The Indian railway losses huge amount of money due to cancellation of trains
during winter every year. Also it is quite difficult to run the trains properly during winter season. The main
reason behind this problem is fog. The Indian Railways has worked on many technologies to overcome these
hindrances.
The prototype consists of a small railway engine (loco) and a small wagon. The engine size is kept according to
the size of circuits which are installed in the engine. The wagon is so made that the power supply (batteries) can
be put into it .The power supply is transferred to the circuits in the engine with the help of wires. The model of
the prototype is shown in Fig 1
The loco consists of following circuits
1. Control Panel.
2. Data logger circuit
3. RFID reader circuit
4. Track changer
5. Track jointer control

432 Rahul P. Kamdi, Prasheel Thakre, Sandeep Tiwari

 International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research
IJETSR
www.ijetsr.com
ISSN 2394 – 3386
Volume 4, Issue 4
April 2017

2. Literature Survey
The author has worked on a prototype that leads to innovative approach to tackle with the problem faced by
railways. Although many inventions have taken place in India to curb the problem of accidents and traffic
problem in train. The ACD (Anti collision device) is developed by konkan railways which uses the GPS
technology for tracking the position updates of the train. It is quite helpful and in practice in southern region
of India .But it is inadequate for detection of rail tracks separated by a distance of 10–15 feet because of
limitations of accuracy of GPS in our country. The ACD makes use of embedded controls and a GPS system
thereby preventing collision between trains. However, this system does not take into account factors based on
the environment. As a result, accidents due to other factors such as collapsing of bridges or derailment cannot
be overcome.
The project deals with a system which uses the RFID technology to locate the train. This prototype also leads
to atomization of railways so far. A new system like the black box in aero planes named data logger is also
installed in the system. Data logging is the measuring and recording of physical or electrical parameters over a
period of time. Data loggers are used in a variety of applications such as in-vehicle data logging,
environmental monitoring, structural health monitoring, and machine condition monitoring .If in extreme case
the accident happened the exact information about these parameters can be taken out so that the fault can be
found.
The railway is manipulating new systems to enhance its working .Active and Passive RFID has done a great
advancement in terms of applications. RFID has been used in innumerable applications so far.
The application of RFID is used by many industries for tracking their products. Here passive RFID tags are
used. The passive tag is a RFID tag that does not contain battery, the power is supplied by the reader when it
reaches in proximity with the tag. When waves from the reader fall on a passive RFID tag, the coiled antenna
within the tag starts to induce the magnetic field. The tag draws power from it, and forwards it to the circuits in
the tag.The tag then sends the information encoded in the tag's memory.

433 Rahul P. Kamdi, Prasheel Thakre, Sandeep Tiwari

 International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research
IJETSR
www.ijetsr.com
ISSN 2394 – 3386
Volume 4, Issue 4
April 2017

3. Problem Statement
To design and build a smart railway tracking system using advanced technology like RFID , to avoid collision
of trains and to replace current manual track switching system by an efficient automatic track switching
system. The main objective is to propose new technique which introduces new ways of enhancing the security
measures in railway system and to automate the current system.

4. Working
RFID is an auto ID device like Barcode, Smart cards. Special feature of this technology is that
there is no need of line of sight reception as required in some other technologies. In RFID systems the items
are marked with tags a person, product or animal. These tags contain transponders that emit messages
readable by specialized RFID readers. Most RFID tags store some sort of identification number for example a
customer number or product code. A reader retrieves information about the ID number from a database, and
acts upon it accordingly.
“High Performance RFID for Railway Solutions” a Railway brochure by TagMaster, North America, Inc.
deals with automatic identification and positioning for the rail industry. It describes that the TagMaster
delivers accurate information for maintenance and quality control, traffic and passenger information and
onboard management systems. TagMaster’s RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) system operates in the
2.45 GHz frequency band. These products are used worldwide in railway applications that require
identification and positioning at high speed, with high precision.
The RFID tags and reader have been shown below.

Fig 2: RFID Tag Fig 3: RFID Reader (back view)

The ID-tag is mounted on the moving object and the Reader is stationary. In this configuration, the ID-tag is
mounted directly on to the locomotive or wagon, where as the reader is fixed on the side of the track or on the
sleepers. This configuration is suitable for applications requiring identity or position of a passing train.
The TagMaster system provides accurate and reliable information of a train’s location. This real-time
information is forwarded to IT systems and used to update for example passenger information displays at
stations and terminals. Information about the configuration of wagons within a train set can be provided
automatically with the TagMaster system. The system can for example be integrated with track-side wheel
quality systems, for automatic matching of wagon or wheel axle with a measured value.
In this configuration, the reader is mounted directly on to the train and the ID-tag is fixed on the sleepers. This
configuration is suitable for applications where trains with onboard systems need to know the position of the
train.

434 Rahul P. Kamdi, Prasheel Thakre, Sandeep Tiwari

 International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research
IJETSR
www.ijetsr.com
ISSN 2394 – 3386
Volume 4, Issue 4
April 2017

4.1 Control panel

This Control panel is made in engine and for real application in the engine author has developed another
control panel with the use of LAB VIEW .The control panel in the engine consist of LCD, supply switches,
data pins. LCD is used for displaying the 12 bit unique code of RFID tag. Data input pins are used to program
the microcontrollers in the engine. A 9 pin female connector is used as data input here. A buzzer is also
attached in control panel it create sound when the RFID reader installed below the engine reaches near to the
RFID tag in the tracks. There is specific proximity for the data to transfer from RFID tag to RFID reader. The
RFID tag when come in the range of the reader it sends the data of unique code of each RFID. The
microcontrollers are mainly used to program the working of a train. Microcontrollers are working as the main
domain of the project which are helpful in programming of data logger, RFID receiver, RFID code
transmitter.
4.2 Flow chart

Fig 4: Flow Chart of Control Station Working

4.3 Microcontroller (89s51)

This is the most important segment of the project, i.e. the microcontroller 8051. The controller is responsible
for detection and polling of the peripherals status. It is responsible for making decisions for opening/closing
the door/windows. It is responsible for prioritizing all the devices attached to it.
The AT89S51 is a low-power, high-performance CMOS 8-bit microcontroller with 8K bytes of in-system
programmable Flash memory. It has got 32 I/O lines, Watchdog timer, two data pointers, three 16-bit
timer/counters, six-vector two-level interrupt architecture, a full duplex serial port, on-chip oscillator, and a
clock circuitry.
It is the major part of the system which controls all the operation of the circuit such as LCD interfacing,
square wave generation. It also decides the messages to be displayed on the LCD along with the time duration
for which they should be displayed on the LCD. Microcontroller also decides the frequency of square wave
output.

435 Rahul P. Kamdi, Prasheel Thakre, Sandeep Tiwari

 International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research
IJETSR
www.ijetsr.com
ISSN 2394 – 3386
Volume 4, Issue 4
April 2017

Fig 5: 89s51 microcontroller

4.4 Bluetooth interface

Bluetooth interface is one of the main feature provided for this system. It is used as an important
enhancement. Bluetooth is used to send the indication to the owner of the car. Also it is used to receive the
stop command which is then used to stop the engine.
4.5 KEIL Software Programming Procedure
Step-1) Install KeilMicroVision in your PC, Then after Click on that “KeilUVision” icon. After opening the
window go to toolbar and select Project Tab then close previous project.
Step-2) Next select New Project from Project Tab.
Step-3) Then it will open “Create New Project” window. Select the path where you want to save project and
edit project name.
Step-4) Next it opens “Select Device for Target” window, it shows list of companies and here you can select
the device manufacturer company.
Step-5) For an example, for your project purpose you can select the chip as 89c51/52 from Atmel Group. Next
Click OK Button, it appears empty window here you can observe left side a small window i.e., “Project
Window”. Next create a new file.
Step-6) From the Main tool bar Menu select “File” Tab and go to New, then it will open a window, there you
can edit the program.
Step-7) You can edit the program of either Assembly language or C language
Step-8) After editing the program save the file with extension as “.c” or “.asm”, if you write a program in
Assembly Language save as “.asm” or if you write a program in C Language save as “.c” in the selected path.
Take an example and save the file as “test.c”.
Step-9) Then after saving the file, compile the program. For compilation go to project window select “source
group” and right click on that and go to “Add files to Group”.
Step-10) Here it will ask which file has to Add. For an example here you can add “test.c” as you saved before.
Step-11) After adding the file, again go to Project Window and right click on your “c file” then select “Build
target” for compilation. If there is any “Errors or Warnings” in your program you can check in “Output
Window” that is shown bottom of the Keil window.
Step-12) Here in this step you can observe the output window for “errors and warnings”.
Step-13) If you make any mistake in your program you can check in this slide for which error and where the
error is by clicking on that error.
Step-14) After compilation then next go to Debug Session. In Tool Bar menu go to “Debug” tab and select
“Start/Stop Debug Session”.
Step-15) Here a simple program for “Leds Blinking”. LEDS are connected to PORT-1. You can observe the
output in that port.

436 Rahul P. Kamdi, Prasheel Thakre, Sandeep Tiwari

 International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research
IJETSR
www.ijetsr.com
ISSN 2394 – 3386
Volume 4, Issue 4
April 2017

Step-16) To see the Ports and other Peripheral Features go to main toolbar menu and select peripherals.
Step-17) In this slide see the selected port i.e., PORT-1.
Step-18) Start to trace the program in sequence manner i.e., step by step execution and observe the output in
port window.
Step-19) After completion of Debug Session Create an Hex file for Burning the Processor. Here to create an
Hex file go to project window and right click on Target next select “Option for Target”.
Step-20) It appears one window; here in “target tab” modify the crystal frequency as you connected to your
microcontroller.
Step-21) Next go to “Output’ tab. In that Output tab click on “Create HEX File” and then click OK. Finally
Once again compile your program. The Created Hex File will appear in your path folder.
4.6 Objectives achieved
It was observed that use of traditional RF receiver & transmitter module for transfer of data to the SCU i.e
Side Control Unit was not suitable, instead a better and advanced system for fast data logging and transfer of
data must be used in order to be relevant to today’s world’s needs. So Bluetooth and Android application were
used for transfer of data & data logging respectively. It was observed that for the track changer mechanism
both automatic control for changing of the track and manual changing mechanism were needed. So a module
which provides both automatic & manual control was needed, so Arduino UNO was best suitable for our
problem. The Automatic control could be done by providing a voltage source like a battery or by external AC
supply, while it can be controlled manually through a computer

Fig 6: Overview of circuit connections

5. Results:
The outputs achieved in the projects were as follows:
 Detection of Tags by RFID reader.
 Detection of obstacles by IR sensor, and halting of train on detection of Obstacle
 Display of tags UID in Android app
 Changing of track using Arduino UNO module.

437 Rahul P. Kamdi, Prasheel Thakre, Sandeep Tiwari

 International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research
IJETSR
www.ijetsr.com
ISSN 2394 – 3386
Volume 4, Issue 4
April 2017

In the simulation/working carried out after the successful completion of project the above desired outputs
were obtained successfully.
The RFID tags were detected successfully by the reader and UID codes were successfully transferred through
Bluetooth module to Android application for display. The IR sensor circuit successfully detected the obstacle
which brought the train to halt position.
The track changing mechanism worked properly and both automatic and manual controlof the track was
executed successfully.
All the outputs and results were achieved by simulations carried out over the weeks and the results achieved
were found to be quiet satisfactory

Fig 7: Overview of project

6. Future scope:
 New and advanced technology is yet to be adopted in the current system completely so the collision
problem still pertains. This technology can help in solving this problem to a great extent.
 This technology can be furher improved and made efficient using other advanced technology like
zigbee, GPS.
 RFID can further be used in tracking of vehicles on road,especially in tracking of shipments.

7. Conclusion
The development of this project has shown how much hard work goes into the creation of a system. “Android
Railway Security system” was a project based on microcontroller, due to which hardware requirement is
reduced. Embarking of this project has helped us in developing a team spirit, patience and time management
necessary for today's technical professionals.
Hence we can conclude that the required goals and objectives of our project have been achieved. This project
has built in us confidence that any problem can be solved with sheer determination, hard work and optimism.
We feel that our product serves something good to this world and we like to present it before this prosperous
438 Rahul P. Kamdi, Prasheel Thakre, Sandeep Tiwari
 International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research
IJETSR
www.ijetsr.com
ISSN 2394 – 3386
Volume 4, Issue 4
April 2017

world. By doing this project, we were better able to understand the various facets of doing an embedded
system project which is emerging as one of the most 'in demand' technologies right now.

8. REFERENCES
[1] C.V.L.Sameera, & Chary, M. V. (2013). Design of Intelligent Transport Related Issue System Based On Arm7.
International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology .
[2] Catarinucci, L. (2011). Performance analysis of passive UHF RFID tags with GNU-radio . Antennas and Propagation
(APSURSI), 2011 IEEE International Symposium.
[3] Deavours, D., Ramakrishnan, K. M., & Syed, A. (2005).RFID Performance Tag Analysis. The University of Kansas.
[4] TagMaster, North America, Inc. (n.d.).High Performance RFID for Railway Solutions. Retrieved October 2015, from
http://www.tagmasterna.com/documents/brochures/RAIL_Brochure.pdf
[5] Zhang, X., & Tentzeris, M. (2011). Applications of Fast-Moving RFID Tags in High-speed Railway Systems.
International Journalof Engineering Business Management;2011, Vol. 3 Issue 1, p27.

439 Rahul P. Kamdi, Prasheel Thakre, Sandeep Tiwari