190
OBSTRUCTION DETECTOR USING ULTRASONIC SENSORS
FOR UPGRADING THE SAFETY OF A LEVEL CROSSING
Kazutoshi S A T 0 t
Toshiyuki SHIMIZU 1
f Railway Technical Research Institute JAPAN
1 Matsushita Communication Industrial co., Ltd. JAPAN
? $ Matsushita Electric Industrial co., Ltd. JAPAN
INTRODUCTION
Quite few train accidents, caused by the signal control
system, have occurred since the Japanese National Rail-
way (JNR) was put under private management in 1987.
However, train accidents at a crossing have recently be-
come important problems as the numbers of train den-
sity and vehicle traffic volume are increasing. A train
accident at a crossing is very dangerous because it is not
only a train-and-vehicle-collision,but may cause a sec-
ondary train-collision-accidentif the train runs off the
rails. Therefore, it is an important issue to prevent a
crossing-accident for a safe travel.
A crossing-accident can be avoided by a grade separated
crossing. But for this, it is required to make a huge
construction cost and to consider the environmental
problems like the right to sunshine of the wayside resi-
dents. And all of these have made grade separation
more difficult, even for the main lines.
Several technical means have been taken for crossing-
accident prevention, and the most promising one is to
install an crossing obstruction detector. This equipment
detects an obstruction at a crossing in early stages to re-
port it for a train crew. There are two types of the ob-
struction detector now, one with ray beams and another
Number of
crossings
40000
35000
30000
I
Crossing ’ 1
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
1983 1985 1987 1989 1991
Figure 1: The numbers of crossings and the crossing-
accidents of all JR group from 1983 to 1993
International Conference on Developments in Mass Transit Systems, 20 - 23 April 1996, Cmference Publication No. 543 OlEE 1998
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Hideki ARAI t
Masahiro TAKADA t f;
with loop coils. Neither has not been generally intro-
duced because of their weak points.
Hence, the authors have developed a new obstruction
detector, that can be useful for all lines including one in
the snow-covered area, by studying ultrasonic-based
obstruction detection at a crossing. In this paper, the
authors will explain about the structure and the methods
of the ultrasonic-based obstruction detector first, then
about the safety logic of the detection.
THE SHIFT OF THE NUMBERS OF CROSSINGS
AND THE CROSSING-ACCIDENTS
There are three types crossings on Japan Railway (JR)
lines. Type 1 crossing is installed with an alarm and a
crossing gate. Type 3 is only with an alarm and Type 4
is only with a display sign of Crossing. Neither alarm
nor crossing gate is not installed for Type 4 crossing.
Figure 1 shows the shift of the numbers of crossings and
the crossing-accidents of all JR group from 1983 to
1993. The number of all crossings decreased from ap-
proximately 28900 in 1983 to approximately 23700 in
1993.
This decrease is caused by the accelerated grade separa-
tion andor disuse of crossings. The disuse of crossings
Crossing
accidents is especially due to discontinuing many loss-making lo-
I 800
700
mn
cal railroad lines about that time when the JNR was put
under private management in 1987. In addition, one
thing should be mentioned that Type 1 crossing, which
an alarm and a crossing gate are installed with, has been
increased in number. In contrast, Type 4 crossing has
become fewer. Taking measures to upgrade the crossing
safety, the crossing-accidents have been reduced to half,
fiom 738 in 1983 to 382 in 1993.
1993
year
Recently, however, it has become impossible to pre-
vent a crossing-accident only by the equipment like an
 191
Caused bv etC
Type3
Y!
Typc.4
16%
Figure 2: the causes for crossing-accidents in 1993
alarm and a crossing gate. Figure 2 shows the causes for
crossing-accidents in 1993.
60% of all crossingaccidents was occurred when a vehi-
cle ran across the crossing just before the trains coming.
Besides, about 10% of it was lateral collision, which is
unbelievable in normal cases. Drivers have an obliga-
tion to stop in front of a crossing to make sure their
safety by Japanese Road Traffic Law, but there are
many drivers who dlo not keep the law. Only the equip-
ment like an alarm and a crossing gate is not enough for
this kind of drivers. Therefore, each JR company has
carried out regular campaigns to upgrade drivers manner
at a crossing and accused bad drivers to the police.
On the other hand, 27% of all accidents was occurred
when a vehicle was made stopped on a railroad crossing
by an engine stall failure. For this, it will be effective to
install an obstruction detector, which detects an obsta-
cle on a crossing in early stage and reports it to a train
l e v e l crossing
x
~”
F\;,- - m23 ‘2
A crossing warnings
7%
Ray Transmitter
Figure 3: Conventional method to detect the obstacles
using ray beam
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crew. Each JR company has positively planed to intro-
duce this equipment.
PROBLEMS OF THE EXISTING OBSTRUCTION
DETECTOR
Photoelectric method (light ray, infrared light ray,
and laser)
By this method, an obstruction is detected when the ray
beam of the ray net on the railroad crossing is continu-
ously cut off for a certain time length by an obstacle like
a vehicle. The equipment consists of ray transmitter,
which emits light beam by using semiconductor Imines
cent element, and receiver, which receives the light ray
to activate a detection relay. Figure 3 shows the outline
of this equipment.
This photoelectric obstruction detector has some prob-
lems such as that:
a) cannot be used in the heavy-snow area,
b) may malfunction by infrared light ray method
because of the much beam attenuation volume
toward snow and fog,
c) does not work well for optical axis gap between a
transmitter and a receiver by laser method, though
it works well in snowy and foggy conditions,
d) requires a regular maintenance to clean up lens.
Currently, photoelectric obstruction detectors are not
used in winter though they are already installed at cross-
ings in the snow-covered area.
Leve I c r o s s I ng
Crossing warnings
Figure 4: Conventional method to detect the obstacles
using loop coil
 192
Loop coil method
By this method, an obstruction is detected when the in-
ductance of loop coils was changed when a metallic ob-
ject, like a vehicle, approaches to the loop coil under
the railroad-crossing ground. This equipment consists
of loop coils and a detector for signal processing. Fig-
ure 4 shows the equipment outline.
The loop coil method obstruction detector is applicable
to crossings in the snow covered and frequently fogged
areas as well. At the same time, it has problems such as
is easy to be influenced by the temperature and the
humidity because the signal change owing to
vehicles is small,
hence, requires a regular adjustment of the
detection sensitivity, because the following is late
and the correction range is small, though an
automatic equilibristat corrects it,
the cost for a concrete-paved railroad crossing (a
connecting track), which prevents a loop coil from
its shape change, is high,
Arm
i --
I tenna. A vehicle will be detected when it enters this cir-
i cle. The directivity features of the ultrasonic antenna is
Processing
_ _
Lwie j described in Figure 6.
Obstruction
alarm
.-
Level crossing
Figure 5 : Structure of the obstruction detecting device
I logical unit. Since it is required to have a fail-safe fimc-
Figure 6: Directivity of the ultrasonic antenna
d) can not apply to a steel-plate-paved or a
snow-melting-facilities-installed crossing.
OBSTRUCTION DETECTOR USING
ULTRASONIC SENSOR
Equipment outline
Ultrasonic wave is generally used for object detection
and/or distance measurement since it is easy to get a
sharp directivity and the energy reflectivity is 100%
when ultrasonic wave vertically reflects from an object
in air.
Hence, we have developed a method for obstruction de-
tection on railroad crossing by irradiating ultrasonic
wave from an ultrasonic antenna, installed above the
railroad crossing, to detect an obstacle by the reflective
wave. This equipment consists of an ultrasonic antenna
and a processor as shown in Figure 5.
An ultrasonic antenna consists of a cylindrical ultrasonic
vibrator and an antenna horn, and the frequency for this
is 26 kHz, the transmission sound pressure level is 95
dB. This antenna is to be mounted on an arm at 5.0-6.0
meters above the road surface and to be adjusted to ver-
tically irradiate the ultrasonic wave toward the road sur-
face. The detection range of this antenna is within a
circle with a diameter of 1.2 meters, just below the an-
A processor mainly consists of a signal sending and re-
ceiving unit that sends and receives ultrasonic signals,
inputioutput unit that detects a vehicle or an obstruction
for individual action conditions at a crossing, and a
tion for a processor, the double microcomputers method
with a tight comparison at computer-bus level circuit in
a logical unit is adopted to upgrade the safety level. It is
applicable to various size crossings because signal
sendigdreceiving unit of the processor can be linked
with eight antennas for maximum. In addition, more
signal sendingireceiving unit can be installed.
The detection logic and the safety
This equipment reports an obstruction detection to a
train crew by activating a special signal if it detected an
 193

__

M _ "

0
0 Reflection Wave
E Ultrasonic
1
-:7?7-;ctmm,*;r;777 Gate f o r ground
__
T r a n s m i c s i o n Wave
Sensor
M
0 --E -)----+---

late
D K e f lect i o n W a v e ..
E

2 Vrhicle
(J
1
23
1777,".13;;,7mL-
I
I
Gate
/
for o b s r a c l r s j -
1.
for ground
3 ' 4m
I

Figure 8: Relation between the speed of wind and the at-

-
Transmission Wave tenuation quantity of reflection wave level
I ,r ..
M from the ground
0
I?;
^-

L J

D (Not R e f l e c t i o n W a v e )
E wave couldn't reach to any gate. A series of three Car
I/Existence is to avoid the wind-caused malfunction to the
Ga:e for obstacles
3
G a t e f o r ground best of its ability.
__
Figure 7: Decision of an obstruction using the ultrasonic Figure 8 shows the relation between the wind speed and
reflection wave and gate signals the receiving level of the road-surface-reflective wave.

obstruction for longer time than the appointed time
length. The obstruction detection will be continued until
a train comes up to the crossing. Hence, the obstruction
detection doesn't have to be done when a crossing alarm
is not warning.
For this equipment, it is important to distinguish the ex-
istence of an obstruction (a vehicle) though it is not nec-
essary to detect a detailed vehicle height. According to
the antenna height, we have set a vehicle detection gate
and a road surface gate to know a vehicles existence by
the return of the reflective wave within gates.
Figure 7 shows the signal SendinpJreceiving mode of ul-
trasonic wave and the results of the obstruction detection.
When the reflective wave is returned within a road sur-
face gate, it is Mode 1 and the result is No Car. When
the reflective wave is returned within a vehicle detection
gate, it is Mode 2 and the result is Car Existence.
When the reflective wave is outside of both gates, ,it is
Mode 3. A series ofthree Mode 3 will be resulted in Car
Existence. Car Existence will be taken over until the re-
flective wave from the road surface is normally re-
ceived. Car Existence for the case when reflective wave
is returning to neither gate is to activate the equipment
to keep the safety level, even if the curved surface of a
vehicle diffused the transmission wave and the reflective
The upper line of Figure 8 shows the wind speed change,
the lower line shows the receiving level change of the
road-surface-reflective wave, and the transverse axis
shows the time lapse. For this measurement, ultrasonic
wave was transmitted toward the road surface in every
100 ms from the antenna, installed at the 6.0 meters
high, to measure the receiving level of the road-surface-
reflective wave and the wind speed.
The results show that the receiving level was not succes-
sively attenuated though the higher the wind speed be-
comes, the lower the receiving level will be. Therefore,
the wind speed influence can be mostly eliminated by
the Car Existence judgement when the reflective wave
reaches to neither gate for three measurement in
succession.
Figure 9 shows the ultrasonic sendingreceiving signals,
in case of the normal road-surface-reflective wave, and
an example of measurement at a road surface gate and a
vehicle detection gate.
"a" in Figure 9 is the rectification detection output of a
receiving signal, "b" i s the vehicle detection gate, "c"
is the road surface gate, and "d" is the digital output of
a receiving signal. The first signal in Figure 5 shows the
sending wave and the next signal shows the road-
surface-reflective wave. The transmission time of
 194
Transmission frequency 26kHz
Transmission
a Receiving signal
(detective rectif
b Gate for detecting obstacles
c Gate for detecting ground
d Receiving signal
(digital output)
Figure 9: Example of measuring the reflection wave from the ground
ultrasonic wave is 2.0 ms. The reverberation of ultra-
sonic vibrator makes the sending wave time much longer.
Signals between the sending wave and the road-surface-
reflective wave are multi-reflections caused by the
antenna.
Depending on the antenna height, the necessary time to
open a vehicle detection gate or a road surface gate may
differ. The width of each gate is fixed at 22.5 ms for a
vehicle detection gate and 5 ms for a road surface gate.
The time lapse between a vehicle detection gate and a
road surface gate is to detect an obstruction at 0 3 me-
ters high from the road surface. It is clear from the re-
sult that the road-surface-reflective wave can be
normally received at the centre of a road surface gate.
The necessary time to sendlreceive signals by one ultra-
sonic antenna is fixed at 100 ms for this equipment. The
multi-reflection and the antenna height are considered
for this. Hence, even if more than eight antennas were
installed, the obstruction detection needs just a second.
Considering the alarm behaviours at JRs crossings,
there is no problem for this detection time.
Signals are sentireceived, except for the crossing alarm,
in every five minutes to adjust the onioff timings of
both a road surface gate and a vehicle detection gate
automatically. The onioff timings are adjusted by the
average receiving time that is calculated by the time
length from when you send the ultrasonic wave to when
you receive the road-surface-reflective wave. This en-
ables the equipment to be applicable to the height
change by snow covering.
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Reflection wave
- 2 2
J-3iiiP
L IOms-rt
Operational conditions of the equipment and future
plan
This equipment was introduced at a crossing near Hida-
Furukawa station on Takayama Line, JR Tokai, in
1994 for the first time. Though Hida-Furukawa is well
known as a heavy snow area, the equipment have nor-
mally worked without a mal-detection. The ultrasonic
antenna could have been installed at 6.5 meters high for
Takayama Line because it has not electrified yet. How-
ever, to use this equipment for electrified railroads, it is
required to make the antenna height 8.5 meters to keep a
distance to the electrified railroad line. For this, an ul-
trasonic sensor with higher transmission sound pressure
level has to be adopted to have a sufficient SignalNoise
ratio.
Therefore, we have developed a new sensor, shown in
Figure 10. This sensor has the separated signal
sendingireceiving functions. The maximum transmis-
sion sound pressure level is 124 dB, within the range
that an element stays still, as shown in Figure 11.
Authors have assumed that the loss of road-surface-
reflective level, caused by the road surface shape and
installation error of the ultrasonic antenna, is 10 dB, the
loss caused by wind influence is 20 dB, and the loss
cone
Piezo element \
Figure IO: Piezoelectric unimorph transducer

Figure I 1: Relation between impressed voltage and
sound pressure level of the transducer
(indoor, Im)
=! i i
/---d=kc&."--.
50 -40-:10 20 -10 0 1R 21)30 4Q Stl (dr.9)
Figure 12: Derectivity of the ultrasonic sensor
0 2 4 6
haterrr ti@ (e
Figure 13: Relation between signal detection level
and the antenna height for each impressed
voltages. (144 Vp-p line is measured in
pulse mode that duty is 1 %)
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caused by snow is 20 dB by our study. So, the maxi-
mum loss of road-surface-reflective level is 50 dB in the
nature environment.
The directivity features of this sensor is described in
Figure 12 and the features of distance/signal detection
level to a flat level (as road surface), which are studied
by the indoor tests, are shown in Figure 13. In this fig-
ure, 1.25 Vp-p and 2.5 Vp-p lines are measured in con-
tinuous mode, 144 Vp-p line in pulse mode.
Figure 13 indicates that the aforementioned maximum
loss can be fully covered when the signal detection level
is set at -59.7 dBV, because the road-surface-reflective
level is -9.7 dBV when the sensor is mounted at 8.5 me-
ters high. Whether the signal detection level can be set
1
at -59.7 dBV or not relies on the extemal receiving
noise in the receiving circuit, or on the noise inside a
set. The noise inside a set in the receiving circuit was
measured to be -66.5 dBV, so that it was below 6 dB
than signal detection level. There is no problem for this.
The extemal receiving noise is planed to be studied in
future field test.
CONCLUSION
Obstruction detector using a new developed ultrasonic
sensor is mentioned in this paper. This detector has al-
ready been operated for non-electrified railroad lines.
For electrified railroad lines, a new developed ultra-
sonic sensor is to be verified its performance by field
tests. Field test will be started from October, 1997 in JR
Kyushu and from December, 1997 in JR Hokkaido.
This detector has foresight to be in operation for also
electrified railroad lines.
8 10