Progress beyond the state-of-the-art
SDOMET is developing fully adaptable system for the monitoring of all the station areas (tracks and platform). The system is composed by a combination of sensors, radar, thermal and artificial vision which together constitute a breakthrough in the State-of-the-art technologies for safety and automation in the railway industry.
Current detection systems are able to confirm the presence of an object in a specific area, but they are not able to discriminate and categorize the object as dangerous, not dangerous, people or their behaviour. We have identified several similar tests performed in Munich and Copenhagen that have compared LIDAR, Radar and Vision technologies with non-satisfying results.
SDOMET will be able to determine any potential hazardous situation and inform the train, the station and/or the control unit in the operator headquarters, according to the customer needs and specifications. We have developed the software for discrimination of the object in the tracks by different state-of-the-art methodologies like Motion Detection and Deep Neural networks (Deep Convolutional Neural networks and Support Vector Machines Classification). So the system is trained by real situations and learns and improves its database as time goes on.
SDOMET will be the first bottom-to-top platform, covering from the sensors installed in the tracks and stations to the backbone of operation system in the headquarters of the operator. We can connect the system with ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) signalling systems, if it is necessary, in order to control the train operation.
Expected potential impact
SDOMET has the potential to increase hugely the safety level of any railway (new or existing). The technology can reduce 40% of the accidents that may occur in the railway stations. The economic cost of each accident is very big, stopping a complete line, moreover, the personal costs of the accidents, more than 5.000 in Europe annually, is enormous.
The system can also be implemented in all types of stations, unlike the main competitor, Platform Screen Doors, and its costs are a 70% lower. So the user benefits are huge, and the potential impact on the railway industry can increase the mobility while reducing the railway service interruptions.
