The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) of Indian Railways is planning to establish a new AI-based locking monitoring system – ‘Drishti’ – in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati Technology Innovation and Development Foundation (IITG TIDF).
- Indian Railways is planning to establish a new AI-based locking monitoring system – ‘Drishti’. It is an AI-based freight train locking monitoring system.
- The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has joined hands with the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati Technology Innovation and Development Foundation (IITG TIDF) to develop this system.
- The purpose of the Drishti system is to address operational challenges in identifying open or tampered doors of moving freight trains – a persistent safety and security issue in rail logistics.
- The new AI-based solution is designed to provide real-time monitoring, detect anomalies in the door locking mechanism, and automatically generate alerts without interrupting train operations.
- It uses strategically installed AI-powered cameras and sensors to capture and analyze door conditions and locking states. It uses advanced computer vision and machine learning techniques for detection purposes.
- Drishti is expected to improve freight security, enhance wagon sealing integrity, and reduce dependence on manual inspection processes.
- After the successful completion of ongoing trials, plans are underway to further refine and expand the system for wider adoption across the freight corridors of NFR.
Kavach system
- Launched in the year 2020, Kavach is a cab signaling train control system with collision-avoidance features developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with three Indian vendors.
- It has been adopted as the National Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system. It complies with Safety Integrity Level-4 (SIL-4) standards and acts as a vigilant supervisor over the existing signaling system, alerting the loco pilot when approaching a ‘Red Signal’ and automatically applying brakes if required to prevent signal passing.
- Safety Integrity Level is a measure used in functional safety standards to quantify the level of risk reduction provided by a safety function. SIL is defined in the range from SIL 1 (lowest level of safety integrity) to SIL 4 (highest level of safety integrity).
- The system also broadcasts SoS messages during emergency situations. It includes centralized live monitoring of train movements through the network monitor system.
Components of Kavach:
- First, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is integrated into the track. RFID uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify information from a wireless device without the need for physical contact or line-of-sight.
- Second, the driver’s cabin (locomotive) is equipped with an RFID reader, a computer, and a brake interface device. Finally, radio infrastructure including towers and modems is installed at railway stations.
