(12/07/2011)  Grupo Eurogestion presents the first R+D+i Spanish Project focused on tracking and tracing wagons and merchandises in freight railway transport using new technologies based on Internet of Things (IoT), Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN).

In the last Rail Spain 2011, the International Meeting on Rail Transport Technology celebrated in Zaragoza, Grupo Eurogestion introduced his new R+D+I project, developed initially with the Polytechnic University of Madrid (DIATEL group).

The goal of this project is to develop a technological system in order to provide tracking, tracing and control mechanisms in the full logistic chain for the freight transport (domestic and international) initially in the scope of Railways. It will be applied to the wagons and containers where the goods are being transported, as well as to the parts of these vehicles. The system uses technology based on Internet of Things (IoT), Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID), Radio Telecommunications (GSM, GPRS, UMTS…..), Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and GPS (at the moment and Galileo in near future). It will be designed to trains, but it can also be applied to any transport mode.

This system aims to improve quality of rail service by providing real time tracking. It could be taken by companies due to the following aspects: low total cost in the implementation (the devices are easy to install on wagons or containers), the maintenance and operation, the long life of the devices and the high value added to the companies.

This system use WSN to enable to supervise the state of goods by measurement of some kind of physical variables in real time. Each wagon with a specific and unique ID identifies the merchandises inside it using RFID and WSN nodes and it is able to measure any variables with different sensors. Some of the nodes are equipped with GPS.

The devices developed for this application must have at least 1 year warranty lifetime without maintenance (5 years desired). These devices will have small size and light weight. The devices also must have a high degree resistance to environmental conditions: rain, humidity, snow, ice, wind, vibrations, interferences, pressure changes, extreme temperature changes (heat, cold).

European Standards

The system will follow the European standards for the specification and demonstration of reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) for railway applications.

It will be possible to configure the nodes to set the limited values in these variables in order to identify significant changes. The key variables to measure are: Temperature, Vibrations, Presence of gases (mainly for dangerous goods), Humidity and lightness (especially for perishable goods).

The sensor installed on wagon must measure the temperature of the axels of the bogies.

Each node should be connected with his neighbors establishing a network in an intelligent environment becoming an information store (the base station) in order to receive, process and transmit data to the control centre. It will send only the significant information. The system will be a self-configured system able to include new vehicles at the convoy and this network will ensure the self-checking and communication security. It will be able to overcome failure and avoid errors ('Resilience capacity').

It is important to assure that the system will optimize energy consumption of the devices and, in addition, it will obtain energy from alternative sources (energy scavenging methods).

This system will be autonomous and it will not be based in the installation of infrastructure sensors or readers along the track. It will only use WSN to enable the measurement and transmission of real time information between its components. The devices will not interfere with other devices installed in vehicles or infrastructure.