Next-Generation Railway Safety: Designing an Automatic Gate System with Voice-Activated Alarms

Abstract

Railway crossings are high-risk areas that demand constant vigilance and attention to ensure the safety of passengers and other road users. Automatic gate systems have been widely used to mitigate these risks, but their effectiveness is limited by the reliance on visual cues and their inability to alert drivers or pedestrians who are deaf or hard of hearing. To address this limitation, we propose a voice-activated automatic gate railway system that uses voice commands to control the gates and employs an audio alarm to alert road users of the approaching train and will give also alarm who walk on the railway. Our system consists of a voice recognition module, a control unit, and a network of sensors that detect the presence of trains and road users. When a train is detected, the gate closes automatically, and the system generates a voice alarm to alert nearby road users. The voice recognition module ensures that the system can be operated hands-free, making it convenient for drivers and pedestrians. Moreover, the audio alarm feature ensures that people with hearing impairments are alerted to the approaching train. We evaluated the performance of the proposed system using a prototype installed at a railway crossing in a high-traffic area. Our results demonstrate that the system is reliable and effective, with a high degree of accuracy in voice recognition and a low false positive rate. Our findings suggest that the voice-activated automatic gate railway system with an audio alarm is a promising solution to enhance the safety and security of railway crossings.