BRAZIL: Ideas and concepts to improve safety at level crossings are to be developed and tested under plans announced by freight concessionaire Rumo.
Four proposals have been selected for development under the Fuse programme to identify and implement safety improvements, which was launched by the operator in May 2020. More than 180 entries were submitted from organisations in countries ranging from Canada to Israel, Portugal and Switzerland, and 20 were shortlisted for further assessment. The four winning entries will each receive R$200 000 towards the development of prototypes and field trials.
Finalist Harpia from Divinópolis in Minas Gerais proposes the use of drones to alert train drivers to movements on level crossings.
A project developed by UTrem of Almirante Tamandaré in Paraná state envisages reducing the collision rate at level crossings by the intelligent use of visual stimuli to attract the attention of motorists.
Lastro of Florianópolis in Santa Catarina state intends to promote and disseminate a safety culture at locations where there are railways.
Tribuzana, also of Florianópolis, aims to combine artificial intelligence and data to reduce the number of pedestrians struck by trains at level crossings, through the analysis of near-miss images taken by digital cameras mounted on locomotives.
Rumo believes that the Fuse programme has helped to stimulate entrepreneurship. ‘We can say that 65% of the initial ideas came from teams made up of individuals who brought together colleagues and friends to propose solutions to the sector’, reported Director of Technology Roberto Rubio Potzmann. ‘The teams were able to develop meaningful and coherent proposals to tackle one of the biggest rail issues around the world: safety at the intersection between the railway and urban roads. The challenge now is to improve the concepts so that they can be applied and evaluate their results.’
A further evaluation of the field trials is planned for October, when one or more of the winning organisations may be awarded a substantive contract.
