Intelligent Railroad Grade Crossing: Leveraging Semantic Segmentation and Object Detection for Enhanced Safety

TL;DR

This paper presents an AI-powered system using computer vision techniques like YOLO-based object detection and UNet segmentation to improve safety at railroad grade crossings by detecting approaching trains and preventing accidents.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ensemble model combining YOLO variants with NMS for object detection and applies UNet segmentation on a Raspberry Pi for real-time crossing safety management.

Findings

96% precision in object detection

98% IoU in segmentation accuracy

Effective real-time monitoring on low-cost hardware

Abstract

Crashes and delays at Railroad Highway Grade Crossings (RHGC), where highways and railroads intersect, pose significant safety concerns for the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Despite the critical importance of addressing accidents and traffic delays at highway-railroad intersections, there is a notable dearth of research on practical solutions for managing these issues. In response to this gap in the literature, our study introduces an intelligent system that leverages machine learning and computer vision techniques to enhance safety at Railroad Highway Grade crossings (RHGC). This research proposed a Non-Maximum Suppression (NMS)- based ensemble model that integrates a variety of YOLO variants, specifically YOLOv5S, YOLOv5M, and YOLOv5L, for grade-crossing object detection, utilizes segmentation techniques from the UNet architecture for detecting approaching rail at a grade crossing. Both methods are implemented on a Raspberry Pi. Moreover, the strategy employs high-definition cameras installed at the RHGC. This framework enables the system to monitor objects within the Region of Interest (ROI) at crossings, detect the approach of trains, and clear the crossing area before a train arrives. Regarding accuracy, precision, recall, and Intersection over Union (IoU), the proposed state-of-the-art NMS-based object detection ensemble model achieved 96% precision. In addition, the UNet segmentation model obtained a 98% IoU value. This automated railroad grade crossing system powered by artificial intelligence represents a promising solution for enhancing safety at highway-railroad intersections.