Railway Monitoring Systems

RFID Wayside Reporting System

Railway systems have a vital role in shipping of freight in most countries around the world.  Railway systems operate over a wide range of environmental conditions ranging from the lows of the arctic to the extreme temperatures of equatorial regions.

One example of monitoring and reporting systems deployed within a railway system is wayside reporting.  Making use of RFID technology, these mission-critical systems consist of trackside and rolling stock elements to enable reporting of various key parameters such as: train traffic flow, switching, cargo identifiers, and weight.

The rolling stock element is an RFID tag with tags being mounted on left and right sides of a railcar to indicate orientation and also a tag is mounted at end of train.  The trackside reader element is usually mounted on a pole or within a trackside shed.  This means single board computers that are the heart of the readers must be resilient to wide temperature extremes and vibration.

Railway infrastructure is a long term investment and the systems deployed often require certification.  Systems can be expected to have lifecycles in excess of 20 years.  Longevity of supply of key elements such as the single board computer is therefore very important.

Case Study

A major manufacturer of railway has been developing and deploying Automatic Equipment Identification (AEI) systems using VersaLogic single board computers since 2008. They selected VersaLogic’s EBX-11 (Python) board featuring PC/104-plus expansion and have since migrated to VersaLogic’s EBX-18 (Anaconda) single board computer with the same form factor and connector placement for later systems.   Key factors influencing the choice of VersaLogic’s products included: industrial temperature range of -40° to +85° C, long product lifecycle, reliability, and support.

When building railway, or other systems, you can count on VersaLogic’s expertise to deliver reliable embedded systems. If your application needs a rugged, industrial temperature embedded computer, look no further than the company that has proven its performance for over 40 years.

Benefits:

• Extensive lifecycle support
• Designed in the US
• Tested for shock and vibration
• AS9100 and ISO9001 certified
• Standard off-the shelf, modified COTS, and custom designed products

Whether your application needs a standard off-the-shelf product, or a customized embedded computer, the skilled technical staff at VersaLogic work hard to accommodate demanding specifications. Contact VersaLogic Technical Sales staff today for assistance specifying the ideal embedded computer for your project.