An RFID-Based Fallen Object Detection System: A Case Study of Hong Kong’s Light Rail System

Railways provide convenience and efficiency to the travelling public, with passengers’ safety being the top priority in railway transit systems. Nowadays, with the population increase in many cities, railway safety and punctuality is of concern, and an effective surveillance system is needed to minimize the severity of an accident. The fallen object detection (FOD) system is undoubtedly important in a surveillance system, as it is concerned with accidents that are due to objects falling through platform gaps. With the aid of advanced technology, radio frequency identification (RFID) can be used for further enhancement in providing accurate and prompt information. An RFID-based FOD system (RFFODS) is proposed to ensure railway passengers’ safety. A study of the RFFODS in a mass transit system is reported to illustrate the performance of RF technology for FOD in outdoor environments. The location of an antenna is determined by using the analytic hierarchy process. The feasibility and performance of the proposed system are verified with the results of an extensive on-site experiment conducted in a light rail vehicle station. It is expected that the proposed system would play a key role in establishing an intelligent monitoring system for passengers’ safety in future railway developments.

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