Intelligent Track Cleaning Robot Jesin James Assistant Professor Jesse Wilson,Jovna Jetto,Alna Thomas,Dhahabiya V K BTech Scholars Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engineering Calicut University SCET, Kodakara, Thrissur, Kerala, India jesin39james@gmail.com Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engineering Calicut University SCET, Kodakara, Thrissur, Kerala, India alnathomas94@gmail.com Abstract - From the times of the British raj to this date, scavenging rail tracks has been a puzzling social issue. The fact that humans have to clean human waste and other garbage thrown on rail tracks is a situation that needs immediate remedy. Manual scavenging is done now-a -days, owing to the peculiar nature of the job, and many who are engaged for this job suffer from related health problems. The prevailing condition can be rectified to some extent by the adequate use of robotics and control technology. The proposed idea of automatic railway track cleaning system comprises an automatic vehicle that goes on land and track. This proposed intelligent machine specially designed for the Indian railways can clean the railway tracks in a systematic manner. It consists of a four-wheel running robot with a suction unit, cleaning unit, automatic displacement unit, an intelligent control system, an intelligent train sensing unit, and power unit. This device is the first of its kind proposed to be developed exclusively for the Indian Railways. Also, the railways can save a lot of money on water and labour charges. The application of this project in the current railway cleaning scenario will ensure that there will not be any nauseating scenes at railway stations across the country. We have accomplished some functionality critical in the waste clean-up in railway tracks, and have also tried to find solution for connected problems. Index Terms - Robotics, Automation, Railways I. INTRODUCTION Indian Railways is one of the largest railway networks in the world. Railways cover the entire length and breadth of the country. It has a total track length of 1, 14,500 km, with 7083 stations [1] dotted along. Indian Railways is also the largest employer in the country. It has come up as one of the nation’s fast growing and profit making organizations. However, sadly enough, it has been years since the railways achieved complete sanitation. Open defecation through railways, unclean toilets, choked basins, and littered bogeys and tracks are the causes of the present poor sanitary condition of India’s Railways [1]. The toilets that are constantly in use in the train-coaches are small compartments with hole, through which human faeces is disposed off openly on tracks [1]. Disposing off the human excreta containing various harmful and deadly disease- causing microorganisms into the open tracks and thereby contaminating country-wide rivers, streams etc. Indian Railways is perhaps becoming the biggest mobile source of environmental pollution in the country. And of course, this kind of round-the-clock disposal of vast quantity of human waste in open environments to keep the trains clean is not at all healthy and advisable. The garbage from pantry cars and tray loads of hot meals on station and in train are also thrown off through the doors and windows of bogeys onto the tracks polluting the stations and places all along the train’s way. The existing cleaning process of the tracks and the railway platforms is manual, which is tedious and far from the desired level of sanitation or cleanliness. Manual scavenging deals with maintenance of hygienic conditions through services such as collection and disposal of solid and liquid waste using basic tools like thin boards and buckets or baskets lined with sacking and carried on the head [2][5]. By virtue of the job, many of the workers develop serious health problems in course of time. The health hazards include exposure to harmful gases such as methane and hydrogen sulphide, cardiovascular degeneration, musculoskeletal disorders, infections, respiratory system failure etc. This paper proposes that the prevailing condition can be rectified to a considerable extent by the adequate use of robotics and control technology. The Northern Railway is now undertaking a massive exercise to ensure cleanliness by using track cleaning machines [3]. The team of Northern Railway Diesel Loco Shed, Shakurbasti at New Delhi, has developed the concept for the design of very large, heavy- duty equipment mounted on a Railway wagon for track cleaning. Another similar machine introduced in Network Rail (UK) is the ballast cleaner. A ballast cleaner is a machine that specializes in cleaning the railway track ballast of impurities [4]. But the main problem facing by these machines are they are massive. These machines are intended to clean only the major stations and fails outreaching of minor stations. We need huge investments to build and operate such machines considering the huge networks of Indian Railways. This paper attempts to identify the main technical elements contributing to the design of cleaning robots. The paper is organized as follows. Section 3 describes some of the mechanical configurations and methodologies used. It also presents a list of design requirements and discusses some of 332 978-1-5090-2396-7/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE Proceedings of 2016 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation August 7 - 10, Harbin, China