The introduction of a GPS-based locomotive tracking system (LTS) can ease the management and ensure the efficient use of a steel plant’s rail transport infrastructure.
Figure 1. Left: Six ladles coupled to a locomotive.
Right: Close-up of a locomotive, with an indication of scale.
GPS-based Locomotive Tracking Systems
A basic GPS-based locomotive tracking system consists of one control centre and a number of mobile units. The mobile units, which are installed on the locomotives, determine their position using a GPS receiver. They communicate with the control centre in a wireless way. The control centre communicates with the different mobile units and offers location services to the end users.
In our application, the required accuracy for the locomotives’ position is about 50 meters, which can be achieved with just about any GPS receiver available off the shelf. The central station also needs reference position data of the rail track network over the entire steel plant as well as point of interest data along the rail tracks such as the position of the blast furnace, rolling mill, coke ovens etc. This data can be collected using a hand-held GPS receiver with the facility to record waypoints along the rail tracks. This data can then be overlaid on a map with the help of GIS/mapping software such as ArcViewTM, MapInfoTM etc.
In very general terms, the control centre’s function is data management and dissemination of location services. Location data, geocoded data or map data needs to be managed and manipulated at the control centre in order to provide various services to the users. The technical requirement for geoencoding services can vary from uncomplicated to demanding. Our requirement in this locomotive tracking application is simple: one should be able to know where the locomotives are located and in which direction they are moving.
