Research on the Key Issues of Railway Collision Avoidance System

The railway collision avoidance system(RCAS) based on direct train-to-train communication allows train autonomous detection of imminent collisions.RCAS designed as a safety overlay system shall warn and advise train drivers in dangerous situations.Additional safety is provided by RCAS which is independent of the regular traffic control mechanisms.RCAS has the potential to increase efficiency in the future,such as shorten the distance between sequencing trains.The RCAS architecture,positioning algorithms,communication link design and collision detection mechanism are discussed in this paper.The research status and future research directions of RCAS are also introduced.