On March 23, Bureau Veritas Inspection and Testing issued the final evaluation report, which certifies that the Obstacle Detector system developed by Dominion’s Artificial Vision area, Begirale, meets the requirements of a SIL3 system, according to the CENELEC standard EN50126-1: 2018, EN50126-2: 2018, EN50128: 2011 AMD2014 and EN50129: 2003 AMD 2010.
It is the first system based on Computer Vision in the world to achieve such a certification and opens the door to the possible widespread use of this type of technology in the railway sector.
As described in the report, the system aims to avoid the consequences of an undue occupation of the level crossing area by a road vehicle when the crossing protection system is active.
To do this, the Obstacle Detector system processes the video signal from a camera installed in the level crossing in real time, automatically identifying its occupation status and providing that information through a safe connection.
The Begirale Obstacle Detector system is the evolution of the Begicrossing system, which was the first Computer Vision system for automatic supervision of level crossings in the world integrated with railway signaling systems. This system has been operational for 5 years, contributing to a perfect result of 0 accidents in the supervised level crossings, through which more than 1.5 million trains have circulated in this period.
The first implementation of Begirale’s SIL 3 Obstacle Detector has been carried out in the Basque Railway Network, ETS, the regional network of the Basque Country, which is once again at the forefront of railway innovation, with more than 20 level crossings secured using Computer Vision.
