Railway crossings are one of the crucial and most dangerous crossings in the world. A railway crossing or the level crossing is the crossing where the railway lines cross the roads or paths. The opening and closing of gates involves human operation through the manual lever pulling method. This will result in the increase of accidents at the railway crossing if the lever gets jammed at the time of arrival of the trains. But is it possible to control the railway crossing gates automatically. Yes, it is possible to control it automatically. The Android controlled railway crossing gates application helps to overcome all these problems. The opening and closing of gates can be controlled automatically through this application.

The Android Controlled Railway Crossing Gates project is designed to achieve control over the railway level crossing gate through Android Application by the station master. Opening and closing of railway level crossing gate involves manpower, which could be often erroneous leading to accidents. The proposed system rules out the need of any human involvement at the railway level crossing. This system involves opening and closing of the level crossing gate with help of an Android Application Device. Remote operation is achieved by any smart-phone/Tablet etc., with Android OS, upon a GUI (Graphical User Interface) based touch screen operation. A Bluetooth device is interfaced with the system. When the station master sent command to close from the Android application device (when the train is approaching at the level crossing) to the Bluetooth device which while fed to the microcontroller, sends an output signal which activates a mechanism to switch on the motor to close the gate. To open the gate, another command needs to be sent for the microcontroller to open the gate with help of motor driver IC. In this project we use a microcontroller of 8051 family, and the input to it is a Bluetooth device which receives command from the user Android application. The output to microcontroller is given to a motor through a motor driver IC for required operation. The status, whether the gate is open / close is displayed on an LCD display interfaced to the microcontroller. Further the project can be enhanced by sending an acknowledgement to the sender about the status of the gate.

Some people will be not aware of the railway crossings if they are new to the areas. Even people living in the same areas where the railway crossings will be there will usually forget about the railway crossings. They rush out with their vehicles. Some railway crossings will not have any indication of it being there. Sometimes there might be the fault of the level operator in closing or opening the gates. All these reasons result in the loss of precious lives of human beings. The Android application will act as a remote in controlling the railway gates. This will not require any human labor to manually open and close the railway gates. It can notify the station master about the arrival of the trains at the nearby levels. It will also help in reducing the number of accidents that occurs due to the delay of opening and closing of railway gates. The user interface must be simple and easy to understand.  This application will be very useful, reliable and economical at huge traffic areas, rural areas where there will be the movement of many trains.