News Kintetsu introduces IoT-based remote condition monitoring system for railroad crossings; Softbank and amnimo provide technical cooperation

Illustration of the level crossing remote condition monitoring system

　Under the technical cooperation of Softbank and amnimo, Kinki Nippon Railway (Kintetsu) has been working to improve the efficiency of business operations by promoting the digital transformation (DX) of the railway industry. A remote monitoring system (railroad crossing remote condition monitoring system) was constructed and introduced to Kintetsu railroad crossing facilities in November. The system has already been put into operation at two locations (Osaka Line and Nagoya Line), and will continue to be installed at other railroad crossings. At Kintetsu, we are reviewing the way workers work in order to operate the railway business stably and soundly into the future, as labor shortages due to population decline have become a social problem. We were considering remote work support for work that cannot be confirmed without being dispatched to the site, such as when an abnormality is detected in various equipment such as railroad crossing equipment or when an accident occurs at a railroad crossing. This time, we have built a level crossing remote status monitoring system that can remotely check the operation records of level crossing equipment and images from surveillance cameras in the event of an abnormality, and introduced it into our level crossing equipment. The railroad crossing remote condition monitoring system uses SoftBank's LTE line to transmit operation records and surveillance camera images obtained from railroad crossing equipment. Specifically, the operation recording device and surveillance camera of the railroad crossing equipment are connected to the LTE line compatible edge gateway "AG10" provided by amnimo, and the remote connection service "remote.it" (remot3) provided by Softbank. .it) is used to transmit data and images to the administrator's PC. Since remote.it does not require a global IP and enables peer-to-peer (P2P) communication between private IPs, data can be transmitted securely while reducing the risk of unauthorized access and eavesdropping from outside. . Kintetsu has introduced a railroad crossing remote status monitoring system that enables remote monitoring of railroad crossing equipment such as railroad crossing control devices, alarms, gates, etc., as well as images from surveillance cameras. Work efficiency can be expected. In addition to railroad crossing facilities, we will also consider applying the system to other facilities, such as monitoring electrical equipment in garages, in order to improve work efficiency through the use of IoT.