IT202000027074A1 - SYSTEM FOR SAFETY OF OPERATORS AND/OR EQUIPMENT PRESENT IN A SITE - Google Patents

Description

DESCRIPTION of the Industrial Invention entitled:

"System for making operators and/or equipment present on a construction site safe"

DESCRIPTION TEXT

The invention relates to a system for making construction site personnel safe. In particular, the present invention relates to a system for activating audible and/or visual alarms and placing operators and bulky equipment in individual safety in a railway yard while maintaining at least one track adjacent to the yard itself.

State of art

When carrying out work on a railway track, the only way to of execution of? activity? ? the interruption of traffic on this track where the work is being carried out.

As regards, on the other hand, any tracks physically adjacent to the one affected by the works, to ensure the safety of personnel and/or the integrity of equipment present in construction sites set up along a railway line, ? foreseen the use of:

- mobile barriers of various types designed to clearly identify and make the border between the area involved in the works and the tracks in operation perceptible; - automatic train detection and announcement devices commonly called Automatic Track Warning System (ATWS).

The mobile protective barriers are safety devices suitable for creating a permanent visual and physical delimitation between the work site area and the adjacent operating tracks; the delimitation of the work area? aimed at avoiding involuntary access to the tracks in operation by the personnel working on the site.

The ATWS alarm systems, on the other hand, perform the function of: a) recognition of the arriving train (via a special pedal on line or via connection with the signaling system);

b) activation of audible and/or visual alarms at the construction site;

c) notification to signaling or to the cover agent of the authorization to resume running of trains.

These devices, although they perform their function very well, are not able to provide an adequate level of safety, for example of the SIL4 type, as they do not provide a mechanism capable of acquiring with certainty the individual safety status of the operators and of bulky machinery before sending the authorization for train transit, but only the activation of a collective alarm. The verification of the safety of the operators and of the bulky equipment is, in fact, the responsibility of the supervisors distributed along the construction site who visually monitor the positioning of people and equipment on the construction site.

There? can? be a problem for safety especially when, in the absence of sufficient visibility? near the construction site, the person in charge of safety is not? capable of providing safe and precise information on the positioning of all the personnel and bulky machinery present on the site at the time of the arrival of a convoy.

A system whose security ? entrusted predominantly to?manual intervention of one or more? operators not ? only particularly risky, but it is also not suitable for modern safety standards used for the command and control of trains such as, for example, the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS).

Purpose of the present invention? the creation of a system capable of increasing the level of safety of the devices currently used for the safety of the personnel and machinery of a construction site, in particular railways.

The invention achieves the aim with a system for making operators and/or equipment present in a construction site in the vicinity of the of a railway line or a road section following a visual and/or audible warning signal sent by a detection and announcement device (ATWS) or by any unit? of network and/or construction site supervision when a means of locomotion approaches said construction site, which system includes:

- a mobile virtual barrier that identifies a safe area of the construction site within which operators and equipment can stop in safety; - at least one portable individual device associated with each of said operators and/or equipment present in said construction site;

- a?unit? control unit (PC), or an interface associated with it, configured to receive a safe status signal from each individual device and send a consent signal for the transit of the locomotion vehicle when all safe status signals have been received from each device individual. Each portable individual device ? configured to transmit to said unit? central unit, or to said interface connected to it, a confirmation signal of positioning in a safe area inside the mobile virtual barrier, for example in response to pressing a button, following receipt of the visual alarm status and/ o construction site sound, possibly preceded by a first signal of acknowledgment of the alarm signal. The mobile virtual barrier ? dynamically settable according to at least one parameter associated with the means of locomotion approaching the construction site, such as, for example, speed, lateral dimensions, length, type of means of locomotion and similar parameters.

In this way ? possible to increase the level of safety in a construction site, for example, a railway without altering the structure of the detection and announcement system and of the relative communication system with signaling for the possible blocking of the passage of the train, all without having to resort to devices vital intrinsically safe since the system ? based on a redundant consent mechanism in combination or as an alternative to a satellite system for detecting the position with centimeter precision.

To this end, the individual device can? include a form for recognizing the position within the construction site. This form? interfaced with the? unit? central so that this unit? control panel is able to locate each individual device equipped with said module within the construction site. The secure status signal may, therefore, include a signal that the individual device has been located in the secure area within the moving virtual barrier.

According to an improvement, pu? be provided for a mechanism for verifying the integrity? of localization, which mechanism ? configured to verify in real time the measurement error of the localization of each individual device equipped with a recognition module with respect to one or more? references placed in known locations.

In the presence of measurement errors exceeding a certain threshold or background noise which does not allow detection with a pre-set level of accuracy, the unit? central ? programmed to deactivate the position information for the determination of safe status and/or expand or in any case move the mobile virtual barrier so as to make the positions detected with poor accuracy fall within the unsafe area so? to prevent the sending of the consent signal for the transit of the train until the position of all the operators is not ? confirmed within the new secure area by localization with an adequate level of error and/or manual consent sent by an operator.

To mitigate the risks of an unsafe location, pu? be used a subsystem that employs a GNSS network to pi? satellite constellations with independent hardware and software and at least two permanent reference stations capable of independently detecting the position of men and/or vehicles with a redundancy such as to guarantee safe detection even with the use of non-SIL4 commercial devices.

The position detection subsystem can? advantageously employ the Real Time Kinematic (RTK) differential technology applied to the observations of pseudo-random codes available to civil users in the various satellite constellations, for example using the DGPS differential technology, to ensure continuity? of the positioning with constant accuracy to parit? of geometric configuration of the overall satellite constellation.

Again to increase the level of security in localization, individual devices can include multi-constellation dual-frequency receivers for position detection.

According to another aspect, the invention relates to a method for making operators and/or equipment present on a construction site near the construction site safe. of a railway line or a road section following a visual and/or audible warning signal sent by a detection and announcement device (ATWS) or by any unit? of network and/or site supervision when a means of locomotion approaches said site, which method involves the following steps:

- define a mobile virtual barrier that identifies a safe area of the construction site within which operators and equipment can stop safely on the basis of the dimensions of the construction site and the speed? of the means of locomotion approaching the construction site;

- provide for an individual portable device to be associated with each of said operators and/or equipment present in said construction site;

- receive from said portable individual device a safe status signal or confirmation of positioning in a safe area within the mobile virtual barrier following receipt of the construction site?s visual and/or audible alarm status;

- send a consent signal for the transit of the means of locomotion when all the safe status signals have been received by each individual device.

Can? Is there the further step of detecting the position of the individual devices and sending the consent for the transit of the means of locomotion only if the position of all the individual devices ? inside the safe area defined by the mobile barrier so? to further increase the level of security.

In an implemented form ? present the step of continuously detecting the measurement error of the position of each individual device using references located in known positions and operating differential corrections to increase the precision of the position measurement.

Can? the use of Real Time Kinematic technology with phase measurements for position determination in a GNSS system with at least two satellite constellations can be advantageously envisaged.

Particularly interesting? the use of the system and of the method according to the invention on a railway line controlled by systems that exchange information between an on-board subsystem (SSB) and a ground subsystem (SST) via radio transmission (GSM-R) via a radio block center (RBC), such as, for example, the level 2 European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). In this case, the presence of the construction site can be advantageously signaled to the radio block center via a track occupation signal while the transmission of consent to train circulation in the vicinity? of the construction site can, however, take the form of a clear track signal.

Further characteristics and improvements are the subject of the subclaims.

The characteristics of the invention and the advantages deriving from it will become clearer from the following detailed description of the attached figures, in which:

Fig. 1 schematically shows a construction site set up around an interrupted track section of a double-track railway line.

fig. 2 shows a block diagram of the system according to an embodiment of the invention.

Figs. 3 and 4 show two block diagrams of the individual device used in the system according to the invention.

Fig.5 shows a block diagram of the system according to another embodiment of the invention which provides for the use of secure localization techniques.

fig. 6 shows a possible scenario for making operators and/or equipment present on a construction site safe according to the teachings of the present invention.

Fig. 1 schematically shows a double track railway line, one of which in operation indicated with reference 1? and one with interrupted transit 1. On interrupted track 1? ? a construction site area 101 is indicated, delimited in the figure by a dotted line.

When a train 2 ? approaching the operating track 1?, the workers present in the construction site area 101 must move, together with any machinery, to a safe area, identified with the reference 201, whose minimum extension ? function of the characteristics of the approaching vehicle, in particular of its lateral dimensions and its speed?, in order to guarantee a safe transit in proximity? of the construction site.

The necessity? of moving men and vehicles to a safe area obviously also exists when the construction site ? set up outside the track forbidden to traffic, but still in the vicinity? of an operating track whenever there is a risk of interfering with the gauge of the passing train.

so that is the personnel able to recognize a dangerous situation which requires moving to a safe area, ? the use of train detection and announcement devices called Automatic Track Warning System (ATWS) is commonly envisaged.

These devices are responsible for detecting the presence of a train in conjunction with a construction site, by means of a special pedal in line or connection with the signaling system, sending visual and audible alarm signals, authorizing the passage of the train on the basis of a street command free sent by the site safety officer. In figure 2 these devices are indicated with the reference 3. Alternatively or in combination? It is possible to envisage that the alarms are sent, and the consents received, from the control center responsible for managing the signaling for that particular section of track, also known in jargon as ACCM (Central Apparatus with Multistation Calculator).

In traditional systems, the site safety officer ? equipped with a terminal 4 interfaced with ATWS and/or ACCM with which it sends the signal enabling train movement once the positioning of all workers in a safe area, typically delimited by mobile barriers of various types, has been ascertained and the machinery.

According to one aspect, the invention provides for the use of a system 5 capable of being inserted between the ATWS/ACCM and the terminal 4 of the person in charge to guarantee the safe transmission of the all-clear signal to the train.

Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of this system 5 indicated in dotted lines to highlight its interfacing with the terminal of the supervisor 4 and the ATWS/ACCM device 3 described above.

The heart of the system? represented by individual portable devices 205 to be associated with the operators and/or with the equipment present in the construction site interfaced with a unit? central, in the present description also identified as central place (PC), which pu? be the terminal of the proposed 4, the? interface 105 towards the ATWS/ACCM 3 device, the same ATWS/ACCM 3 device or a unit? interfaced to it capable of communicating with the individual devices 205 located in the construction site area, typically via wireless network, such as WIFI, Bluetooth, Zigbee and the like or mobile telephony, such as, for example, the GSM/UMTS/ LTE or dedicated data networks.

As shown in Fig.3, each individual device 205 typically comprises a transmitter 405, a rover receiver 505, an audible and/or visual output device 705, and a push button 805 interfaced to a microcontroller 605 programmed to read the information received from the unit ? central office (PC), send alerts or messages to the output device 705, receive an input from the worker to whom the device ? associated via the 805 button, send a signal of consent to the unit? central (PC). Such consent? typically the confirmation of? the safety of the worker and of the machinery in charge of this worker, but it can? can also be the simple confirmation of receipt of the alarm signal relating to the arrival of the train with the consequent preparation of the worker for the safety measures to be sent at a later time. Only when all individual devices have sent safe status signals and these signals have been received by the central location ? It is possible for the central station to send a signal enabling the transit of the train in a similar way to what occurs in traditional systems. Fig. 6 shows a scenario which envisages the central station communicating with the signaling system to stop a train in transit at a construction site and delay its departure until personnel and vehicles are in a safe area.

Thanks to the use of such a system of confirmations, security within the construction site is? guaranteed. This can be further increased by exploiting, in combination or as an alternative to manual consent via button, an automatic identification system of the position of workers and machinery which allows to establish their positioning in a safe area even in the absence of manual confirmation.

There? allows you to dynamically check the extension and position of the safe area since? the successful positioning within this area is independent of the observation of the space delimited by mobile barriers by the operator and the relative manual confirmation of safe status, confirmation that it can? however always exist to increase the level of security. ? it is possible, in fact, to provide that consent is always provided by the worker, but, for example, when he is inside a more visible security delimitation area? large dynamic area. ? a system is also provided for the protection of the accidental sending of consent by the worker through protection with a removable mechanical cover and enabling of the consent button by rotation. There? allows a double safety check, To allow the automatic identification of the position of the workers and the means associated with them, the individual device can? be advantageously equipped with a satellite receiver identified with the reference 905 in Fig.4.

Individual devices 205 transmit to the unit? central 4 a GNSS location of the operators which is displayed to the manager as a support to the management of personnel and means.

An implementation including a high accuracy worker location identification system ? shown in exemplified form in Fig. 5. It is the same scheme as in Fig. 2, in which ? element 305 has been added which represents a reference GNSS network for the measurement of differential corrections to be applied to the position signal.

Real-time GNSS positioning with accuracy, reliability and and safety, in site areas contained within a few kilometres, is carried out taking into account the following aspects:

? the phase observations are used only in the activation phase for the definition of the references: they guarantee higher accuracies of about an order of magnitude (centimetres), but they are:

- less reliable due to ambiguity? of the data (the ambiguity of the initial phase is unknown)

- affected by cycle slip (need to repeat the cyclical process due to loss of contact between satellite and receiver due to accidental interruptions in reception of satellite signals caused by obstructions);

? the operators' real-time localization system uses Real Time Kinematic (RTK) differential technology applied to code observations (DGPS differential technology); this technology is based on the use of all possible pseudo-causal codes available to civil users in the various constellations. The code observations require no initialization time (or reinitialization after a cycle slip) and ensure continuity? of the positioning with constant accuracy to parit? geometric configuration of the overall satellite constellation (PDOP index value - Position Dilution of Precision).

? the detection of the position of the rover receivers worn by the site operators is carried out with respect to two reference stations (master receivers) of the RTK type; are the master receivers installed at both ends? of the construction site. The use of two master stations guarantees:

- greater reliability,

- greater availability? (the maintenance of functionality? in case of failure of one of the two),

- greater security (in the event of non-compliance, the system detects unsafe behaviour).

? Is a continuous detection of the measurement error carried out in order to guarantee the reliability? and the safety of the system: upon installation of the construction site, before activation, the coordinates of the four vertices of the perimeter of the construction site itself are detected using the method? RTK with phase measurements; the phase measurement guarantees centimeter accuracies which allow these positions to be used as references with respect to decimetric measurements; are placed on these vertices fixed rover receivers in real time operation during the activities? of construction site. The positions of these receivers, aimed at monitoring, are compared in real time with those initially determined and taken as a reference; a difference greater than a pre-set threshold, between the instantaneous position and the reference one, allows to identify anomalous behaviors due for example to multipath phenomena; exceeding the threshold safely disables the use of operator location for security purposes.

? The individual devices use multi-constellation dual-frequency receivers to maximize the number of satellites and the number of observations available. The use of single-frequency receivers in the event of distances between the reference stations and the rover receivers contained within a few kilometers guarantees excellent results in correcting the location data, but the use of dual-frequency systems makes it possible to further improve accuracy, ?reliability? and system security. ? An augmentation system such as EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) guarantees accuracy in the absolute and non-differential determination of position of the order of 1-2 meters, decidedly lower than the pre-set target and by what is possible? get in mode RTK and is not taken into account in the implementation of the system.

As a whole, the localization system can? be cos? configured:

? two permanent reference stations (master stations),

? four rover ?monitoring? placed on known positions (aimed at real-time evaluation of system accuracy and identification of anomalous situations),

? the use of pseudo-random code observations on all available constellations,

? dual-frequency systems that guarantee un?accuracy better than 50 centimeters with reliability? verified and guaranteed in real time and in a safe way.

According to another aspect, the invention relates to a process for guaranteeing the safety of the worker in the railway yard through an automated fail-safe safety system, with a central station equipped with a unit? of processing and communication, including the steps of:

- define a safe area within which men and vehicles can move even while a train is passing. This area? traced and dynamic or changes its extension depending on the speed? of the arriving train and the dynamics of the construction site. The definition of the area can? take place online (single or with multiple tracks) or in the station (complex station).

- provide that each worker is equipped with an individual portable device possibly equipped with satellite tracking which detects his position within the construction site.

- receive from said portable individual device a safe status signal or confirmation of positioning in a safe area within the mobile virtual barrier following receipt of the construction site?s visual and/or audible alarm status;

- send a consent signal for the transit of the means of locomotion when all the safe status signals have been received by each individual device.

When a train arrives, following the acoustic signal from the construction site, the portable device ? able to verify that the operator is inside the safe area and, if not, to transmit a personalized alarm to the worker who must get inside the safe area and send feedback of received alarm and safety to the central place

The central post receives and processes at any time the position of workers and vehicles on site and the status of the network (timetable, train arriving from signaling or from ATWS, etc.). When a train arrives, the central seat is ? able to supervise communications with site operators, activate the alarm, check the position of workers and manage emergencies (operators and/or vehicles outside the safe area).

If the dangerous situation persists, the central station dialogues with the railway signaling systems which order the stop or the reduction of speed. automatic to automatic train braking systems; when the dangerous situation is removed, the dialogue of the central station with the signaling systems allows the train to resume running.

Consistent with the type of signaling adopted on the line and automatic braking on board, the train manages its operations automatically during an emergency. For example on a railway line controlled by systems that exchange information between an on-board subsystem (SSB) and a trackside subsystem (SST) via radio transmission (GSM-R) via a radio block center (RBC), such as, for example, the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) level 2, the presence of the construction site can be advantageously signaled to the radio block center via a track occupation signal. In this case, the transmission of consent to train circulation in the vicinity? of the yard can? correspondingly take place in the form of a free track signal in a completely independent manner from the type of cause that determined it.

Are there multiple possibilities? of installation and management of the system according to the invention. Some of them are described below for explanatory and non-limiting purposes.

1. Construction site activation scenario

? Installation of RTK reference stations;

? Laying rover monitoring error at the ends? of the construction site: ? Supervisor designs construction site area on the terminal (start and end kp, speed limit on adjacent track, virtual barrier coordinates, kp CdB (track circuit) for train identification in approach/ATWS pedal laying point, kp construction site protection signal /ATWS signal laying point);

? Supervisor confirms Kp of start and end of construction site and virtual barrier coordinates via portable GNSS terminal;

? Responsible for checking the battery status of portable terminals;

? Supervisor activates wireless transmission in the construction site area;

? Supervisor associates portable terminals with authorized operators on the supervisor's terminal, delivers them and activates them:

? Supervisor checks the presence of all and only registered terminals on the terminal.

1.1 WITH ACCM

? Supervisor forwards to the station terminal equipped with ACCM a request for site activation (start and end Kp, speed limit on adjacent track, train announcement Kp for site clearance);

? Supervisor receives confirmation of CU on site from the station terminal equipped with ACCM;

? Supervisor activates construction site activation sound signal.

1.2 WITH ATWS

? Laying pedals and ATWS signals;

? Supervisor activates construction site activation sound signal.

2. Train announcement scenario and construction site safety

? The terminal in the station receives the approaching train information from the ACCM and forwards it to the supervisor's secure terminal or the ATWS pedal forwards the approaching train information to the supervisor's secure terminal;

? Responsible receives alarm on approaching train on secure terminal? The terminal of the person in charge enables the light and sound signal command of the train approaching the adjacent track via ATWS;

? The supervisor's terminal sends the individual terminals alarm activation light and sound signal and consent activation for alarm recognition;

? Individual terminals activate the acknowledge button for alarm;

? The operators acknowledge the alarm;

? The operators move to a safe area;

? If the GNSS system can be activated according to the necessary safety requirements, the terminal of the person in charge receives the positions of the operators in the safe area and conditions the activation of the second recognition to the localization;

? The manager's terminal sends an acoustic and visual signal to the operator terminals and enables recognition for a safe area;

? Operators recognize their position beyond the virtual barrier in a safe area.

2.1 TRAIN TRANSIT SCENARIO

? Operators recognize their position beyond the virtual barrier in a safe area;

? The security terminal of the person in charge receives the safe status condition from all the individual terminals and enables its consent button for the person in charge to release the way to the train;

? The supervisor's video terminal receives all the accolades; if the GNSS localization is active, it displays the positions of the operators in a safe area in green;

? The person in charge sends via the safety terminal consent to the removal of the CU (Urgent Closing, command of the ACC which instantly occupies the street) or to the release of the street via the ATWS signal before the train starts braking.

2.2 TRAIN STOP SCENARIO

? One or more? operators do not recognize their position in a safe area;

? The supervisor's video terminal receives and displays the position in an unsafe area in red;

? The safe terminal of the person in charge does not receive the safe status from all the individual terminals and does not enable the consent button for freeing the way to the train by sending the removal of the CU to the ACCM or to the ATWS signal;

? The supervisor does not send the authorization to remove the CU to the ACCM or the ATWS signal via the safety terminal before the train starts braking;

? The train is stopped, keeping the construction site safe; ? As soon as all the operators return to the safe area, we proceed with the previous scenario: in this case it can? be analyzed the mode? to allow the resumption of travel without stopping.

3. Train transit and construction site reactivation scenario

? The train passes;

? The fact that the transit of the train is completed and there is more? risk for workers? guaranteed in safety by the occupation status of the CDBs in ACCM or by the ATWS pedal in output;

? The person in charge sends the status of transited train via secure terminal.

3.1 REACTIVATION SCENARIO

? The supervisor's terminal receives the reactivation of the CU on the secure terminal;

? The secure terminal of the person in charge enables the button for deactivating the light and sound signal so as to allow work to resume;

? The person in charge deactivates the light and sound signal;

? The supervisor's terminal sends the recognition disabling to the portable terminals;

? Mobile terminals disable recognition.

3.2 SECOND TRAIN SCENARIO

? The supervisor's terminal does not receive the reactivation of the CU or receives a new occupation from the ATWS pedal on the secure terminal;

? The safe terminal of the person in charge does not enable the button for deactivating the light and acoustic signal;

? The person in charge does not disable the audible signal to resume work and the construction site remains safe;

? A second train passes.

4. Portable terminal connection loss scenario

4.1 SCENARIO OPERATOR TERMINAL FAILURE

? Does the supervisor's video terminal lose its periodic vitality signal? and signals the alarm to the person in charge (unsafe function);

? The video terminal of the person in charge indicates the identification of the operator without localization and the last localization;

? The person in charge calls back the user to replace the terminal;

? The safety terminal of the person in charge, regardless of the video terminal, not seeing all the registered terminals, does not allow the communication of the safe construction site condition to the ACCM or the release of the road to the ATWS protection signal until reset and the protection system remains in safe state.

4.2 SCENARIO BATTERY DISCHARGE OF AN OPERATOR TERMINAL

? The state of charge ? transmitted by the operator terminal, received and displayed by the supervisor's video terminal (unsafe function);

? The person in charge calls the user back to replace the battery;

? The security terminal of the person in charge, in low battery conditions, not seeing all the registered terminals, does not enable? the communication of the safe site condition and the consequent release of the road to the ACCM or to the ATWS protection signal until the safe status is restored.

4.3 CONNECTIVITY LOSS SCENARIO? WIRELESS LOCALIZERS/SECTION IN CHARGE

? Does the supervisor's terminal lose connectivity? with all or some of the tracking systems;

? The security terminal of the person in charge, not seeing all the registered terminals, does not allow the communication of the safe construction site condition and the consequent release of the path to the ACCM or the ATWS protection signal until the Wireless network is restored and the protection system remains in safe state.

5. Loss of integrity level? of the localization system

? The loss of the augmentation could generate erroneous localization in a safe area;

? The security terminal of the supervisor, not seeing the connectivity? with the RTK terminal, it disables the additional condition of localization in a safe area for the activation of the second recognition and sends a specific alarm to the operators with a request for recognition of the new condition;

? The proposed safety terminal does not allow the communication of the safe construction site condition and relative freeing of the road to the ACCM or to the ATWS protection signal until the new condition is recognized by all the operators.

6. Juridical Recording

? The juridical recorder memorizes with the appropriate guarantees of data security (redundancies and secure encryption) and appropriate timestamp: - the design of the construction site;

- Activation of RTK antennas and fixed devices to verify accuracy;

- Activation of the construction site wireless network;

- The activations of all operator devices;

- Any information exchange between ACCM devices, bidders devices, ATWS systems, operator devices;

- any loss of connection;

- any condition of degradation.

7. Zero-time line work in the absence of sighting (reinstatement pursuant to art.16 IPC) ? only with interface in ACCM

? There are no RTK antennas in line and no precision localizations have been made for the extremes of the work area;

? Are all ACCMs equipped with an interface with unit? mobile construction site via GSMR;

? The operator activates his own device (the localization is not active in precision as there is no RTK coverage walking along the line);

? Does the operator device get in contact with the GSMR? Interface of the ACCM pi? neighbors (may change based on location);

? The operator moves in line along the tracks;

? The operator device transmits to the ACCMs the operator?s position relative to the CdB of the line it is traveling (accuracy is not necessary for this purpose);

? In the event that the device is unable to perform constellation loss tracking or is unable to receive loss of connectivity alarms? GSMR, the device puts the operator in alarm and requests an acknowledgment from him;

? The ACCMs send alarms to the operator terminal for all trains approaching the GNSS position on all tracks of the line;

? The operator terminal receives the alarms, activates the visual (flashing LED) and audible (headset) alarms and waits for acknowledgment;

? The operator recognizes via GSMR;

? Do ACCMs receive recognition and do they not generate intervention? The operator does not recognize or the GSMR connection is lost for which the ACCMs do not receive the recognition and send a CU which causes the braking of the approaching train;

? The delayed receipt of the acknowledgment allows the train to restart.

The advantages of a system according to the present invention concern the possibility? to make a strong simplification of the procedures defined by the Instruction for the Protection of Construction Sites as amended by the Operating Rule No. 19 of 26 November 2013, with particular regard to what is indicated in article 12 thanks to the integration with the current ATWS systems.

It is, in fact, an integrative support system for the System Manager or the Person in Charge: the use of the virtual barrier integrates the functioning of the ATWS systems when they are used semi-automatically or in the absence of physical barriers; the interruption regime is managed in this scenario by allowing the train to run when ? ensured the safety of the construction site.

Does the system allow you to raise the? Integrit? verification of the safety of the construction site at the SIL4 safety level.

The ATWS systems currently used in RFI do not envisage the use of individual devices: the assessment of the safety of operators and bulky equipment? paid by the Supervisors distributed along the construction site.

The system integrates ATWS systems through:

? individual devices for ascertaining the position of operators and bulky equipment,

? a communication system,

? a central supervision station (PC) able to manage the secure information received from the individual devices.

Each site operator uses his individual safe apparatus to ensure:

? receiving alarms;

? reaching the safe area.

The nominal operating scenario of the system ? the following: 1. The PC notifies the operators of the presence of an approaching train (sound and lights);

2. Does the PC enable the possibility? to acknowledge the alarm using the individual device button;

3. the operator acknowledges receipt of the alarm by pressing the button;

4. The PC receives the information and displays the awareness of the operators to the manager;

3. The worker frees the track from tools within his competence and moves to a safe distance from the traffic track;

4. Does the individual device activate the possibility? for a second recognition; the operator, recognizing the second time, guarantees for itself? same the presence in a safe area and for the equipment under its responsibility the absence of an obstacle to the movement of the train on the adjacent track.

In condition of satellite coverage, the system can? activate recognition of the operator's position when the safe position at a suitable distance from the track is reached, via GPS localization;

5. the PC receives the second acknowledgment from all the operators;

6. Does the PC authorize the manager to grant freedom? of the way to the approaching train.

Of course the invention is not? limited to the embodiments described above, but pu? be widely varied. For example, although substantially described with reference to railway applications, the present invention can also find application in other areas such as motorways, in the mining sector in interports and logistics yards or in any case in those situations where there is a risk of workers being run over inside a construction site and there are devices for announcing the arrival of a means of locomotion and means for imposing the arrest of this vehicle if the construction site is not safe, such as, for example, construction site traffic lights.

All without abandoning the guiding principle set out above and claimed below.

Claims (15)

1. System for the safety of operators and/or equipment present in a construction site located near? of a railway line or a road section following a visual and/or audible warning signal sent by a detection and announcement device (ATWS) or by any unit? network and/or construction site supervision when a means of locomotion approaches said construction site, which system includes: - a mobile virtual barrier (201) which identifies a safe area of the construction site within which operators and equipment can stop in safety ; - at least one portable individual device (205) associated with each of said operators and/or equipment present in said construction site; - a?unit? control unit (4), or an interface associated with it, configured to receive a safe status signal from each individual device (205) and send a consent signal for transit of the means of locomotion when all safe status signals have been received from each individual device (205), characterized in that each of said at least one portable individual device (205) ? configured to transmit to said unit? central unit (4), or to said interface connected to it, a confirmation signal of the positioning in a safe area within the mobile virtual barrier (201) following receipt of the visual and/or audible construction site alarm, called mobile virtual barrier (201) being dynamically settable according to at least one parameter associated with the means of locomotion approaching the construction site. 2. System according to claim 1, wherein said at least one parameter comprises the speed? of the means of locomotion, the mobile virtual barrier (201) having automatically settable dimensions to delimit larger areas? large as the speed increases? of the means of locomotion. 3. System according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the confirmation signal of the occurred positioning in a safe area ? preceded by an acknowledgment signal of the alarm signal. 4. System according to one or more? of the preceding claims, wherein said at least one portable individual device (205) comprises a button (805) whose activation by an operator generates the safe status signal and/or alarm signal recognition signal towards the unit? station, since said activation can optionally be subordinated to the occurrence of a trigger condition of said button. 5. System according to one or more? of the preceding claims, wherein said at least one individual device (205) comprises a module (905) for recognizing the position within the construction site, said module (905) being interfaced with the unit? central (4) so that said unit? central unit is capable of locating each individual device (205) equipped with said module (905) within the construction site, the secure status signal comprising a signal of successful localization of the individual device (205) in the secure area within the mobile virtual barrier (201). 6. System according to claim 5, wherein ? foreseen a mechanism for verifying the integrity? of localization, which mechanism ? configured to verify in real time the measurement error of the localization of each individual device equipped with a recognition module with respect to one or more? references (305) placed in known locations. 7. System according to claim 6, wherein the unit? control unit (4), in the presence of measurement errors exceeding a certain threshold or background noise which does not allow detection with a predetermined level of accuracy, ? programmed to deactivate the position information for the determination of safe status and/or expand or in any case move the mobile virtual barrier (201) so as to make the positions detected with poor accuracy fall within the unsafe area so to prevent the sending of the consent signal for the transit of the train until the position of all the operators is not ? confirmed within the new secure area by localization with an adequate level of error and/or manual consent sent by an operator. 8. System according to one or more? of the previous claims, in which ? Is there a subsystem that uses a GNSS network at pi? satellite constellations with independent hardware and software and at least two permanent reference stations capable of independently detecting the position of men and/or vehicles with a redundancy such as to guarantee safe detection even with the use of non-SIL4 commercial devices. 9. System according to claim 8, wherein the position detection subsystem employs the Real Time Kinematic (RTK) differential technology applied to the observations of pseudo causal codes available to civil users in the various satellite constellations, for example using the DGPS differential technology, to ensure continuity of the positioning with constant accuracy to parit? of geometric configuration of the overall satellite constellation. The system according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the individual devices (205) comprise multi-constellation dual-frequency receivers for position sensing. 11. Method for making operators and/or equipment present in a construction site located near? of a railway line or a road section following a visual and/or audible warning signal sent by a detection and announcement device (ATWS) or by any unit? of network and/or site supervision when a means of locomotion approaches said site, which method involves the following steps: - define a mobile virtual barrier (201) which identifies a safe area of the construction site within which operators and equipment can stop in safety on the basis of the dimensions of the construction site and the speed? of the means of locomotion approaching the construction site; - providing an individual portable device (205) to be associated with each of said operators and/or equipment present in said construction site; - receiving from said portable individual device (205) a safe status signal or confirmation of positioning in a safe area within the mobile virtual barrier following receipt of the construction site?s visual and/or audible alarm status; - send a consent signal for the transit of the means of locomotion when all the safe status signals have been received by each individual device. 12. Method according to claim 11, wherein ? present the further step of detecting the position of the individual devices (205) and of sending consent for the transit of the means of locomotion only if the position of all the individual devices ? within the safe area defined by the mobile barrier. 13. A method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein ? present the step of continuously detecting the measurement error of the position of each individual device using references located in known positions and operating differential corrections to increase the precision of the position measurement. 14. Method according to claim 13, wherein ? foreseen the use of Real Time Kinematic technology with phase measurements for the determination of the position in a GNSS system with at least two satellite constellations. 15. Method according to one or more? of the previous claims 11 to 14, characterized in that it is used on a railway line controlled by systems that exchange information between an on-board subsystem (SSB) and a ground subsystem (SST) via radio transmission (GSM-R) via a radio block center (RBC), such as, for example, the level 2 European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), in which the presence of the construction site is signaled to the radio block center via a track occupation signal and the transmission of the consent to the movement of the train in the vicinity? of the construction site takes the form of a clear track signal.