A potential hi-tech upgrade to BeiDou-based rail monitoring systems could better protect and track containers on the transcontinental China-Europe railway express, according to the developers of a new mountable device.
A team drawn from various state-owned railway enterprises said the device could overcome long-standing logistics challenges in real-time rail container tracking and improve security and safety along the vital land shipping route.
The China Railway team examined the existing application of China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite system in railway container transport and tested a positioning device which could be mounted on containers to enable real-time tracking and data collection.
“Leveraging the autonomous and controllable characteristics of BeiDou-3, it achieves all-weather, accurate perception of container location and status,” according to a Chinese paper published in the journal Railway Logistics in April.
The researchers behind the paper are from China Railway Chengdu Group, the China Academy of Railway Sciences and China Railway Container Transport Corporation (CRCT), a subsidiary of China State Railway Group.
They tested the mountable device on both domestic and international sections of the China Railway Express to check transmission integrity, battery life and the time it takes for the device to locate and lock on to satellites.
“The results show that the new-generation BeiDou-based positioning technology provides strong technical support for container asset management, transport safety, logistics services and operational management,” the team said.