On-going projects
1. Development of Autonomous Driving System under Local Context 
The expansion of urbanization and public transportation networks such as sky trains and underground trains has played an important part on everyday life of people. Mass transit from residential areas to public transportation networks is increasingly necessary likewise. Previously the development of 6-seat autonomous golf cart has been achieved, and this project will develop a larger autonomous vehicle, level-3 autonomous-driving Feeder, with capacity of 15 people, electric driven power with 35 km/hr maximum speed to serve as First-and-Last Mile Connectivity. Development of this small public autonomous vehicle will not only enhance capability in building autonomous vehicles for Thai industries, but also reduce traffic accidents and alleviate air pollution problem.
Project Leader : Jartuwat Rajruangrabin
Duration : 2 Years (1 May 2021 – 30 April 2023)
Funded by : Program Management Unit- Competitiveness (PMU-C :หน่วยบริหารและจัดการทุนด้านการเพิ่มความสามารถในการแข่งขันของประเทศ, บพข.), Panus Assembly Co.,Ltd.
Collaboration : Panus Assembly Co.,Ltd. , Department of Science Service, Chulalongkorn University, Asian Institute of Technology and Overseas research institute
2. Development of corrugated core metallic sandwich panels attached with ceramic hard shell for bulletproof armor in Thai train
To develop bulletproof armour to protect a driver’s cabin of locomotive so driver will be safe and can drive the train to its destination safely. This armour consists of 3 major components : 1. Outer ceramic layer to destroy bullet 2. Corrugated metal sandwich to absorb impact force and collect bullet fragments after destroyed by ceramic layer and 3. Aluminium foam to reinforce corrugated sandwiches and help absorb impact force. This armour will be able to protect bullet at level 3 according to National Institute of Justice Ballistic Standards (NIJ)
Project leader : Chakkrist Phongphisutthinan
Duration : 1 Year 8 months (1 January 2023 – 31 August 2024)
Collaboration : State Railway of Thailand, Panus Assembly Co., Ltd.
3. Technological Capability Enhancement of Local Industries and Product Standardization Initiative in Accordance with High-speed Railway Project Requirements (Metal parts)
This project is funded by the People’s Republic of China under Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund 2023 to enhancing capability of local industries, including countries in Lancang-Mekong region. Technology transfer will be conducted by Chinese experts through research, trainings, seminars and workshops. Besides, industrial standards will be drafted for components used in high-speed rail system to strengthen capability of local industries and their readiness to be a part of high-speed rail supply chain.
Project leader : Ekkarut Viyanit
Duration : 2 Years (11 January 2024 – 10 January 2026)
Funded : Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund 2023, The People’s Republic of China
Collaboration : CRRC Qingdao Sifang Co., Ltd, Chaina Railway Construction Company International
4. Draft Development for Inspection and Maintenance Standards for Northern Rail Track with High Slope Phase 2
Under phase 1 of the project in year 2023, essential data and information has been prepared. This includes structures and properties of rails used in the northern part of Thailand, corrosion rate of rail and fastener, failure characteristics of rail and technical information of the current technique for rail head maintenance. Moreover, a digital platform for data collection specific to the failure of rail has been constructed with an aim to improve the completeness of data. For this 2nd phase, technology and knowledge in materials science and manufacturing together with acquired data in phase 1 will be further analyzed and more certain data related to tracks in northern line will be collected. All data will be combined and investigated to draft an Inspection and Maintenance Standards for Rail Track with High Slope in order to improve safety and punctuality of rail system.
Project leader : Panadda Sheppard
Duration : 1 Year (1 February 2024 – 31 January 2025)
Collaboration : State Railway of Thailand
Finished projects
- A feasibility study of autonomous vehicle technology implementation in gated community
Project Leader : Pasan Kulvanit (Department of Science Service: DSS)
Duration : 6 months (1 November 2019 – 30 April 2020)
Collaboration : Department of Science Service, Siri Ventures Co., Ltd., Whetron Electronics Co., Ltd. And Thai Startup Companies (Airovr and Gensurv Robotics) - Development of Work Instruction for Failure Analysis of Railway Wheels and Axles
Train’s wheels and axles, as a heart of the railway system, are subjected to extreme dynamic and static loads as well as corrosive environmental conditions. When the wheel and axle have defects, there is a critical risk of fracture leading to derailment that may result in catastrophic damage. When the wheel and axle are damaged, failure investigation should be conducted immediately to identify the failure mode, find out the root cause and prevent the recurrence in the future. The capability development of wheel and axle failure analysis could reduce a catastrophic failure, lead to systematic maintenance planning and improve safety for passengers. Therefore, this research aims to create a standard manual for evaluating the damage of wheels and axles used by the State Railway of Thailand (SRT). This manual will include procedures for macro-analysis as well as micro-analysis with an emphasis on solid wheels and locomotive axles.
Project Leader : Siam Kaewkumsai
Duration : 1 year (15 September 2019 – 14 September 2020)
Collaboration : State Railway of Thailand - Development of standard data collection protocol for damages to steel rail
Railway is an important part of the rail system. Loading of the car, passengers and goods passes on to axles, wheels and to rail respectively. Damaged rails can be caused by metallurgical defects,corrosion or severe service conditions. This project focuses on drafting a standard data collection of damage rails. This data set collected systematically and inclusively, will lead to rail failure classification, damage root cause analysis and eventually, a rail failure database. The database will provide an insight for development of maintenance guidelines and schedule and will support the expansion of railway networks and high speed trains in the near future.
Project Leader : Kosit Wongpinkaew
Duration : 6 months (15 December 2020 – 14 June 2021)
Collaboration : State Railway of Thailand - Microstructural Study of Rail
Rails are subjected to severe contact stress, frictional heat and shear stress due to traction load. In addition to this, it also bears dynamic forces transmitted by the wheels rolling on it. All these loading conditions deteriorate rails at the contact zones and lead to rail degradation in terms of plastic deformation, wear and rolling contact fatigue. Some of the rails were prematurely broken. It is important to use high-quality steels that are resistant to these damages. The mechanical properties of metals are often directly related to the chemical composition and the microstructure. Recently there are a number of railway construction projects in Thailand. There should be a guideline to specify microstructure that fit for operating conditions and incoming materials/rails should be inspected to obtain rails with expected service life.
Project Leader : Siam Kaewkumsai
Duration : 1 year 3 months (15 September 2020 – 14 December 2021)
Collaboration : State Railway of Thailand - Development of railway inspection by machine vision
Rail fasteners are used to fix rails to railroad sleepers or concrete slaps in order to prevent movement of rails when trains pass. Rails and Rail fasteners are one of the safety devices in a rail system. Failed rails and fasteners can cause possible derailment. Therefore, rail and rail system need to be regularly inspected to ensure safe operation. Currently, train operators in Thailand rely on only human vision to inspect rail equipment. The disadvantage of human inspection is that it requires extensive time and labor. The aim of this project is to locally develop a machine vision device for rail and rail fastener inspection that is able to inspect rails and fasteners while in service and locate the defects on the rails and missing or failed fasteners. The device will be used for pre-screening prior to maintenance to deliver precise, cost-saving, and time-saving solution to the train operators.
Project Leader : Pitichon Klomjit
Duration : 1 year 3 months (15 September 2020 – 14 December 2021)
Collaboration : Bangkok Expressway and Metro Public Company Limite - Data analytics and accelerated corrosion test design for railway anti-corrosion coating development and predictive maintenance
Environmental parameters and railway speed have significant effects on corrosion of railway components used under different locations. Corrosion that occurs on rail components may lead to catastrophic failure. For example, the underfloor area is subjected to water splash even after raining, the absent of sun for water evaporation results in high corrosion rate. By applying atmospheric corrosion monitoring sensor, temperature-relative humidity sensors, speed sensor, and representative coupons at various locations of the wagon, the data of effective parameters on corrosion can be obtained. An accelerated corrosion test can be designed based on sensor data that are closely related to the actual environment. This project aims to develop an accelerated corrosion test that represents railway condition in coastal route including the extended study on the atmospheric condition and to improve corrosion resistant coating made by arc spray and flame spray. The expected outcomes of this work are to reduce the corrosion testing time and cost as well as predict the life time of coating or material.
Project Leader : Wanida Pongsaksawad
Duration : 3 years (15 September 2019 – 14 September 2022)
Collaboration : State Railway of Thailand
7. Laser Cladding Technologies for Rail Maintenance
Rails suffer from various kind of damage, most notably wear and rolling contact fatigue. The two mechanisms can cause damage ranging from uniform wear rate, plastic flow, hairline cracking, sub-surface cracking and spalling, and in some serious case, a through-cracking of the rail. A successful and widely accepted treatment is to routinely reprofile rails by on-site grinding and also to remove short cracks before they propagate into the rail. Grinding results in a large thickness loss on the rail and can only be done a certain number of times before the rail section need to be replaced. The rail replacement is a major task, both in terms of time and budget. Laser cladding is to fill up cladding materials in specific damage areas of rails to restore the original shape & dimensions. With less material removal compared with conventional repairing method, laser cladding can be done repeatedly on the same location and this can extend service life of rails.
Project Leader : Hathaipat Koiprasert
Duration : 1 year 6 months (15 September 2020 – 14 March 2022)
Collaboration : State Railway of Thailand
8. Design and manufacturing of replacement parts for railway applications
Repair and maintenance of trains require replacement parts many of which can be locally designed, manufactured and tested according to international standards. This will be beneficial to replacement part industry in Thailand. The project aims to design and manufacture three components, including (1) solid lubricant sticks for rails, (2) carbon strip of pantograph for electrical trains, and (3) brake pads from sintered self-lubricating composites. Manufacturing parameters affecting on physical, mechanical, tribological and other properties will be studied and products will be tested at the laboratory and/or field level to obtain prototype parts that meet international standards. This will lead to design and manufacture technology for rail’s replacement parts in the future.
Project Leader : Ruangdaj Tongsri
Duration : 3 Years (15 September 2019 – 14 September 2022)
Collaboration : Airport Rail Link Co., Ltd.
Bang Sue Grand Station is Thailand’s new central railway station which is the connecting point of 6 main railway lines including high speed train network connecting 3 major airports with the Eastern Economic Corridor or EEC, Airport Rail Link, MRT, and BTS. Besides, 1800 Rais of surrounding area of station has potential to be developed into a smart city and a new city center. One of smart city developments is smart mobility development which will provide convenient and safety transportation for passengers, reduce using private vehicles in the area and alleviate adverse impact on environment. This project will build up 5 self-driving vehicles with fleet management system to control driving of all cars simultaneously, safely and efficiently. Each autonomous driving car can communicate to each other with V2X system. This will be a prototype of smart public transportation system in Bangsue Grand Station and will be a seed project for further development in the future.
Project Leader : Ekkarut Viyanit
Duration : 1 Year (15 December 2021 – 14 December 2022)
Collaboration : The Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and planning, State Railway of Thailand, Department of Science Service, Industrial companies, Telecommunication service providers
10. Development of Obstacle Detection and Warning System for Train
The accident is usually occurred when the visibility is poor or during night time. Since the conventional of the obstacle investigation by the train’s driver is not sufficient, the alternative method of obstacle detection by the technology that can operate in all weather conditions especially the hard rain can reduce the loss of life and properties from the accident. Then the X-Band RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) technology is one of the best choice of solution as a collision avoidance system with the appropriate X-Band frequency of 8-12 GHz because the RADAR signal can detect the small object as 4 centimeters which is slightly more than the wavelength of frequency signal.
Project Leader : Tiwat Pongthavornkamol (National Electronics and Computer Technology Center)
Duration : 1 Year 6 months (15 July 2021 – 14 January 2022)
Collaboration : State Railway of Thailand
11. Corrosion monitoring with electrochemical sensor for rail steels
The railway network in Thailand tends to be expanding. The material selection at the design stage and maintenance planning requires materials database of corrosion resistant properties of various steel types. Each region in Thailand has different micro-climate and influences from Monsoon. These climate and environment have significant impact on corrosion behavior of steel. It is necessary to monitor the corrosion behavior of different types of steel by using corrosion sensor. Institute of Materials Research, China, has developed a bi-electrode sensor that has been proven to monitor the surface reaction of steel exposed to the atmosphere. This project aims to apply this type of sensor made from interested steel types and collect corrosion data at Nakhon Ratchasima, Chon Buri, and Songkhla. This corrosion rate data will help determine the life-time of the rail steel structure.
Project Leader : Wanida Pongsaksawad
Duration : 1 Year 6 months (1 August 2021 – 31 January 2023)
Collaboration : Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Project leader : Panadda Sheppard
Duration : 1 Year (1 January – 31 December 2024)
Collaboration : State Railway of Thailand
Project leader : Wallop Ratanathavorn
Duration : 1 Year 11 months (16 September 2022 – 15 August 2024)
Funded by : Program Management Unit- Competitiveness (PMU-C :หน่วยบริหารและจัดการทุนด้านการเพิ่มความสามารถในการแข่งขันของประเทศ, บพข.) and Udornihai-UD-Group Co., Ltd.
Collaboration : Udornihai-UD-Group Co., Ltd.