<![CDATA[Safety in railway shunting operations requires continuous monitoring of train distance and speed to reduce the risk of operational accidents. In practice, shunting activities are still highly dependent on manual observation and verbal communication, while the performance of vision based safety systems under real operational conditions remains uncertain. In addition, comprehensive performance evaluations of deep learning based object detection models in real shunting environments, particularly under different hardware capabilities and lighting conditions, are still limited. This study aims to evaluate the performance of the YOLOv8 algorithm for real-time distance and speed monitoring during railway shunting operations. The system was tested using a camera-based detection approach under different processor configurations, namely an internal CPU and an RTX GPU, and under morning, daytime, and nighttime lighting conditions. System performance was evaluated based on accuracy, precision, and real-time detection capability across these conditions. The results show that the system achieved an average accuracy of 87.32% when operating on a CPU which increased to 91.30% when using a GPU. Optimal performance was observed under adequate daylight conditions, while reduced lighting led to a decline in performance, particularly on CPU-based processing. These findings indicate that hardware configuration and lighting conditions play a critical role in determining the reliability of YOLOv8-based safety monitoring systems for railway shunting operations.]]>
