AUTOMATIC DOOR.

Abstract

The invention relates to an automatic door and a method for controlling an automatic door (10), comprising a door control unit (70) for controlling a door by acting on a door drive; further comprising a monitoring system (11) comprising at least two door sensors (12, 32) mounted on two opposite sides of the door, as viewed in the direction of passage, wherein each of said sensors (12, 32) comprises a scanning unit (16, 36) that monitors a sensor safety area, where a safety signal is applied to the door control unit upon detecting an object within the sensor safety areas of said sensors.According to the invention, after a predefined time period (TL) of non-detection within said sensor safety areas of said sensors, the monitoring system (11) is set into a "restricted mode" in which at least one sensor safety area is set into a restricted area, where the safety signal is provided upon detecting an object within the restricted area. Furthermore, once a detection occurs in the restricted area, the monitoring system returns to an unrestricted "normal" mode.

Description

The invention relates to an automatic door according to the preamble of claim 1 as well as to a method for controlling an automatic door with two sensors according to the preamble of claim 12. It is commonly known that automatic doors, especially industrial doors, are monitored by sensors to detect objects in the vicinity of the door. Another purpose of these sensors is to prevent people or machines from being crushed by the door when it closes and they are still underneath or beside it. Consequently, a safety zone is defined, preferably on both sides of the door, and when an object is detected within this safety zone during monitoring, a safety procedure is activated in the door controller to protect people or machines from being struck by the door. This situation usually occurs during door closing. The safety procedure leads to a stop or reversal of the door's closing movement. The direction of door movement can be either vertical or horizontal. Since the safety zone is very close to the door, a distortion of the door can falsely trigger a safety alert. This is because an object is detected even though no object is present near the door, as the sensor is interfered with by the door itself. This interference can occur due to wind deforming the door or dents in the door caused by accidents, such as those involving forklifts. The problem is that the sensors cannot distinguish whether the detection was caused by an actual intrusion or by the sensors themselves. The object of the invention relates to avoiding false detection of objects by controlling automatic doors, especially industrial doors, while maintaining a high level of safety. The object is resolved by means of the characterizing features of claim 1 in combination with the features of its preamble. The dependent claims indicate other advantageous improvements of the invention. An automatic door, as known, comprises a door control unit for controlling a door, wherein the door controller acts upon the door unit. The automatic door further comprises a monitoring system comprising at least two door sensors mounted on two opposite sides of the door, as viewed from the direction of passage. The door control unit is connected to the monitoring system. Each of the at least two door sensors comprises a scanning unit that monitors a sensor's safety area. There are at least two regions: an internal region and an external region, where the external region is farther from the door than the internal region. The two safety areas of the aforementioned sensors add up to one door safety area. Each of these sensors comprises a selection unit for identifying the presence of an object within the internal and / or external region. The internal region is analyzed by the detection unit, and initial assessment information is generated. The external region is analyzed by the detection unit, and secondary detection information is generated. This detection information is used to determine whether or not an object is detected within the specified region. The detection unit may preferably be a determination unit of a scanning unit, which is a Time-of-Flight (TOF) laser scanner, where the determination unit evaluates the time of flight of an echo of a generated laser pulse and determines the position of an object within it. The internal and external regions may preferably be scanned by such a laser scanner, where a plurality of echo points are assigned to the internal and external regions.The laser scanner can be incorporated to provide post-measurements to monitor the internal and external region or to provide a parallel measurement where, for example, the pixels of a TOF camera are mapped to the internal and external region. The monitoring system also includes an evaluation unit that receives information from the detection units. The evaluation unit is designed to determine that no detection occurred in any region of the door's security area, based on the first and second detection information from both sensors. The first and second detection information can be communicated in such a way that the received information is a single result, where the first and second detection information are combined using a logical process. In this case, it may no longer be possible for the evaluation unit to determine in which specific region of the sensor's security area the detection occurred. Alternatively, the first and second detection information can be communicated in a way that makes the information distinguishable. According to the invention, the evaluation unit determines a non-detection period during which no detection occurred in either region of either sensor. The evaluation unit is designed to operate in a restricted mode when a predefined time limit expires. During restricted mode, the detection area in the first region is limited to a restricted area, where detection information is only sent to the door control unit based on detections within that restricted area. This means that an area in the first region that is a detection area in normal mode disappears in restricted mode. During restricted mode, a safety signal is sent to the safety port of the door control unit, where the safety signal depends at least on the second detection information and, if present, also on the first detection information. The second detection information refers to the external region, which can remain the same during both restricted and normal modes. Since the external region is farther from the door than the internal region, this configuration ensures that a person cannot reach the internal region without crossing the external region. The restricted mode period begins when the non-detection interval exceeds a predefined time limit and can last until either of the detection units provides a second positive detection or a first positive detection of the restricted area. At that point, the monitoring system switches to normal security monitoring mode. There may also be other additional events that may require the monitoring system to return to normal mode. According to this configuration, the presence of an object within the desired area will prevent false activation of the door controller's security procedure, where the configuration will still provide a high level of security. The restricted mode of the monitoring system is preferably set by placing the detection units in a detection state where they ignore the first detection information from outside the restricted area. Consequently, the detection signal sent to the evaluation unit is based solely on the second detection information, or on both the second and first detection information, originating from the restricted zone. The restricted area can be defined as part of the internal region or it can also be defined as zero. According to a first embodiment, each sensor comprises an evaluation unit. Each evaluation unit of a sensor is connected to the detection unit of the same sensor and to the detection unit of the other sensor. According to this situation, each sensor knows the detection status of the other sensor and can provide the first and second detection information accordingly. According to an improvement of the invention, the transmission of the first detection information in normal and restricted modes and the second detection information between the sensors is carried out via a communication port that transfers the first and second detection information in coded form, specifically serially encoded using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). Therefore, the communication port may comprise a contact relay that switches on and off to encode the detection information. The sensors may include an input port that is connected to the communication port of the other sensor. Alternatively, communication can be established via a fieldbus port, especially a CAN port, where a single interface is sufficient for both input and output, and therefore the input port and output port can be implemented as a single physical port. Each sensor may comprise a specific safety output port that is connected to the safety port of the door control unit to transfer the safety signal to the door controller in parallel. According to an additional embodiment of the invention, the two sensors are a first and a second sensor comprising a safety output port, where only the safety output port of the second sensor is connected to the corresponding safety port on the door controller acting on the door controller unit. In this case, the first sensor provides the first detection information and the second detection information via its communication port to the second sensor, and the second sensor sends a signal to the door controller unit, preferably combining the detection information of both sensors by means of a combination. According to this configuration, two sensors can operate with a door controller that provides a single safety input. The wiring between the sensors and the door controller can be done through a connection board. The distance between the innermost edges of the internal regions of both sensors is preferably less than the smallest extension of a predefined test specimen of a size specified by safety standards. This allows the automatic door to comply with these safety standards. The scanning unit can be incorporated to generate curtains through a sequence of time-of-flight measurements of reflected light beams, where the beams interpolated along the sweep direction are seen as a curtain. According to a further aspect of the invention, the evaluation unit can be incorporated as a computational device that has at least one input port, a detection unit, and at least one output port to provide at least one safety detection information to the door controller. In the event that the entire internal region disappears and the restricted area of ​​the internal region is reduced to zero, the safety signal will be provided only by the result of the second detection information. According to this configuration, a computer device can collect standard information from the first and second detection signals and determine the non-detection period. When the monitoring system is set to restricted mode, only the second detection signal is sent to the door controller unit, which can then initiate the security procedure. Normal mode resumes once a detection signal is received via the second detection signal. A computing device can be an additional unit within the system Furthermore, the computational device can be a separate device connected between the door controller and both sensors, or it can be part of the door controller that provides the corresponding information to the door controller's control unit. The computational device will receive the first detection information and the second detection information from both sensors. According to another aspect, the invention relates to a McCocc for controlling an automatic door, comprising a door control unit for controlling a door, which acts on a door unit, which further comprises a monitoring system. In addition, the monitoring system comprises at least two door sensors, a first and a second sensor, which are mounted on two opposite sides of the door, as seen from the direction of passage. Each of these sensors monitors a sensor safety area, where a safety signal is applied to the door control unit upon detecting an object within the sensor safety areas of said sensors. After a predefined period of time without detection within said sensor safety areas, the monitoring system is set to a restricted mode in which at least one sensor safety area is set to a restricted area, where the safety signal is provided upon detecting an object within the restricted area, where furthermore, once a detection occurs in the restricted area, the monitoring system is set back to a normal unrestricted mode. According to this method, the area near the door can fade under this condition, and detections in the faded area during restricted mode do not falsely trigger the security procedure. The method can be implemented on an automatic door as described above. In a more advantageous embodiment of the method, each sensor's safety area comprises an inner and an outer region, where the inner region is closer to the door than the outer region. During restricted mode, only the inner region is restricted. This ensures that the inner region cannot be reached from the outside without being detected. According to a further embodiment, each sensor comprises a detection unit that analyzes the data collected by a scanning unit, wherein the detection unit ignores data outside the restricted area of ​​the sensor's safety area to generate the detection signal during restricted mode. According to another aspect, the two sensors, namely a first sensor and a second sensor, communicate a detection state of the sensor's safety area and the restricted area to the other sensor, where each sensor adjusts to a restricted mode taking into account the information from the other sensor, where only the second sensor sends the safety signal to the door controller unit. Other advantages, features, and potential applications of the present invention can be obtained from the following description, along with the embodiments illustrated in the drawings. Throughout the description, claims, and drawings, those terms and associated reference signs will be used as noted in the attached list of reference signs. In the drawings, a schematic side view of a door is shown, for example. Fig. 1 b a schematic sectional view BB of the automatic door; a functional view of a first configuration of Fig. 3 A diagram showing the modes of the monitoring system or certain detection conditions Fig. 4a Functional view of an additional configuration of the monitoring system; and Fia. Luna functional view of an additional configuration of the monitoring system. Figure 1 shows a schematic side view of an automatic door 10 according to the invention. The automatic door comprises a door element 14 actuated by a door drive and a monitoring system 11 comprising two sensors 12, 32, where each of the sensors monitors at least one internal IR region and one external OR region. The two sensors 12, 32 are mounted on opposite sides of the door as viewed from the direction of passage. Each of the sensors comprises a scanner 16, 36 that generates two outer curtains OC and one inner curtain IC. The inner curtains IC of the sensors 12, 32 have a distance from the outer and inner curtains OC of less than the smallest extension of the test body T, which is specifically about 10 cm. This configuration ensures that the unmonitored region below or to the side of the door is smaller than the required test body size, as specified by safety standards. Figure 1b shows a schematic sectional view BB of the automatic door 10 according to the invention. The door element 14 is bent by the wind in the situation shown. In this situation, it is shown that, according to the invention, the error region is established in a restricted area by the vanishing of the central part of the first curtain. The corresponding process and configuration are described in more detail in Figure 2. Figure 2 shows a functional view of the basic configuration of the monitoring system 11 according to the invention. The configuration shows two sensors 12, 32. Each sensor 12, 32 comprises a scanner 16, 36 that is connected to a detection unit 18, 38 to determine in which IR region 0 of the scanner 16, 36 an object is detected. The detection unit 18, 38 is linked to an evaluation unit 20, 40 of the sensor 12, 32. Each sensor 12, 32 further comprises an input port 50, 60, a communication output port 52, 62, a safety output port 54, 64, and an additional output port 56, 66 that can be used for presence detection of curtains not in use for safety reasons; the output ports are not connected in this basic configuration. The first detection information in the interior region and the second detection information in the exterior region are related to the safety signal. assessment unit 0 oel primer sensorial 12 está ada al puerto de enerada 50 del primer sensorial 12. The input port 50 of the first sensor 12 is connected to the communication port 62 of the second sensor 32. The evaluation unit 40 of the second sensor 32 is connected to the communication port 62 of the second sensor 32. The evaluation unit 40 sends a signal to the communication port 62 containing the first and second detection information from the detection unit 38. In this way, the evaluation unit 20 of the first sensor 12 receives the first and second detection information from the second sensor 32. Transmission through the communication port is preferably carried out using pulse-width modulation (PWM). The signal can be a combined representation of the first and second detection information. The evaluation unit 40 of the second sensor 32 is connected to the input port 60 of sensor 32. The input port 60 of the second sensor 32 is connected to the communication port 52 of the first sensor 12. The second evaluation unit 20 of the first sensor 12 is connected to the communication port 52 of the first sensor 12. The evaluation unit 20 sends a signal to the communication port 52 which contains the first and second information from the detection unit 18. In this way, the evaluation unit 40 of the second sensor 32 receives the first and second information from the first sensor 12. Since both evaluation units 20, 40 receive information from the first and second information from the first and second sensors, each evaluation unit 20, 40 can independently determine the continuous non-detection time period in all relevant IR, O regions of both sensors 12, 32. As soon as the non-detection time interval reaches a predefined time limit, sensors 12 and 32 are set to restricted mode, in which a portion of the inner region, specifically the central part of the first curtain, is deactivated. Consequently, the safety signal is generated based on a defect in the remaining restricted detection area of ​​the inner region, and no longer on the entire safety region. The safety signal still considers detection in the outer region. Since the evaluation unit of, for example, the second sensor knows the state of the security area of ​​both sensors 12 and 32, the second sensor 32 can send a signal to the door control unit 70 through its security port, combining the detection information from the internal IR region and the external region O of both sensors. According to this configuration, the wiring effort can be reduced. This means that while sensor 12, 32 is in restricted mode, no false positive information is acquired in the faded area that would trigger a safety procedure in door control unit 70. In such a case, no safety signal is sent to door control unit 70. Evaluation unit 20, 40 is further incorporated so that the monitoring system is reset to normal mode when detection unit 18, 38 determines a positive detection in the restricted detection area of ​​the inner IR region or the outer OR region. In normal mode, a safety signal is sent when a detection occurs within the door's safety area. This leads to the effect that in the restricted mode, the consequences of the deformation are ignored in that way and the monitored safety area is the outer region 0. While sensor 12, 32 is generating signals as the door element is taken into account again when it is interrupted, for example, from The predefined time limit, when the sensor activates restricted mode, is preferably set to approximately 2 seconds. The wiring between the two sensors, as described above, and the door controller is preferably done via a wiring board 68. Figure 3 shows the behavior of the monitoring system with respect to its operating modes. The top of the diagram shows the rail mode of the monitoring system. The modes are N for normal mode and R for restricted mode. In the example in Figure 3, restricted mode is defined so that the faded area is set across the entire inner curtain and thus covers the entire inner region, leaving no restricted monitoring area in the Ci of the inner curtain and the inner region, respectively. Alternatively, detection information from the restricted area of ​​the inner region could be considered as a signal from the outer region (Ci) of the door's security rail. SI and SI are the sensors mounted in front of the automatic door. CJ and C_0 are the signals corresponding to the detection state of the scanners. During period A, an object is detected by the scanners and evaluated by the detection unit on one of the outer curtains (OC) of sensor SI. The monitoring system is in normal detection mode. At the beginning of period B, the object is no longer present on this outer curtain, and the detection state C_0 of SI is set to "no detection." Since no further detection occurs, the "no detection" time interval begins, with the end of this interval specified at a predefined length (TE). After the expiration of TE in period C, the monitoring system is set to restricted mode. In period D, the scanning unit recognizes a detection event on the inner curtain, where the detection state CJ changes accordingly. Since the monitoring system is highly restricted, the detection unit ignores this event and does not transfer it to the evaluation unit. After this event, the monitoring system mode does not change, nor is a signal sent to the door controller's security port. Therefore, the door control unit does not initiate a security procedure, such as reopening the door. The monitoring system remains in this restricted mode during periods D and E. In period F, the S2 sensor's scanning unit detects an object in its outer curtain 00, and the detection status C_0 is set to 1. Although the monitoring system is in restricted mode, the detection unit sends the second detection information to the evaluation unit. The monitoring system then returns to normal mode. The second detection information is also sent to the door control unit. Figure 4 shows another example of the invention in the case where there is an internal IR region dedicated to the first detection information near the door and the entire interior region fades during restricted mode. In this example of the invention, the evaluation unit 140 is implemented within a separate computing device 150, comprising the evaluation unit 140 and having connection ports that are connected to the detection unit 11.8 and the detection unit containing the first detection information and the second detection information from the first sensor 112 and the second sensor 132. In this case, the door security area in restricted mode only covers the exterior region dedicated to the second detection information. Consequently, the evaluation unit 140 can prevent the initial detection information from being sent to the door control unit i, which is part of the door controller 190, during restricted mode. Therefore, the detection of an object in the internal IR region during restricted mode does not lead to a false activation of the safety procedure. _a evaluation unit 140 works in the same way as described with respect to figures fig. 2 and ig. Fig. 5a shows a further embodiment of the invention. The monitoring system consists of two sensors 112, 132 with a scanner 116, 136 and a detection unit 11S, iδ8, where the detection unit analyzes the signals from the scanner 116, 136 and transfers initial detection information to the evaluation unit 240, which in this case is part of the put After a predefined period of time, preferably seconds, when the evaluation unit does not receive a signal from any first or second detection information, the monitoring system is set to restricted mode. In this case, the door safety area is implemented as in the example in Fig. 4. In this case, the door control unit 270 of the door controller 290 is supplied only with the second detection information. Once an object is detected in the operating room of the external region, the monitoring system returns to normal mode again considering the first and second detection information. List of reference signs automatic doors m monitoring system sensors i per r e1eme nto scanners detection units evaluation units sensors Escamen 3 6 detection units evaluation units or 1 input ports communication ports security information output port additional information output ports additional input ports communication ports security information output port additional information output ports wiring boards or controller city of '7 0 doors 3nasor 112 E scanner 11 6 Detection Unit 113 132 sensors Seat r 1 3 6 133 detection units 140 assessment units 130 Computing device 170 Door controller unit 240 Evaluation unit 270 Door control unit / door controller Period B Pe í'i odo C CJ detection status C 0 detection state Period D P cr iode E Core α. nainter í. or IC Internal region IR Exterior curtain OC The external region has 51 sensors, and 5 2 sensors.

Claims

1. Automatic door (10), comprising a door control unit (70) for controlling a door, acting on a door drive; further comprising a technical verification system (11) comprising at least two door sensors (12, 32) mounted on two opposite sides of the door, as seen in the direction of passage, wherein each of said sensors (12, 32) comprises a scanning unit (16, 36) that monitors a sensor safety area, comprising an inner region (IR) and an outer region (OR), and each sensor (12, 32) comprises a detection unit (18, 38) connected to the scanning unit (16, 36) where the inner region (IR) is analyzed and first detection information is generated, and where the outer region (OR) is analyzed and second detection information is generated, wherein the technical verification system (11) comprises at least one evaluation unit (20, 10) connected to the detection units (18,38) the door control unit (70), characterized in that the evaluation unit (20, 40) determines, based on the first detection information and the second detection information from both sensors, that in a predefined time period (TL) no detection occurs in any sensor safety control, after this predefined time period (TL) of no detection, the monitoring system (11) is set to restricted mode in which the first detection information is taken into account only in a restricted area of ​​the inner region (IR); when the door control unit (70) receives a safety signal based on the second detection information or the first detection information from the restricted area of ​​the inner region (IR) and the second detection information, where furthermore, once a detection occurs in the outer region (OR) or in the restricted area of ​​the inner region (Iñ),The monitoring system returns to normal mode without, 2. An automatic door according to claim 1, characterized in that the restricted area is a part of the inner region (IR) or none of the inner region (IR).

3. An automatic door according to claim 1, characterized in that each sensor comprises a communication output port (52, 62), wherein the detection unit (18, 38) is connected to the communication output port (52, 62) to transfer the combined information on the first detection information and the second detection information.

4. An automatic door according to claim 3, characterized in that each of said sensors (12, 32) comprises an evaluation unit (18, 38) that is connected to the communication output port (52, 62) of the other sensor (32, 12) and to the detection unit (18, 38) of the same sensor (12, 32). 5.Automatic door according to claim 4 characterized in that each of said sensors (12, 32) comprises a communication input port (50, 60) connected to the communication output port (52, 62) of the other said sensor (12, 32).

6. Automatic door according to claim 5 characterized in that the communication input ports (50, 60) and the communication output ports (52, 62) are serial ports that provide information on presence detection and motion detection in a coded form in 7.Automatic door according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that the monitoring system (11) comprises a computational device (150), wherein the computational device (150) comprises the evaluation unit (140), wherein the first detection information and the second detection information are fed to the computational device (150) and to the evaluation unit (140), wherein during restricted mode only a safety signal, depending on the second detection information and the first detection information in the restricted area, is sent to the door control unit (17C).

3. An automatic door according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the scanning unit (16, 36) comprises a laser scanner, which operates by means of an echo pulse measurement at the time of flight, scanning the inner region (IR) and the outer region (OR).

9. An automatic door according to claim 8, characterized in that the scanning unit (16, 36) generates subsequent measurements along a sweep curve so as to form an inner curtain and a plurality of curtains.

10. An automatic door according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the non-detection time interval (TL) is set at 1 to 3 seconds, preferably 2 seconds.

11. An automatic door according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the door is an industrial door or a pedestrian door. 12.Method for controlling an automatic door (10), comprising a door control unit (70) for controlling a door, acting on a door drive; further comprising a monitoring system (11) comprising at least two door sensors (12, 32).mounted on two opposite sides of the door, as seen in the direction of passage, where each of said sensors (12, 32) monitors a sensor safety area, where a safety signal is applied to the door control unit upon detection of an object within the sensor safety areas of said sensors, characterized in that, after a predefined time period (TL) of non-detection within said sensor safety areas of said sensors, the monitoring system (11) is set into a restricted mode in which at least one sensor safety area is set to a restricted area, where the safety signal is provided to the restricted area. Furthermore, once a detection occurs in the restricted area, the control system returns to a normal, unrestricted mode. 13.Method for controlling an automatic door (10) according to claim 12, characterized in that each sensor safety area comprises an inner region (IR) and an outer region (OR), wherein the inner region (IR) is closer to the door than the outer region (OR), and wherein during restricted mode only the inner region (IR) is reduced to a restricted area.

14. Method for controlling an automatic door according to any of claims 12 or 13, characterized in that each sensor comprises a detection unit (18, 38) that analyzes the data collected by the scanning unit (16, 36), wherein the detection unit (18, 38) ignores data outside the restricted area of ​​the sensor safety area to generate the detection signal during restricted mode. 15.Method of controlling an automatic door according to any of claims 12 to 14 characterized in that the two sensors (12, 32), namely a first sensor (12) and a second sensor (32), communicate a detection state of the sensor's safety area and the restricted area to the other sensor, wherein each sensor (12, 32) is set in a restricted mode taking into account the information from the other sensor (12, 32), wherein only the second sensor (32) sends the safety signal to the door control unit.

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