3D Protective Field Monitoring for Vehicle-Person Machine Safeguarding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current non-contact monitoring systems for machines in industrial environments, such as robot cells, struggle to reliably distinguish between approaching vehicles and people, leading to unnecessary machine shutdowns and manual restart procedures, which impact productivity and safety.
Innovation Solution
A method using optoelectronic sensors to configure and evaluate multiple three-dimensional protective fields, allowing for simultaneous monitoring and differentiation between vehicle and person approaches by analyzing the sequence of protective field interventions, enabling automatic machine restart after a vehicle has departed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a light curtain or laser scanner is used to secure the machine area, then safety is improved by detecting unauthorized intrusion, but productivity deteriorates due to unnecessary machine shutdowns when vehicles approach and manual restart requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The protective field configuration is dynamically adjusted based on the detected object type. When a vehicle is detected, the system switches to a first protective field configuration that allows vehicle passage. When a person is detected, the system switches to a second protective field configuration that prevents unauthorized access. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by maintaining safety for persons while enabling productive vehicle operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameters of the protective field (position, extent, monitoring zones) based on the type of object detected. For vehicles, the protective field is configured to monitor only critical areas. For persons, the protective field covers the entire machine area. This parameter change allows the system to maintain high safety standards while avoiding unnecessary shutdowns during legitimate vehicle operations.
2Reliability
If the protective field covers the entire area in front of the machine, then safety is improved by detecting all intrusions, but productivity deteriorates because the machine triggers protective field violations during normal operation and requires manual restart
Solution Approach 1:
The protective field is segmented into multiple monitoring zones with different sensitivity levels. The first protective field configuration divides the area into vehicle passage zones and critical protection zones. The second protective field configuration segments the area into fully monitored zones for person detection. This segmentation allows the system to maintain comprehensive safety monitoring while permitting normal vehicle operations without triggering false alarms.
3Measurement precision
If multiple protective fields are monitored simultaneously, then measurement precision is improved by distinguishing between vehicle and person approaches, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically switches between two protective field configurations based on the detected object type, rather than continuously monitoring multiple complex configurations simultaneously. This dynamic switching approach maintains high detection accuracy while managing device complexity through controlled state transitions rather than perpetual multi-state monitoring.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enhances safety and productivity by allowing the machine to automatically restart after a vehicle has completed its task, ensuring the area is clear, and reduces the need for manual intervention, while maintaining high safety standards.
Implementation Method 1
at least one optoelectronic sensor (10) is provided, in particular a safe sensor, which generates a received signal from received light from the monitored area
Data Source
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AI summary
A method for the non-contact safeguarding of a machine (40) is described, in which several protective fields (38A-B) configured in the vicinity of the machine (40) are monitored for protective field intrusions by at least one optoelectronic sensor (10, 10a-b) and, in the event of a protective field intrusion, a safe output signal is generated at a safe output (32, 34) which is assigned to the protective field (38A-B), wherein the protective fields (38A-B) are configured such that a vehicle (42) approaching the machine (40) leads to a different sequence of protective field intrusions than a person (52) approaching the machine (40) and the sequence of protective field intrusions is evaluated to distinguish between the vehicle (42) and the person (52).Three-dimensional protective fields (38A-B) are monitored, which have at least two layers, with a lower layer and an upper layer arranged above it, and the configuration of the protective fields (38A-B) in the lower layer differs from the configuration of the protective fields (38A-B) in the upper layer.