Actuator Control Safety Unit for User-Modified Work Equipment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing work apparatuses face challenges in ensuring safety during software upgrades or adjustments, particularly when end users modify the control unit, as this can lead to impermissible operating states that endanger the apparatus, operator, or environment.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a safety unit between the instruction unit and the actuator system to check and modify provisional instructions, ensuring they are permissible before forwarding them to the actuators, allowing flexible adaptation of the control unit while preventing unsafe operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the control unit is made flexible to allow software upgrades and adjustments by end users, then adaptability is improved, but safety reliability deteriorates due to potential impermissible operating states
Solution Approach 1:
A safety unit is introduced as an intermediary component between the instruction unit and the actuator system. The safety unit receives provisional instructions from the instruction unit, checks them against a predefined set of impermissible instructions, and only forwards permissible instructions to the actuator system. This mediator architecture allows the control unit to remain flexible and upgradable while the safety unit ensures that no impermissible instructions reach the actuators, thus resolving the contradiction between adaptability and safety reliability.
2Reliability
If the safety unit checks all provisional instructions, then safety reliability is improved, but device complexity increases due to additional safety mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit is segmented into functionally independent modules: an instruction unit for creating provisional instructions, a safety unit for checking instructions against impermissible patterns, and an actuator system for execution. The safety unit is further segmented by maintaining a predefined set of impermissible instructions that can be checked through pattern matching. This segmentation allows the safety functionality to be added without fundamentally complicating the overall control architecture, as each module has a clear, isolated responsibility.
3Ease of operation
If the control unit allows user modifications, then ease of operation is improved, but manufacturing precision deteriorates as quality control becomes harder
Solution Approach 1:
The safety unit is pre-configured with a comprehensive set of impermissible instructions that define unsafe operating states. This preliminary definition of safety constraints occurs during manufacturing or system initialization, allowing the control unit to be produced with built-in safety guarantees. End users can then modify the instruction unit's software to add new functionalities or adapt to specific requirements, but the pre-established safety checks ensure that no modifications can create impermissible operating states, thus maintaining manufacturing precision while improving ease of operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A work apparatus includes an actuator system with an actuator and a control unit. To control the actuator system, the control unit issues an instruction for the actuator system. The control unit includes an instruction unit and a safety unit. The instruction unit creates a provisional instruction for the actuator system. A set of impermissible instructions is defined in the safety unit. The safety unit checks whether the provisional instruction is in the set of impermissible instructions and only permits the forwarding of the provisional instruction to the actuator system in unmodified form if the provisional instruction is outside the set of impermissible instructions and/or checks whether the provisional instruction is in the set of permissible instructions and only permits the forwarding of the provisional instruction to the actuator system in unmodified form if the provisional instruction is within the set of permissible instructions.