Canopy System Sensor Feedback Eliminates Guide Rail Tripping Hazards
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional canopy systems face issues with jamming and lateral deviation during opening and closing, which are mitigated by external guide rails but introduce tripping hazards that require filling with materials for safety, necessitating removal before each use.
Innovation Solution
A canopy system that operates without guide rails, utilizing electric motors and a control unit to manage movement, along with sensor strips and counterparts to monitor and correct lateral deviations, ensuring alignment and safe operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If external guide rails are used to guide the canopy elements, then the reliability of operation is improved by preventing jamming and lateral deviation, but the object-affected harmful factors worsen due to tripping hazards created by the guide rails
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the external guide rails from the system entirely, extracting the harmful tripping hazard while maintaining the necessary guidance function through an alternative approach. The guide rails are taken out and replaced with a control system that uses sensor feedback to guide elements along their intended path without physical external constraints.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback control system using sensors (such as optical or magnetic sensors) that detect the position and orientation of canopy elements during movement. This feedback information is processed by a control unit that adjusts motor commands to correct deviations from the intended path, ensuring reliable operation without external guide rails.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If filling material is used to fill the guide rails, then the object-affected harmful factors are reduced by eliminating tripping hazards, but the ease of operation worsens due to the need to remove filling material before each use
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts both the guide rails and the filling material from the system, eliminating the need for repetitive setup and teardown operations. The harmful tripping hazard is removed by replacing the entire guide rail structure with a sensor-based guidance system that requires no physical filling materials.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-guidance through integrated sensors and control units that automatically detect and correct positional deviations during operation. The canopy elements self-correct their paths without external intervention or preparation, eliminating the manual setup and teardown of filling materials.
3Ease of operation
If guide rails are removed from the canopy system, then the ease of operation is improved by eliminating tripping hazards and setup requirements, but the reliability of operation worsens due to increased risk of jamming and lateral deviation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements real-time feedback control using sensors that continuously monitor the position and orientation of canopy elements during movement. The control unit processes this feedback information and dynamically adjusts motor commands to keep elements aligned with their intended paths, preventing jamming and lateral deviation without external guide rails.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical guidance system (external guide rails) with an electronic control system consisting of sensors, control units, and motor actuators. This substitution eliminates the physical tripping hazards while maintaining operational reliability through intelligent control algorithms that detect and correct deviations in real-time.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a roofing system with a motor-operated roof (HU) and a base (U) on which the motor-operated roof (HU) is arranged, wherein the motor-operated roof (HU) has a first (E1) and a last element (LE), wherein the first element (E1) can be arranged stationary on the base (U) and the last element (LE) is designed to be movable relative to the first element (E1) along a predetermined line (L) between an initial position (P1) and an end position (P2), wherein the last element (LE) has at least a first (M1) and a second motor unit (M2) with a respective wheel unit (R1, R2), wherein the roof (HU) has a control unit (CTRL) for controlling the two motor units (M1, M2), wherein according to the invention it is provided thatthat the last element (EL) has at least one sensor strip (SL) arranged transversely to the specified line (L) with a plurality of sensors (S), and that the substrate (U) has a plurality of sensor counterparts (SG) along the specified line (L).