Collision Detection Sensor with Spatially Varying Damping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing collision detection devices for handling devices, such as industrial robots, face challenges in ensuring sufficient adjustment of damping properties across the entire device area, leading to inadequate response behavior to varying safety requirements and complex manufacturing processes.
Innovation Solution
The integration of a one-piece design for the shell and support structure, produced via additive manufacturing, allows for varying degrees of damping in different regions by adjusting the design and material properties, enabling tailored mechanical damping based on specific safety requirements and simplifying the manufacturing process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a homogeneous support structure with adjustable internal pressure is used, then the manufacturing process is simplified and the sensor provides a leak test function, but the damping properties cannot be sufficiently adjusted across the entire device area to meet varying safety requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The support structure is designed with spatially varying properties where different regions have different damping characteristics. The first region has a first damping coefficient and the second region has a second damping coefficient, allowing the sensor to provide optimized collision detection for different areas of the handling device with varying safety requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The support structure is divided into multiple regions (first region and second region) with different damping coefficients. This segmentation allows independent optimization of damping properties in different areas without requiring separate sensors, maintaining a single integrated structure while achieving spatially varying performance.
2Ease of manufacture
If the support structure and shell are manufactured separately and assembled, then the manufacturing process is well-established, but the production process becomes more complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The shell and support structure are manufactured as a single integrated component using additive manufacturing technology. This merging of previously separate parts into one monolithic structure eliminates assembly steps, reduces manufacturing complexity, and increases production efficiency while maintaining the ability to provide spatially varying damping properties.
Solution Approach 2:
Additive manufacturing enables the production of complex geometric structures with varying material densities and structural parameters within a single printed component. This allows the support structure to have different damping coefficients in different regions while being manufactured as one piece, combining manufacturing simplicity with functional complexity.
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 the adaptability of the sensor's response behavior to meet specific safety needs while streamlining the production process, ensuring effective mechanical damping and sensitivity across the device's surface areas.
Implementation Method 1
a gas-filled chamber surrounded by a flexible shell deformable by collision with an obstacle and having a flexible support structure, wherein the support structure forms a damping element which, together with the shell, mechanically dampens the forces acting during a collision
Implementation Method 2
a pressure sensor for measuring the gas pressure inside the chamber, wherein the chamber, the shell, the support structure and the pressure sensor form a sensor body
Data Source
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AI summary
In an apparatus for detecting a collision of a handling device with an obstacle, comprising at least one gas-filled chamber, which is surrounded by a flexible sheath that is deformable by collision with an obstacle and has a flexible supporting structure, wherein the supporting structure forms a damping element, which, together with the sheath, mechanically damps the forces that act in the event of a collision, and also comprising a pressure sensor for measuring the gas pressure inside the chamber, wherein the apparatus is able to be attached to the handling device in a manner covering at least a first and a second region of the handling device, the sheath and the supporting structure are formed in one piece with one another and provide different degrees of damping from one another in the first and the second region.