Conveyor Vehicle Platform Sensing for Safe Autonomous Grouping
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional conveyor systems face challenges in maintaining safety distances during vehicle grouping, especially when approaching obstacles or stationary facilities, leading to potential collisions and requiring manual intervention.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a contactless platform sensor to monitor the assembly platform, which takes over or supports the vehicle's driving situation monitoring when the safety distance is breached, ensuring collision avoidance and personal protection by dynamically adjusting its range.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a fixed safety distance is maintained using laser scanners, then collision avoidance is ensured, but vehicle grouping becomes difficult and stationary safety devices are required
Solution Approach 1:
The moving object (vehicle) performs safety monitoring itself using its own platform sensor, eliminating the need for external stationary safety devices. The sensor on the vehicle monitors the assembly platform and detects obstacles, allowing the vehicle to autonomously ensure collision avoidance without requiring infrastructure-based safety systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The platform sensor serves multiple functions: it monitors the assembly platform for worker safety, detects obstacles in the driving path, and enables vehicle grouping by allowing vehicles to operate at reduced safety distances when grouping is intended. This multi-functionality resolves the contradiction by making the safety system adaptable rather than fixed.
2Productivity
If the safety distance is reduced for vehicle grouping, then productivity increases, but collision risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The safety distance is made dynamic rather than fixed. The control unit adjusts the safety distance based on the operational context: when vehicle grouping is intended, a reduced safety distance is permitted; when grouping is not intended or obstacles are detected, the full safety distance is maintained. This dynamic adjustment allows productivity improvement through vehicle grouping while maintaining collision avoidance through context-aware distance control.
Solution Approach 2:
The platform sensor continuously monitors the assembly platform and provides feedback to the control unit about obstacles or workers in the vicinity. This feedback enables the control unit to dynamically adjust the safety distance in real-time, allowing reduced distances during safe vehicle grouping operations while automatically restoring full safety distances when obstacles are detected, thus resolving the contradiction between productivity and safety.
3Reliability
If the platform sensor monitors the entire driving situation, then personal protection is improved, but the sensor's primary function for assembly platform monitoring is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The platform sensor is designed to perform multiple monitoring functions simultaneously: it monitors the assembly platform for worker presence and safety, and it also monitors the driving situation by detecting obstacles in the vehicle's path. The sensor's data is processed by the control unit to serve both purposes, eliminating the need to choose between personal protection and assembly platform monitoring accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring function is segmented into different spatial zones: the platform sensor monitors the assembly platform area for worker safety, while also monitoring the driving path area for obstacles. The control unit processes sensor data differently depending on the detected zone, allowing simultaneous personal protection and assembly platform monitoring without compromising either function's precision.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle and conveyor system for simultaneously transporting workpieces and workers, wherein the vehicle has a workpiece receptacle, an assembly platform accessible to workers, its own drive which is designed to drive the vehicle independently of other vehicles of the conveyor system, a contactless route sensor for navigating the vehicle and a control apparatus for controlling the drive, inter alia on the basis of a signal from the route sensor. The vehicle may have a contactless platform sensor for monitoring the assembly platform, wherein the platform sensor is designed to at least temporarily alternatively take over the monitoring of the travel situation of the vehicle or to at least temporarily additionally support the monitoring of the travel situation of the vehicle. A conveyor system having two such vehicles and to a corresponding method is also provided.