Automated Emergency Stop Range Determination via 3D Ray Tracing
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Solution Overview
Problem
In dynamic and decentralized cyber-physical systems, especially in modern production facilities, it is challenging to create a safety concept for emergency stop actuation devices that meets international standards, as the system layout is often changing and not fully known in advance, making manual planning inefficient and impractical.
Innovation Solution
An automated method using three-dimensional models of the room and plant parts, combined with ray tracing algorithms, to determine the effective range of emergency stop buttons, ensuring that system parts within the visible and accessible area can be safely stopped without manual intervention, allowing for decentralized calculation and communication between subsystems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual planning is used to create safety concepts for emergency stop devices, then the safety concept can be customized for each specific system, but the engineering effort and time required increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical planning processes with an automated computer-based system that uses 3D models and ray tracing algorithms to calculate effective ranges. This substitution eliminates the need for manual engineering effort while maintaining accurate safety concept determination through automated visualization and calculation methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary calculations of effective ranges during the planning phase using 3D models, allowing safety concepts to be determined before actual system deployment. This preliminary action enables dynamic systems to be configured without extensive manual planning later, as the automated system pre-calculates all necessary safety parameters.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the system layout is fixed in advance, then safety concepts can be planned manually with complete information, but the system lacks flexibility for dynamic reconfiguration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables dynamic reconfiguration of safety concepts by allowing the system to recalculate effective ranges when 3D models are updated with new system layouts. The automated ray tracing system dynamically adapts to changing configurations without requiring manual replanning, making the system both flexible and manageable despite increased adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses 3D digital models as copies of the physical system to perform safety calculations. These virtual models can be easily modified to represent different system configurations, allowing the safety concept to be adapted to various layouts without physical changes or complex manual planning for each scenario.
3Adaptability or versatility
If decentralized structures are used where each machine is treated as a cyber-physical system, then system flexibility and modularity improve, but creating a comprehensive safety concept becomes virtually impossible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal 3D modeling approach that can represent any decentralized machine or cyber-physical system within a common spatial framework. Each decentralized system contributes its own 3D model and operational data, which the centralized calculation system integrates to determine comprehensive effective ranges that span multiple independent components.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses 3D models and ray tracing algorithms as intermediaries between decentralized machines. Instead of requiring direct communication and context sharing between all decentralized systems, the visualized 3D models serve as a common language that enables the calculation system to determine safety zones without losing contextual information about individual machine operations.
4Reliability
If the effective range of emergency stop buttons is not clearly defined, then system simplicity is maintained, but safety requirements according to standards cannot be met
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces subjective or approximate methods of determining effective ranges with automated ray tracing calculations based on 3D models. This substitution provides objective, standardized results that meet safety requirements while eliminating the complexity of manual boundary definition and subjective judgment about visible ranges.
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
Enables the automated and efficient determination of the effective range of emergency stop buttons, ensuring that system parts can be safely stopped immediately, reducing engineering effort and maintaining compliance with safety standards, even in dynamically changing environments.
Implementation Method 1
Determination of the system parts visible from this position based on the first model of the room and the second model of the system parts as well as the information about the orientation of the system parts using a ray tracing algorithm
Data Source
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AI summary
In modern, flexible systems, which will become increasingly common in the future (cyberphysical systems), the system layout should be dynamically modifiable. In such an environment, it is often impossible to develop the complete safety concept required by standards in advance and within the required timeframe. The proposed method enables the calculation of the positioning of operating devices (the so-called emergency stop buttons) within a system. Furthermore, an improved method for recalculating these positions after changes to the system layout is proposed.