Exercise Equipment Motor Load Detection for Automatic Safety Stop
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional exercise equipment lacks effective mechanisms to prevent injuries caused by users losing balance or control, as emergency stop mechanisms like the 'dead man's switch' are often inconvenient or fail to function as intended.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that detects changes in motor load and automatically adjusts operating parameters to a neutral level, such as slowing down or stopping the equipment, based on detected motor load differences from a predictive profile, to prevent injuries.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional emergency stop mechanisms like the 'dead man's switch' are used, then the equipment can stop when needed, but the mechanism is inconvenient or fails to function as intended
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically monitors motor load and triggers emergency stop without user intervention. The control system continuously compares actual motor load to expected load and autonomously activates safety protocols when anomalies are detected, eliminating the need for manual emergency stop operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback monitoring of motor load parameters. Sensors measure actual motor load and feed this information back to the control system, which compares it against expected values and automatically responds to deviations, creating a closed-loop safety mechanism that operates without user input.
2Reliability
If the system continuously monitors motor load and automatically adjusts operating parameters, then safety is enhanced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control system serves multiple functions: it manages normal motor operation, monitors safety parameters, detects anomalies, and triggers emergency protocols. By making the control system multi-functional, the patent avoids adding separate dedicated safety hardware, thereby enhancing safety while minimizing complexity increase.
Solution Approach 2:
The safety monitoring functionality is merged with the existing motor control system. The same control unit that manages motor operation also performs safety monitoring and emergency stop functions, consolidating multiple responsibilities into a single integrated system rather than adding separate complex safety hardware.
Data Source
AI summary
An exercise equipment may obtain a motor load of the exercise equipment with selected one or more operating parameters. A motor load may be the amount of energy, the amount of power, the amount of amperage, or the amount of current used to operate the exercise machine with the one or more operating parameters. The exercise equipment may detect a change in the motor load, and in response to detecting the change in the motor load the exercise equipment may slow down the exercise equipment in.