Light Grid Resolution via Divergent Cross-Beams
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing light grids have limited resolution, making it difficult to detect and localize smaller objects, as the minimum detectable size is primarily determined by the spacing of parallel light beams rather than the ability to detect intensity changes within the detection zone.
Innovation Solution
A light grid with divergent light transmission units that form first and second order cross-beams, along with a control and evaluation unit, allowing for higher resolution detection by defining effective beams that cause measurable intensity changes, enabling gap-free illumination and detection of smaller objects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If parallel light beams are used with fixed spacing, then the light grid structure is simple, but the resolution is limited and smaller objects cannot be detected
Solution Approach 1:
The light grid is segmented into multiple beam types: parallel beams for basic detection and cross-beams for enhanced resolution. Each beam type serves a specific detection function, allowing the system to achieve high resolution without requiring a completely complex structural redesign.
Solution Approach 2:
Cross-beams are introduced that extend in a direction perpendicular to the main parallel beams. This adds a dimensional aspect to the detection system, enabling the measurement of object dimensions in multiple directions and significantly improving resolution without proportionally increasing complexity.
2Measurement precision
If the spacing between parallel light beams is reduced to detect smaller objects, then detection resolution improves, but the number of beams increases and system complexity grows
Solution Approach 1:
The cross-beams serve multiple functions: they detect objects in perpendicular directions, provide additional measurement dimensions, and enhance the detection of smaller objects without requiring a proportional increase in parallel beams. This multi-functionality reduces the overall complexity compared to simply adding more parallel beams.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of increasing the number of parallel beams in one dimension, the solution adds beams in a perpendicular dimension. This allows the system to detect smaller objects by measuring them from different angular perspectives, achieving high resolution without proportionally increasing the total beam count.
3Measurement precision
If only parallel beams are used, then the light grid is simple to implement, but objects cannot be localized and resolution is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The beam system is segmented into parallel beams for basic object detection and cross-beams for localization and enhanced resolution. Each segment handles a specific aspect of measurement, allowing the system to achieve localization capability without implementing a completely complex beam configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
Cross-beams act as intermediary elements that connect the parallel beam system to enhanced localization capabilities. These intermediate beams provide the additional measurement data needed for object localization and resolution improvement without requiring a complete redesign of the entire light grid system.
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
The light grid achieves a substantially higher resolution, allowing the detection of smaller objects and enabling positional determination, with the ability to detect objects as small as the part shading of an effective beam, improving detection capabilities by a factor of 20 within the detection zone.
Implementation Method 1
The light of each light transmission unit is divergent so that each light transmission unit also irradiates over at least the next adjacent reception unit beside the directly oppositely disposed light reception unit for the formation of first order cross-beams
Implementation Method 2
a control and evaluation unit for controlling the light transmission units and the light reception units and for evaluating the light intensity of the light incidence on a light reception unit
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a light grid having divergent light beams so that cross-beams can also be evaluated beside parallel beams, wherein not only a light beam interruption, but also the intensity of the light incidence on a light reception unit is evaluated. To provide an improved light grid with which in particular smaller objects can be detected and possibly also located, it is proposed that the light transmission units have a transmission optics in whose focus an extended light source is arranged. Furthermore, each beam contains an effective beam, with an effective beam being defined in that a part shading of this effective beam effects a measurable intensity change in the associated light receiver corresponding to the shading. Finally, the effective beams define at least one detection zone in the monitored plane, with an illumination by at least one effective beam being present in the total detection zone.