Machine Safety Monitoring With Containerized Logic Units
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional safety engineering in industrial environments is inflexible and costly due to the reliance on monolithic architectures and dedicated safety hardware, which limits the integration of safety and automation functions, and fails to adapt to changing hardware or software requirements, especially in networked IoT systems.
Innovation Solution
A flexible safety device and method that uses a performance environment with computing nodes and logic units, where safety and automation functions are decoupled, allowing dynamic reconfiguration and redundancy, and utilizing containerization and orchestration technologies like Kubernetes to manage logic units and resources, ensuring functional safety without dedicated hardware.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If monolithic architectures with dedicated safety hardware are used, then reliability and safety are improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the safety system into independent microservices that can be deployed separately on standard hardware. Instead of a monolithic safety controller, the system divides safety functions into modular components that communicate through standardized interfaces, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining reliability through distributed architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements universal safety functions that can operate across different hardware platforms and machine types. The microservice architecture allows the same safety logic to be deployed on various standard hardware configurations, eliminating the need for dedicated safety hardware for each application and reducing device complexity.
2Reliability
If dedicated safety hardware is used, then safety reliability is improved, but cost and inflexibility increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic safety configurations where safety parameters, protected fields, and response thresholds can be modified at runtime without hardware changes. The microservice architecture enables hot-swapping of safety logic and configuration updates, providing adaptability while maintaining safety integrity through validated deployment processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses virtualization and containerization to create software-based copies of safety functions that can be deployed on standard hardware. Instead of requiring dedicated physical safety components, the system replicates safety logic in software form, enabling flexibility and easier adaptation to different applications.
3Productivity
If safety functions are integrated with automation functions, then productivity is improved, but difficulty of detecting and measuring faults increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments safety and automation functions into distinct microservices with well-defined interfaces. This segmentation allows each service to be independently monitored, tested, and validated. Fault detection is simplified because failures can be isolated to specific microservices rather than requiring analysis of a monolithic system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements comprehensive feedback mechanisms where microservices continuously report their status, performance metrics, and health indicators to a central orchestration layer. This feedback enables real-time fault detection and monitoring of both safety and automation functions, maintaining ease of detection while enabling tight integration.
4Ease of manufacture
If standard hardware is used instead of dedicated safety hardware, then cost is reduced, but reliability may worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces dedicated safety hardware with software-based safety functions deployed on standard hardware platforms. Virtualization and containerization technologies create isolated execution environments that replicate the reliability characteristics of dedicated hardware while reducing costs and improving availability through software resilience mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements multiple layers of fault tolerance and redundancy in the software architecture, including backup microservices, checkpointing, and automated failover mechanisms. These preemptive measures cushion against potential hardware failures, ensuring safety reliability is maintained even when using standard, less robust hardware platforms.
Data Source
AI summary
A safety device for monitoring at least one machine is provided that has at least one sensor for generating sensor data on the machine and a processing unit for the sensor data that is connected at least indirectly to the sensor and to the machine, that is configured as a performance environment having at least one computing node that is configured to allow a plurality of logic units to run on the at least one computing node, wherein at least one logic unit is configured as a safety function unit for a safety directed evaluation of the sensor data and at least one logic unit is configured as a diagnostic unit for monitoring the at least one safety function unit, In this respect the at least one safety function unit is configured to transmit status reports and performance reports to the diagnostic unit and the diagnostic unit is configured to recognize a safety related malfunction of the safety device in a status monitoring using statuses from the status reports and in a performance monitoring using the performance routine from the performance reports.