Machinery Accident Prevention System Using Transceiver Proximity Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing safety features on machinery and equipment, such as lawn mowers and farm tools, are ineffective in preventing accidents, particularly involving children and bystanders, as they are often bypassed or malfunction, leading to increasing injury and fatality rates over decades without significant innovation.
Innovation Solution
A machinery accident prevention system using transceivers to communicate between hazardous machines and protected parties, automatically shutting down the machine when a potentially dangerous condition is detected, and alerting the operator with alarms to prevent injuries from proximity, rollovers, and other hazards.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If automatic safety features are designed to be initiated by operator actions, then the operator can control safety shutdown, but the features become a nuisance to operation and are often bypassed or removed
Solution Approach 1:
The safety system automatically detects protected parties using transceivers and initiates shutdown without operator action. The system serves itself by monitoring its own safety conditions and taking corrective action, eliminating the need for operator intervention that leads to bypassing safety features.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the environment for protected parties using transceiver signals and provides feedback to the control system. When a protected party is detected, the system automatically responds by shutting down the energy conversion device, creating a closed-loop safety system that operates independently of operator awareness or action.
2Power
If existing safety features are used on more powerful and responsive equipment, then equipment performance improves, but accident rates increase because safety features remain stagnant
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical safety features with an electronic transceiver-based detection system. Instead of relying on mechanical shields or operator presence sensors, the system uses wireless communication transceivers to detect protected parties and trigger automated shutdown, modernizing safety for high-power equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the detection parameter from mechanical contact or optical line-of-sight to wireless transceiver signal detection. This allows the safety system to effectively monitor for protected parties at greater distances and with more reliability, matching the enhanced capabilities of modern high-power equipment.
3Ease of operation
If safety features require operator observation and action, then the operator maintains control, but sound and visual impairments from machinery reduce detection accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The transceiver system acts as an intermediary between the protected party and the operator. Instead of relying on the operator's impaired senses to detect hazards, the transceivers continuously monitor for protected parties and communicate their presence to the control system, which then automatically responds without requiring operator observation.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for prevention of accidents by a hazardous machine. The system is comprised of a first subsystem on the machine, and a second subsystem wearable by a party to be protected. The first subsystem includes a base unit transceiver, and a processor in communication with the base unit transceiver, and in communication with a controller of the energy conversion device. The second subsystem includes a protected party remote transceiver in communication with the base unit transceiver. The processor executes an algorithm including detecting the location of the protected party remote transceiver relative to the base unit transceiver; determining if the location of the protected party remote transceiver relative to the base unit transceiver is less than a predetermined threshold distance; and halting operation of the energy conversion device of the protected party remote transceiver relative to the base unit transceiver is located at less than the threshold distance.