Movable Machine Safety Control for Narrow Passage Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Movable machines, such as autonomous vehicles and industrial robots, face challenges in accurately determining their position and adapting safety functions to prevent collisions and ensure personal protection, especially in complex environments like industrial plants and transfer stations, where standard intrinsically safe laser scanners may fail due to narrow areas or bottlenecks.
Innovation Solution
A movable machine equipped with a security system comprising a localization system, a distance sensor, and a contour recognition unit, which identifies the position and contour of safety locations, allowing the safety controller to adjust the safety function accordingly, including emergency stops and adaptive protective field adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If standard intrinsically safe laser scanners are used for primary protection, then personal safety is ensured, but the safety function cannot be adapted in narrow passages or at transfer stations, causing process interruptions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic safety field adjustment by continuously adapting the protective field parameters (position, shape, extent) based on the movable machine's current position and the detected contour of safety locations. The safety controller dynamically modifies the safety function characteristics in real-time, transitioning from static to adaptive protection that responds to environmental context and machine state.
2Productivity
If the protective field is narrowed to fit through narrow passages, then the machine can pass through bottlenecks, but crushing points for people are created
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating position-dependent safety field characteristics where different regions of the protective field have different properties. The safety controller adjusts the field's position, shape, and extent locally based on the machine's position relative to safety locations, ensuring appropriate protection density and coverage in each spatial zone rather than uniform protection throughout.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the localization system and contour recognition unit are added to identify safety locations, then the safety function can be adapted in real-time, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements multi-functionality by enabling the safety system to perform multiple functions: standard protective field monitoring, localization relative to safety locations, contour detection of safety locations, and dynamic adaptation of safety functions. The system integrates these diverse functions within a unified safety controller that coordinates all components, allowing one system to serve multiple safety-related purposes rather than requiring separate specialized systems.
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
This solution enables reliable and adaptive safety measures, preventing collisions and ensuring personal protection by accurately identifying safety locations and adjusting safety functions in real-time, even in complex environments, thereby reducing the risk of process shutdowns and improving machine availability.
Implementation Method 1
a light transmitter for emitting a light beam into a monitoring plane, a light receiver for generating a received signal from the light beam remitted by objects in the monitoring plane
Implementation Method 2
a movable deflection unit for periodically deflecting the emitted light beam in order to scan the monitoring plane during the movement
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Movable machine (1) and method with a movable machine (1) with a safety system (2), with a safety controller (7), with a localization system (3), with a distance sensor (4) for at least area-wide monitoring of a monitoring area and with a contour recognition unit (6), wherein a position (9) of a safety point (8) can be identified by means of the localization system (3), and a contour (10) of the safety point (8) can be identified by means of the distance sensor (4) and the contour recognition unit (6), wherein, upon identification of the position (9) of the safety point (8) and the contour (10) of the safety point (8) by means of the safety controller (7), a change in the safety function of the safety system (2) takes place.