Operating Table Sensor Error Detection Through Predictive Load Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical tables lack effective systems to detect errors in sensors and accurately determine load or load centers, which can lead to safety hazards such as tipping, patient injury, or equipment damage, especially when redundant sensors are not feasible due to space constraints.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing a load sensor arrangement, a load determination unit, and a calculation unit to predict expected load or load center sizes, with an error recognition unit comparing actual and predicted values to detect faulty sensors and prevent safety-critical conditions without requiring additional hardware.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If redundant sensors are used to detect sensor failures, then reliability is improved, but device complexity and installation space requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the output of load sensors to calculate expected load values and compares these with actual sensor readings. When a discrepancy exceeds a threshold, it indicates sensor failure. This feedback mechanism detects sensor errors without requiring additional redundant sensors, thus improving reliability while avoiding increased device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The load sensor arrangement performs self-diagnosis by using its own measurements to verify its operational status. The calculation unit computes expected values based on the sensor outputs and compares them with actual readings, allowing the system to detect its own failures without external redundant components.
2Reliability
If redundant sensors are installed to ensure safety, then patient safety is improved, but installation space is exceeded
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors sensor outputs and compares calculated expected values with actual readings to detect sensor failures. This feedback-based monitoring ensures patient safety by identifying unsafe conditions without requiring additional physical sensors that would consume installation space.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical approach of installing additional redundant sensors with a software-based calculation system. The calculation unit processes existing sensor data to detect errors, substituting physical redundancy with computational analysis to maintain safety while preserving installation space.
3Reliability
If sensor error detection is implemented, then safety-critical conditions are prevented, but measurement precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses feedback comparison between calculated expected load values and actual sensor readings to detect sensor errors. This approach maintains measurement precision requirements while enabling safety monitoring, as the comparison threshold can be set to detect only significant deviations that indicate actual sensor failure rather than normal measurement variation.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for detecting an error of a sensor in an operating table and/or an error when determining a load or a load center, comprising: an operating table with an adjustable patient bearing surface for bearing a patient; a load sensor arrangement with several load sensors which issue sensor values; a load determination unit which determines at least one of the following first sizes with the sensor values: a load, a center of the load, a speed of the load center and an acceleration of the load center, wherein the load is a load acting on the load sensor arrangement or a load acting on the operating table or a total load of the operating table; a calculation unit which predicts or calculates at least one expected second size; and an error recognition unit which compares the sensor values or the at least one first size with the at least one second size and, if the deviation exceeds a predetermined value, detects an error and/or a possible error.