Optical Protective Field Generation From Environmental Contours
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing monitoring devices for hazardous systems have limited adaptability to changing conditions due to a fixed number of protective fields, requiring significant effort to store and select suitable fields, which hampers flexibility and efficiency in monitoring danger areas.
Innovation Solution
The monitoring device automatically generates a protective field using external trigger signals and measured environmental contours, allowing for dynamic adjustment of the monitored area without manual parameter assignment, enabling the creation of any number of protective fields as needed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a limited number of protective fields are stored in the optical sensor, then the device structure remains simple, but the adaptability to changing boundary conditions is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The protective field configuration is changed from static (pre-stored fixed fields) to dynamic (automatically generated fields). The evaluation unit now dynamically creates protective fields based on real-time environmental contours detected by the optical sensor, allowing the system to adapt to changing boundary conditions without requiring additional physical storage capacity for multiple predefined fields.
Solution Approach 2:
The optical sensor's evaluation unit performs self-configuration by automatically generating protective fields based on detected environmental contours. Instead of requiring external manual configuration or selection from pre-stored fields, the system serves itself by autonomously creating appropriate protective fields according to the actual monitoring environment, thereby improving adaptability without increasing device complexity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple protective fields are manually configured and stored, then sufficient coverage of hazard areas is achieved, but significant effort is required for configuration and selection
Solution Approach 1:
The evaluation unit automatically generates protective fields by processing environmental contour data detected by the optical sensor. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for manual configuration efforts, as the system autonomously creates appropriate protective fields based on the actual monitoring environment, thereby maintaining comprehensive hazard area coverage while dramatically reducing operational effort.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of manually selecting from pre-defined protective field parameters, the system dynamically changes parameters by generating new protective field configurations based on detected environmental contours. This parameter transformation approach allows comprehensive coverage of hazard areas while eliminating manual configuration efforts, as the parameters are automatically adapted to match the actual monitoring requirements.
3Adaptability or versatility
If environmental contours are used to automatically generate protective fields, then adaptability and flexibility are improved, but the processing complexity in the evaluation unit increases
Solution Approach 1:
The evaluation unit is designed to perform multiple functions: detecting environmental contours, processing this data, and generating protective field configurations. By making the evaluation unit universal and multi-functional, the system achieves high flexibility in monitoring while consolidating processing complexity into a single integrated component rather than adding separate systems, thereby minimizing the actual increase in overall device complexity.
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 enhances adaptability and reduces operational effort by allowing real-time generation and selection of protective fields, improving the monitoring device's functionality and flexibility, especially in safety-critical applications.
Implementation Method 1
a transmitter/receiver unit with at least one light-emitting transmitter and at least one light-receiving receiver, wherein the light beams are guided within a monitoring area
Implementation Method 2
At least one distance value is determined within each angular segment
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4
AI summary
The invention relates to a monitoring device (1) with an optical sensor (4), which includes a transmitter/receiver unit (10) with at least one light beam emitting transmitter (12) and at least one light beam receiving receiver (13), wherein the light beams (11) are guided within a monitoring area (5), and with an evaluation unit in which at least one protective field (6) is defined. In the evaluation unit, objects within the protective field (6) are detected depending on received signals from the receiver (13). An external trigger signal can be read into the optical sensor (4), whereby a protective field (6) is generated in the evaluation unit depending on at least one environmental contour detected by the transmitter/receiver unit (10).