Robot Safety Control Module for Predictive Human-Aware Path Planning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional strategies for preventing collisions between robots and humans in manufacturing environments often compromise safety and productivity, particularly when humans move or extend their bodies beyond designated areas, and existing safety measures are not guaranteed to avoid collisions.
Innovation Solution
A robot assembly equipped with a safety control module that integrates sensors to detect human locations and safety zones, predicts future movements, and adjusts its path to avoid collisions by using capture and blind capture sets, ensuring efficient operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If physical barriers are used to create safe zones around robots, then safety is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to restricted movement and additional space requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The safety zone is transformed from a static physical barrier to a dynamic virtual boundary that adapts in real-time based on robot position, human location, and robot speed. The safety zone expands or contracts dynamically, allowing robot movement within safe parameters while maintaining protection boundaries without physical constraints.
Solution Approach 2:
Physical mechanical barriers are replaced with an electronic control system that uses sensors, processors, and software algorithms to detect human presence and calculate dynamic safety zones. The system substitutes mechanical containment with intelligent computational boundaries that enforce safety through controlled robot movement rather than physical walls.
2Productivity
If robot speed is increased to improve productivity, then productivity is improved, but the magnitude of potential harm during collision increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of human presence and pre-calculates safety zones before the robot reaches potentially dangerous positions. By anticipating human location and predicting potential collision risks in advance, the system can adjust robot speed or trajectory proactively rather than reactively, maintaining high speeds while preventing high-harm scenarios.
Solution Approach 2:
The safety control system continuously monitors robot position, speed, and human location through sensor feedback loops. This real-time feedback enables the system to dynamically adjust the safety zone and robot operational parameters based on current conditions, allowing high-speed operation when safe and automatic speed reduction when human presence is detected within critical zones.
3Reliability
If safety zones are expanded to account for human movement and body extension, then safety is improved, but robot operational space is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The safety zone boundary is made dynamic rather than static, expanding to account for human movement patterns, body extension ranges, and object carrying capabilities only when and where needed. The zone adapts its shape and size based on real-time human position and predicted movement, maximizing robot operational space while maintaining comprehensive safety coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameters defining the safety zone based on detected human characteristics and behavior. Factors such as human speed, direction, body orientation, and task type dynamically adjust the safety zone dimensions and shape, allowing the zone to be minimal when humans are stationary and maximal when humans are moving or extending limbs, thus optimizing both safety and operational space.
Data Source
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AI summary
A robot assembly for safe operation in a manufacturing setting with humans including a sensor for detecting a human location and human movement is provided. A safety control module providing a boundary of a safety zone area that is associated with the human in a task oriented state that includes a largest possible area in which the human or an associated work object can extend when the human is standing in one location and performing the work task. The human movement and safety zone area location being used to develop a capture set area that includes at least one predictive future safety zone area location. Using the at least one predicted future safety zone area, establishing a travel path for moving the robot between locations without overlapping the capture set area.