AR Robot Work Area Display for Virtual Safety Fencing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing use of industrial robots in automated factory production poses safety risks due to inadequate safety facilities, and conventional methods for defining dangerous and safe areas around these robots are time-consuming and costly.
Innovation Solution
An electronic device equipped with a camera, sensor, storage, and processor that identifies smart machines, determines their operational status, and provides a virtual fence by displaying the work area and remaining operation time, using a projector to irradiate beams for user guidance and safety awareness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a physical fence is disposed in a dangerous area around the industrial robot, then safety protection is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a camera to capture images of the robot and its work area, then overlays virtual fence markings on these images to create a visual copy of the dangerous zones. This virtual representation replaces the need for physical fences, providing safety guidance through displayed images with superimposed safety zone markings while avoiding the complexity and cost of physical barrier installations.
2Reliability
If a physical fence is disposed in a dangerous area around the industrial robot, then safety protection is improved, but installation time and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a virtual copy of the work area through camera imaging and displays it with overlaid safety zone markings. This virtual safety system can be deployed immediately through software processing, eliminating the time-consuming installation process required for physical fences while providing equivalent safety guidance functionality.
3Reliability
If a physical fence is disposed in a dangerous area around the industrial robot, then safety protection is improved, but control flexibility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual fence system dynamically adapts to different robot operations and work areas by processing real-time camera images and adjusting the displayed safety zone markings accordingly. The system can modify the virtual safety boundaries based on the robot's current task, position, and operational parameters, providing flexible safety guidance that adjusts to changing conditions without requiring physical reconfiguration of fixed fences.
4Reliability
If position information and work information of smart machines are stored and processed, then safety awareness is improved, but information processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The processor in the electronic device performs multiple functions: it identifies smart machines based on position information, determines their operational status, retrieves relevant work information from storage, processes camera images, and generates the virtual fence display. By consolidating these diverse functions into a single multi-functional processor, the system manages information processing complexity through integration rather than through separate dedicated components for each function.
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed is an electronic device. The electronic device includes a display; a camera; a sensor; a storage configured to store position information and work information of a smart machine; and a processor configured to identify a smart machine which is located within a peripheral area of the electronic device based on position information of the electronic device sensed through the sensor and position information of the smart machine stored in the storage, to obtain work information of the identified smart machine from the storage, and to indicate a work area of the smart machine on an image photographed through the camera based on the obtained work information of the smart machine and provide the image including the work area on the display.