Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110298579 | DYNAMICALLY ADAPTABLE SAFETY ZONES - Systems and methods are provided for defining a safety zone in an industrial automation environment. The method includes monitoring an object that approaches an operating zone where equipment is controlled within the operating zone. This includes determining the speed or direction that the object approaches the operating zone. The method includes dynamically adjusting a safety region in view of the determined speed or direction of the object and enabling or disabling the equipment within the operating zone based in part on the object entering the safety region. | 12-08-2011 |
20120092485 | TIME OF FLIGHT (TOF) SENSORS AS REPLACEMENT FOR STANDARD PHOTOELECTRIC SENSORS - Systems and methods are provided for utilizing time of flight sensors in an industrial automation environment. The method includes employing a multi pixel camera associated with a time of flight sensor to detect an object located within a defined or bounded target area, comparing pixels with adjacent pixels associated with an image of the object captured by the multi pixel camera, identifying the object as being a colored, texture, or highly reflective object, and controlling industrial machinery based on the identification of the object entering the target area. | 04-19-2012 |
20120095575 | TIME OF FLIGHT (TOF) HUMAN MACHINE INTERFACE (HMI) - Systems and methods are provided for controlling industrial equipment in the performance of various industrial activities based on the detected body movement of a user in an industrial automation environment. The method includes employing a time-of-flight sensor to detect movement of a body part of the user, ascertaining whether or not the movement of the body part conforms to a recognized movement of the body part, interpreting the recognized movement of the body part as a performable action, and thereafter actuating industrial machinery to perform the performable action. | 04-19-2012 |
20120105823 | COLOR SENSOR INSENSITIVE TO DISTANCE VARIATIONS - A system for calibrating a color sensing pixel based upon the distance between the color sensing pixel and an object. The distance is determined by measuring the phase shift of electromagnetic radiation as reflected from the surface of the object compared with the wave profile of the electromagnetic radiation incident on the object surface. The color sensing pixel is associated with a Time-of-Flight (ToF) pixel which is employed to determine the distance of the color sensing pixel. The electromagnetic radiation can be from any part of the electromagnetic spectrum, in particular the infrared and visible light portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The color sensing pixel and the ToF pixel can reside on the same semiconductor or on disparate semiconductors. | 05-03-2012 |
20130270422 | Method and Apparatus for a Dual Matrix Sensor Array - The subject matter disclosed herein describes an optical sensor used in a safety system. The sensor includes two pixel matrices on a single substrate. Each of the pixel matrices are arranged in a row and column format, and pixels from one matrix are interspersed with pixels from the other matrix such that alternating pixels in each row and column belong to separate matrices. Two sets of selection logic allow each matrix to be enabled separately. Additional monitoring logic is included to detect shorted pixels and/or shorted selection lines. In addition, the frames generated by each pixel array may be compared to detect variation in performance between arrays. | 10-17-2013 |
20130292554 | OPTICAL MODULE AND OPTICAL UNIT FOR A LIGHT CURTAIN, AND FABRICATION METHOD - An optical module for an optical unit associated with forming a light curtain for monitoring a protective or surveillance field. The optical module includes at least one radiation emitting and/or radiation receiving element for transmitting and/or receiving a radiation beam associated with forming a light curtain. The optical module includes a module body for mounting a radiation transmitter/receiver carrier that carries the at least one transmitting and/or receiving element associated with the radiation beam. The module body has at least one alignment element for aligning the optical module within a support element that forms an outer housing of the optical unit. | 11-07-2013 |
20130293966 | LENS CARRIER AND OPTICAL MODULE FOR A LIGHT CURTAIN AND FABRICATION METHOD - A lens carrier and an optical module for forming a light curtain associated with monitoring a protective field. The lens carrier includes at least one lens for focussing a radiation beam forming said light curtain and a lens mask having at least one opening for shaping the radiation beam to have a predetermined aperture. The lens carrier is formed by overmolding said lens mask with a transparent material. The optical module has such a lens carrier and a module body for mounting a radiation transmitter/receiver carrier that comprises at least one transmitter and/or receiver for transmitting and/or receiving said radiation. | 11-07-2013 |
20130335725 | COLOR SENSOR INSENSITIVE TO DISTANCE VARIATIONS - A system for calibrating a color sensing pixel based upon the distance between the color sensing pixel and an object. The distance is determined by measuring the phase shift of electromagnetic radiation as reflected from the surface of the object compared with the wave profile of the electromagnetic radiation incident on the object surface. The color sensing pixel is associated with a Time-of-Flight (ToF) pixel which is employed to determine the distance of the color sensing pixel. The electromagnetic radiation can be from any part of the electromagnetic spectrum, in particular the infrared and visible light portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The color sensing pixel and the ToF pixel can reside on the same semiconductor or on disparate semiconductors. | 12-19-2013 |
20140319358 | OPTICAL UNIT, LIGHT CURTAIN AND METHOD FOR ALLOCATING AN INDIVIDUAL ADDRESS - The present invention relates to light curtains and, in particular, to safety light curtains for monitoring a protective field and to optical units of such light curtains which comprise optoelectronic components interconnected by a communication bus and to a method for allocating individual addresses to each of a plurality of optoelectronic components. The optical unit comprises a controller unit, a plurality of optoelectronic components interconnected by means of a communication bus, each of said optoelectronic components having a transmission input terminal for receiving a transmission signal and a transmission output terminal for outputting a transmission signal, and a receiving terminal for receiving a control signal from said control unit. An individual address is allocated to each of said optoelectronic components depending on a position of the respective optoelectronic component with respect to the other optoelectronic components. | 10-30-2014 |
20140346318 | METHOD FOR ASSEMBLING A CIRCUIT CARRIER WITH A HOUSING COMPONENT, AND OPTICAL UNIT - The present invention relates to a method for assembling a circuit carrier with a housing component and furthermore to an optical unit for emitting and/or receiving radiation that is fabricated using this particular method of assembling and aligning the circuit carrier with the housing component. The method comprises the following steps: providing said circuit carrier, wherein on said circuit carrier there is arranged at least one electronic component, and providing said housing component having at least one first opening; aligning said circuit carrier in a way that said electronic component is aligned with respect to said first opening in the housing component, wherein the electronic component is directly used as a fiducial for its own position on the circuit carrier; fixing the circuit carrier at the housing component. | 11-27-2014 |
20140361149 | Method for Synchronizing Optical Units of a Photoelectric Barrier and Light Curtain - The present invention relates to a method for synchronizing the optical units of a photoelectric barrier and to such a photoelectric barrier. The synchronization method comprises the steps of transmitting radiation forming a synchronization signal from a first optical sender of the first optical unit; controlling a plurality of the optical receivers of the at least one second optical unit to monitor whether the synchronization signal has been received and performing a synchronization step if the synchronization signal has been received. The method further performs the step of defining at least one of said plurality of optoelectronic components to be used for the synchronization step. | 12-11-2014 |
20150041626 | Method and Apparatus for Control of a Dual Matrix Sensor Array - The subject matter disclosed herein describes an optical sensor used in a safety system. The sensor includes two pixel matrices on a single substrate. Each of the pixel matrices are arranged in a row and column format, and pixels from one matrix are interspersed with pixels from the other matrix such that alternating pixels in each row and column belong to separate matrices. Two sets of selection logic allow each matrix to be enabled separately. Additional monitoring logic is included to detect shorted pixels and/or shorted selection lines. In addition, the frames generated by each pixel array may be compared to detect variation in performance between arrays. | 02-12-2015 |