System and Method for Robot Safety and Collision Avoidance
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A robot safety system comprising:
- a robot having at least one mobile component instrumented with a plurality of proximity sensors adapted to develop an intrusion detection zone substantially surrounding the mobile component, each sensor adapted to detect an intrusion into a respective portion of the zone;
a model of at least one predefined robot application comprising a set of accepted intrusions during each of a plurality of predefined time intervals comprising the application;
a controller adapted to;
control the robot to execute the application;
during each time interval of the application, monitor for detected intrusions; and
trigger an interrupt of the application in response to a detected intrusion not in the set of accepted intrusions for the respective time interval.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for developing an intrusion detection zone substantially surrounding mobile components of a robot, training a model of the robot to accept selected intrusions into the intrusion detection zone, and, during application operations, triggering an application interrupt upon detecting an unexpected intrusion.
60 Citations
17 Claims
-
1. A robot safety system comprising:
-
a robot having at least one mobile component instrumented with a plurality of proximity sensors adapted to develop an intrusion detection zone substantially surrounding the mobile component, each sensor adapted to detect an intrusion into a respective portion of the zone; a model of at least one predefined robot application comprising a set of accepted intrusions during each of a plurality of predefined time intervals comprising the application; a controller adapted to; control the robot to execute the application; during each time interval of the application, monitor for detected intrusions; and trigger an interrupt of the application in response to a detected intrusion not in the set of accepted intrusions for the respective time interval.
-
-
2. A method for operating a robot having a mobile component, the method comprising the steps of:
-
during a first time period; instrumenting a robot with a plurality of proximity sensors so as to develop an intrusion zone substantially surrounding the mobile component of the robot, each sensor adapted to detect an intrusion into a respective portion of the zone; and modeling at least one predefined robot application to develop a set of accepted intrusions during each of a plurality of predefined time intervals comprising the application; during a second time period; executing the application; during each time interval of the application, monitoring for detected intrusions; and triggering an interrupt of the application in response to a detected intrusion not in the set of accepted intrusions for the respective time interval.
-
-
3. A robot safety system comprising:
-
a robot having at least one mobile component instrumented with a plurality of sensors so as to develop an intrusion zone substantially surrounding the mobile component, each sensor adapted to develop a respective sensor signal; a model of at least one predefined robot operation comprising a set of expected sensor signals for each sensor at each of a plurality of predefined time intervals comprising the operation; a controller adapted to; control the robot to execute the operation; at each of the predefined time intervals, correlate the sensor signal developed by each of the sensors during the operation to the respective expected sensor signal; and signaling an exception if the developed sensor signal and the expected sensor signal do not correlate. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5)
-
-
6. A method for operating a robot, comprising the steps of:
-
instrumenting a robot with a plurality of sensors so as to develop an intrusion zone surrounding a mobile component of the robot, each sensor adapted to develop a respective sensor signal; modeling at least one predefined robot operation to develop an expected sensor signal for each sensor at each of a plurality of predefined time intervals comprising the operation; executing the operation; at each of the predefined time intervals, correlating the sensor signal developed by each of the sensors during the operation to the respective expected sensor signal; and signaling an exception if the developed sensor signal and the expected sensor signal do not correlate. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A method for improved safety of industrial robots by avoiding undesired collisions, comprising:
-
instrumenting a robot with a plurality of sensors to create an intrusion zone around movable components of the robot, each sensor adapted to develop a sensor signal during an operation of the robot; modeling each robot component to determine expected sensor signals for each sensor at predefined time intervals in the operation of the robot due to intrusions of other robot components; and during each time interval of the operation of the robot; correlating each developed sensor signal to the respective expected sensor signal; and signaling an exception in response to a non-correlation. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
Specification