Refine
H-BRS Bibliography
- yes (19)
Departments, institutes and facilities
Document Type
- Conference Object (19) (remove)
Year of publication
Has Fulltext
- no (19)
Keywords
- machine learning (2)
- Collaborating industrial robots (1)
- Cybersecurity (1)
- Embedded system (1)
- Exergame (1)
- Functional safety (1)
- Grid Control (1)
- Grid Stability (1)
- Information and Communication Technologies (1)
- Inverter (1)
In the presented project, new approaches for the prevention of hand movements leading to hazards and for non-contact detection of fingers are intended to permit comprehensive and economical protection on circular saws. The basic principles may also be applied to other machines with manual loading and/or unloading. Two new detection principles are explained. The first is the distinction between skin and wood or other material by spectral analysis in the near infrared region. Using LED and photodiodes it is possible to detect fingers and hands reliable. With a kind of light curtain the intrusion into the dangerous zone near the blade can be prevented. The second principle is video image processing to detect persons, arms and fingers. In the first stage of development the detection of upper limb extremities within a defined hazard area by means of a computer based video image analysis is investigated.
The need for innovation around the control functions of inverters is great. PV inverters were initially expected to be passive followers of the grid and to disconnect as soon as abnormal conditions happened. Since future power systems will be dominated by generation and storage resources interfaced through inverters these converters must move from following to forming and sustaining the grid. As “digital natives” PV inverters can also play an important role in the digitalisation of distribution networks. In this short review we identified a large potential to make the PV inverter the smart local hub in a distributed energy system. At the micro level, costs and coordination can be improved with bidirectional inverters between the AC grid and PV production, stationary storage, car chargers and DC loads. At the macro level the distributed nature of PV generation means that the same devices will support both to the local distribution network and to the global stability of the grid. Much success has been obtained in the former. The later remains a challenge, in particular in terms of scaling. Yet there is some urgency in researching and demonstrating such solutions. And while digitalisation offers promise in all control aspects it also raises significant cybersecurity concerns.
In this paper, we introduce an optical sensor system, which is integrated into an industrial push-button. The sensor allows to classify the type of material that is in contact with the button when pressed into different material categories on the basis of the material's so called "spectral signature". An approach for a safety sensor system at circular table saws on the same base has been introduced previously on SIAS-2007. This contactless working sensor is able to distinguish reliably between skin, textiles, leather and various other kinds of materials. A typical application for this intelligent push-button is the use at possibly dangerous machines, whose operating instructions include either the prohibition or the obligation to wear gloves during the work at the machine. An exemple of machines at which no gloves are allowed are pillar drilling machines, because of the risk of getting caught in the drill chuck and being turned in by the machine. In many cases this causes very serious hand injuries. Depending on the application needs, the sensor system integrated into the push-button can be configured flexibly by software to prevent the operator from accidentally starting a machine with or without gloves, which can decrease the risk of severe accidents significantly. Especially two-hand controls are incentive to manipulation for easier handling. By equipping both push-buttons of a two-hand control with material classification properties, the user is forced to operate the controls with his bare fingers. That limitation disallows the manipulation of a two-hand control by a simple rodding device.
Microcontroller-based sensor systems offer great opportunities for the implementation of safety features for potentially dangerous machinery. However, in general they are difficult to assess with regard to their reliability and failure rate. This paper describes the safety assessment of hardware and software of a new and innovative sensor system. The hardware is assessed by standardized methods according to norm EN ISO 13849-1, while the use of model checking is presented as an approach to solve the problem of validating the software.