Method for operating dedicated light emitter elements to a respective one light receiver element in a light curtain arrangement and light curtain arrangement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10634812-B2
Application number	US-201816009166-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 14, 2018
Priority date	Sep 29, 2017
Publication date	Apr 28, 2020
Grant date	Apr 28, 2020

Abstract

A method for operating a light curtain arrangement for monitoring a safety area is provided. The light curtain arrangement includes a plurality of first light emitter elements placed at an emitter side of the safety area, and a plurality of second light receiver elements placed at a receiver side of the safety area. The method includes the steps of: assigning a plurality of dedicated light emitter elements to a respective one light receiver element, wherein the assigned light emitter elements form an array; and activating the dedicated light emitter elements of a respective array to contemporaneously emit light, and at the same time, receiving the emitted light from the activated light emitter elements by the respective light receiver element.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for operating a light curtain arrangement for monitoring a safety area, the light curtain arrangement comprising a plurality of first light emitter elements placed at an emitter side of the safety area, wherein the light emitter elements are arranged in a fixed geometric pattern, and a plurality of second light receiver elements placed at a receiver side of the safety area, wherein the light receiver elements are arranged in a fixed geometric pattern, and wherein the emitter side and the receiver side are separated by a predetermined distance, the method comprising the steps of:
assigning a plurality of dedicated light emitter elements among the plurality of first of light emitter elements to a respective one light receiver element among the plurality of second light receiver elements, wherein the assigned light emitter elements form an array; and
activating the dedicated light emitter elements of a respective array to contemporaneously emit light, and at the same time, receiving the emitted light from the activated light emitter elements by the respective light receiver element.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: sequentially activating pairs of light receiver elements and light emitter arrays for detecting an object located in the safety area, wherein a pair includes the dedicated light emitter elements assigned to the respective one light receiver element and the respective one light receiver element.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein only one respective light receiver element and the dedicated light emitter elements assigned to said one respective light receiver element are activated at a time.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein assigning a plurality of dedicated light emitter elements to a respective light receiver element comprises:
determining the predetermined distance; and
determining a number of light emitter elements to be assigned to each light receiver element according to the predetermined distance.

5. The method of claim 4 , comprising:
for each light receiver element, selecting only one light emitter element of the dedicated light emitter elements assigned to the respective light receiver element, and deactivating the other dedicated light emitter elements forming the respective array, if the predetermined distance is lower than a predetermined threshold distance.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein only one respective light receiver element and the dedicated light emitter elements assigned to said one respective light receiver element are activated at a time.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein assigning a plurality of dedicated light emitter elements to a respective light receiver element comprises:
determining the predetermined distance; and
determining a number of light emitter elements to be assigned to each light receiver element according to of the predetermined distance.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein assigning a plurality of dedicated light emitter elements to a respective light receiver element comprises:
determining the predetermined distance; and
determining a number of light emitter elements to be assigned to each light receiver element according to of the predetermined distance.

9. A light curtain arrangement for monitoring a safety area comprising:
a plurality of first light emitter elements placed at an emitter side of the safety area, wherein the light emitter elements are arranged in a fixed geometric pattern; and
a plurality of second light receiver elements placed at a receiver side of the safety area, wherein the light receiver elements are arranged in a fixed geometric pattern;
wherein the emitter side and the receiver side are separated by a predetermined distance; and
wherein to each of the plurality of second light receiver elements a plurality of dedicated light emitter elements among the plurality of first light emitter elements is assigned, the assigned light emitter elements forming an array, wherein the dedicated light emitter elements are implemented to contemporaneously emit light to be received by the respective light receiver element.

10. The light curtain arrangement of claim 9 , wherein the number of light receiver elements is less than the number of light emitter elements.

11. The light curtain arrangement of claim 9 , wherein the light emitter elements and/or the light receiver elements are arranged along a line.

12. The light curtain arrangement of claim 9 , wherein the light emitter elements are implemented to emit light in a same principal direction from the emitter side of the safety area towards the receiver side of the safety area.

13. The light curtain arrangement of claim 9 , wherein an array comprises a predetermined number N of dedicated light emitter elements assigned to a respective one light receiver element, said assigned light emitter elements being the N light emitter elements that are located geometrically closest to the respective one light receiver element.

14. The light curtain arrangement of claim 9 , wherein the light emitter elements of a respective one array are arranged next to each other.

15. The light curtain arrangement of claim 9 , wherein all light emitter elements have the same nominal luminous power.

16. The light curtain arrangement of claim 9 , wherein the light curtain arrangement is implemented to operate in a first operation mode to detect an object in a safety area extending along a first predetermined distance, and to operate in a second operation mode to detect an object in a safety area extending along a second predetermined distance, the first predetermined distance being larger than the second predetermined distance,
wherein the first operation mode includes, for each light receiver element, contemporaneously emitting light from the dedicated light emitter elements assigned to a respective one light receiver element towards the respective one light receiver element; and
wherein the second operation mode includes, for each light receiver element, emitting light from one selected light emitter element to a respective one light receiver element, wherein the one selected light emitter element is the light emitter element that is located geometrically closest to the respective one light receiver element.

17. The light curtain arrangement of claim 16 , further comprising a configuration device for setting the operation mode, wherein the configuration device includes at least one of the group of: a dip switch device, a configuration memory device, and a programming interface.

18. The light curtain arrangement of claim 17 , wherein a number of light emitter elements assigned to each light receiver element is set by the configuration device.

19. The light curtain arrangement of claim 16 , wherein in the second operation mode, a supply current value for the light emitter elements is reduced with respect to the first operation mode.

20. The light curtain arrangement of claim 9 , further comprising a control device implemented to activate and deactivate the light emitter elements and the light receiver elements.

Assignees

• Omron Tateisi Electronics Co

Inventors

• Romano Enzo
• Viviani Paolo
• Cambursano Maurizio
• Brunetti Pasqualino
• Grange Gianmarco
• Kikuchi Keisaku
• Shimokawa Satoru
• Kudo Kazuhiro
• Osako Kazunori

Classifications

• F16P3/144

  using light grids · CPC title

• G01V8/20 Primary

  using multiple transmitters or receivers · CPC title