Coordinated safety interlocking systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11634305-B2
Application number	US-202217712857-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 4, 2022
Priority date	Mar 25, 2015
Publication date	Apr 25, 2023
Grant date	Apr 25, 2023

Abstract

Accordingly, exemplary embodiments are disclosed of coordinated safety interlocking systems and methods of coordinating safety interlocking. In an exemplary embodiment, a system for providing coordinated safety interlocking between a plurality of machines is disclosed. The system generally includes a plurality of machine control units each configured to control at least one of the plurality of machines. The system also includes at least one operator control unit configured to define a dynamic cluster including a subset of the plurality of machine control units. The at least one operator control unit is configured to control safety interlocking between each machine control unit in the dynamic cluster. The system may be used to provide coordinated safety interlocking between various elements and/or machines, such as crane bridges and crane hoists, etc.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for providing coordinated safety interlocking between a plurality of machines, the system comprising:
a plurality of machine control units configured to control the plurality of machines; and
at least one operator control unit configured to define a dynamic cluster including a subset of the plurality of machine control units and to control safety interlocking between the machine control units in the dynamic cluster by, in response to receiving an indication that one of the machine control units in the dynamic cluster has failed, transmitting an instruction to the machine control units in the dynamic cluster to stop movement of the machines controlled by the machine control units in the dynamic cluster;
wherein:
the plurality of machine control units is configured to be operable for controlling a plurality of crane bridges, and the at least one operator control unit is configured to stop operation of all crane bridges if any crane bridges stop moving; and/or
the plurality of machine control units is configured to be operable for controlling a plurality of crane hoists, and the at least one operator control unit is configured to stop operation of all crane hoists if any crane hoists stop moving.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to be operable for stopping operation of each machine control unit in the dynamic cluster in response to a different machine control unit in the dynamic cluster failing.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to be operable for stopping operation of each machine control unit in the dynamic cluster if a machine controlled by a different machine control unit in the dynamic cluster stops moving.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one operator control unit is configured to stop operation of all machines controlled by the machine control units in the dynamic cluster if any of the machines controlled by the machine control units in the dynamic cluster stop moving.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the plurality of machine control units are each configured to be operable for controlling one of the plurality of crane bridges and the plurality of crane hoists, each crane hoist coupled to a corresponding one of the crane bridges;
each of the plurality of machine control units is coupled to a corresponding one of the crane bridges or a corresponding one of the crane hoists and configured to be operable for controlling the corresponding crane bridge or corresponding crane hoist;
the at least one operator control unit is configured to stop operation of all crane hoists in the dynamic cluster if any crane hoists in the dynamic cluster stop moving; and
the at least one operator control unit is configured to stop operation of all crane bridges in the dynamic cluster if any crane bridges in the dynamic cluster stop moving.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the at least one operator control unit is configured to stop operation of all crane bridges in the dynamic cluster if any crane bridges in the dynamic cluster stop moving; and/or
the at least one operator control unit is configured to stop operation of all crane hoists in the dynamic cluster if any crane hoists in the dynamic cluster stop moving.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one operator control unit is configured to change the dynamic cluster by adding and removing machine control units from the dynamic cluster to control safety interlocking between different subsets of the machine control units at different times, by defining a first dynamic cluster by selecting a first subset of machine control units and changing to a second dynamic cluster by selecting a second subset of machine control units, the first subset of the first dynamic cluster includes multiple machine control units, the second subset of the second dynamic cluster includes multiple machine control units, and the first subset of multiple machine control units in the first dynamic cluster is different than the second subset of multiple machine control units in the second dynamic cluster.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the second dynamic cluster includes none of the same machine control units as the first dynamic cluster.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the at least one operator control unit includes a plurality of operator control units;
each operator control unit is configured to define a respective dynamic cluster corresponding to the operator control unit that includes a corresponding subset of the plurality of machine control units, the operator control unit configured to control safety interlocking between each corresponding machine control unit in the respective dynamic cluster; and
each operator control unit is configured to request and receive messages from the corresponding machine control units in the respective dynamic cluster.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the at least one operator control unit is configured to use sub-addressing to define the dynamic cluster of machine control units; and
the at least one operator control unit is configured to use an extended dynamic time domain multiple access scheme to substantially simultaneously address the machine control units in the dynamic cluster.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein:
the at least one operator control unit is configured to define extended slots that are at least two transmissions wide to accommodate an operator control unit transmission and at least one machine control unit reply transmission; and/or
the at least one operator control unit is configured to scan to identify free slots in a defined telegram frame and transmit messages in the identified free slots; and/or
the at least one operator control unit is configured to implement a talkback request control field to control a number of talkback slots used by the machine control units in the dynamic cluster; and/or
the at least one operator control unit is configured to control and request talkback messages sequentially from a plurality of machine control units in the dynamic cluster.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
each machine control unit in the dynamic cluster is configured to transmit a talkback message to the at least one operator control unit indicative of a safety status of the machine control unit; and
each machine control unit in the dynamic cluster is configured to stop operation when a failure of a machine control unit in the dynamic cluster is reported.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein:
the at least one operator control unit is configured to analyze the safety status of each machine control unit and transmit the safety statuses back to all machine control units in the dynamic cluster via a safety state data field; and/or
each safety status includes an operation state value, a communication health measurement value, and a machine type bit value.

14. A system for providing coordinated safety interlocking between a plurality of machines, the system comprising:
a plurality of machine control units configured to control the plurality of machines; and
at least one operator control unit configured to define a dynamic cluster including a subset of the plurality of machine control units and to control safety interlocking between each machine control unit by stopping operation of each machine control unit in response to a different machine control unit failing;
wherein:
the plurality of machine control units is configured to be operable for controlling a plurality of crane bridges, and the at least one operator control unit is configured to stop operation of all crane bridges if any crane bridges stop moving; and/or
the p

Assignees

• Cattron North America Inc

Inventors

• Stagg David

Classifications

• B66C17/00

  Overhead travelling cranes comprising one or more substantially horizontal girders the ends of which are directly supported by wheels or rollers running on tracks carried by spaced supports · CPC title

• B66C13/22

  for electric drives (transmitting control pulses B66C13/40; systems or devices of general application H02P) · CPC title

• B66C13/40

  Applications of devices for transmitting control pulses; Applications of remote control devices (control in general G05) · CPC title

• B66C13/18 Primary

  Control systems or devices (exclusively for rope, cable, or chain winding mechanisms B66D1/40) · CPC title

• B66C15/045

  electrical · CPC title