safe-related applications.

Advantages
Functional Principle
Configuration and Measurement
Concept
Areas of Application
Operator Software RS4soft

The Advantages

• Safety category Type 3 in accordance with IEC 61496-3 approved for used in personnel protection on robot working areas, conveying equipment, etc.
• Very small design can be used even where limited space is available
• High scanning rate very fast response time for detecting people or objects
• PC-driven programming of protection fields (Windows environment) simple and fast creation of the desired protected fields via PC Notebook, Siemens PG...
• 4 different protected fields, protected field pairs each containing two programmable fields, one for safety, one for object sensing 4 m-radius for safety-related personnel protection task 15 m-radius for object recognition, early warning, navigation

Laser-scanners are optoelectronic devices that continuously monitor a surface, much a like a radar system does. They use the diffuse light reflected by the surface of non-transparent objects which are located in their working range. If an object (person or obstacle) is detected in the working range, the device calculates its precise travel time of the reflected light and the position of the object in the sector range. At the same time the device checks whether the detected object is located inside or outside a previously defined protection field.

Configuration and Measurement Principle

Light impulses from a laser diode are directed across the 190° scanning area with the help of a a rotating mirror. The pulsed travel time procedure, serves as the measurement principle. The distance to a specific light-reflecting object is calculated based on the time difference between the transmittal and reception of a light impulse. The evaluation is virtually independent of the remission of the scanned object.

Concept

Due to its possible applications as an area sensor with a high response sensitivity and a high resolution capability, the device can be implemented for a wide range of tasks. The ROTOSCAN RS 4 is suited to perform personnel protection tasks on movable and stationary systems which necessitate safeguarding according to EN 954-1 up to category 3. In addition, it can be easily implemented for many other types of measurement tasks, including surfaces and volume measurement, position and contour determination, and protection control, among others.

In order to enable the device to be quickly and optimally adapted to the specific task requirements, communication software is provided with all delivered units. The software, which can run on Windows 95/98/NT, has a great number of functions such as:

Password protection
Parameterization may be done only by the holder of a particular password. Different passwords are available depending on the levels of importance and safety relevance.

Configuring protected fields
there are two main methods for creating a protected field for a specific application
1. Direct data input at the PC
- numerically as a rectangular field
- graphically as any semicircle or rectangle polygon

2. "Learn-in" command
For this function, the contour of the protected field to be located in front of the device is physically reproduced using cardboard or similar material. when the learn-in-command has been given, a reading process is initiated during which the device scans the presented contour for a certain period of time and determines a new protected field contour based on the acquired data.

A database enables protected field contours and their parameters to be saved.