Industrial safe input device
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorGabriel Gagliano
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A device for controlling a user input device to prevent inadvertent activation of the user input device includes a user input device for receiving user commands and an activation trigger associated with the input device. The activation trigger includes a mechanism that prevents incidental actuation. When the activation trigger is actuated, the input device is enabled to receive user commands for an amount of time dictated by a timer, and disabled when the timer has exhausted the amount of time.
Claims25
An input device for use in an industrial system, the input device comprising:
- input controls mountable to an industrial workstation within the industrial system and operable by a user, when mounted to the industrial workstation, to generate input to the industrial workstation, the industrial workstation associated with one or more mechanisms in the industrial system;
- an activation trigger configurable by the user from a disable configuration to an enable configuration;
- an output configured to communicate an enabled status of the input controls to the user;
- and
- a controller having a processor and memory containing executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the controller to:
- when the activation trigger is reconfigured from the disable configuration to the enable configuration, enable input from the input controls to the industrial workstation for a configurable amount of time and cause the output to communicate the enabled status of the input controls to the user;
- and
- disable input from the input controls to the industrial system subsequent to the enablement of the input controls for the configurable amount of time.
A method for preventing inadvertent input from an input device to an industrial system, the method comprising:
- maintaining a user input device mounted to an industrial workstation within an industrial system, the user input device operable by a user to generate input to the industrial workstation associated with one or more mechanisms in the industrial system;
- receiving an activation command via an activation trigger of the user input device indicating that the activation trigger has been moved from a disable position to an enable position;
- activating a timer to count down a period of time based on receiving the activation command;
- and
- enabling input from the user input device to the one or more mechanisms in the industrial system for a duration of the period of time.
An input device, comprising:
- input controls mountable to an industrial workstation within an industrial system, the input controls operable by a user, when mounted to the industrial workstation, to generate input to one or more mechanisms in the industrial system;
- an activation trigger configurable by the user from a disable configuration to an enable configuration;
- and
- a controller having a processor and memory containing executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the controller to:
- when the activation trigger is reconfigured from the disable configuration to the enable configuration, enable input from the input controls to the industrial system for an amount of time;
- and
- disable input from the input controls to the industrial system subsequent to the enablement of the input controls for the amount of time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.