Industrial safety systems and/or methods for creating and passively detecting changes in electrical fields

An industrial safety system for guarding a defined area, the system comprising:

• an electrically-conductive surface;
• a plurality of field-defining electrodes electrically connected to the electrically-conductive surface, the surface and the electrodes cooperating to create an electrical field in relation to the defined area, the created electrical field functioning as a passive sensor for the defined area;
• and
• a controller operably coupled to a memory, the memory having stored therein a plurality of defined templates corresponding to respective industrial safety system safety events related to the defined area, the templates having corresponding actions defined therefor, the controller being configured to perform program logic to perform operations comprising:
• monitoring for changes with the electrical field based on data derived from output from at least some of the electrodes, the derived data being indicative of an interaction with the defined area, the interaction having characteristics including three-dimensional spatial and timing characteristics;
• determining whether the interaction matches one of the defined templates without reconstructing the entire electrical field;
• and
• responsive to a determination that the interaction matches one of the defined templates, selectively triggering the corresponding action based on one or more of the characteristics of the interaction,
• wherein the interaction is detected by performing operations including:
• for each electrode disposed horizontally along the electrically conductive region, applying a current thereto and measuring a voltage drop at an opposing electrode so that current is applied and measured with respect to different vertically-opposed electrode pairs;
• determining a first electrode pair from the different vertically-opposed electrode pairs that is associated with the largest voltage drop in the vertical direction;
• for each electrode disposed vertically along the electrically conductive region, applying a current thereto and measuring a voltage drop at an opposing electrode so that current is applied and measured with respect to different horizontally-opposed electrode pairs;
• determining a second electrode pair from the different horizontally-opposed electrode pairs that is associated with the largest voltage drop in the horizontal direction;
• defining a sub-region based on at least the first electrode pair and the second electrode pair;
• calculating a horizontal position of the interaction from within the defined sub-region based on a horizontal distance from a vertical equilibrium path using characterized horizontal reference voltage values, wherein for the vertical equilibrium path, horizontal reference voltage values are characterized for areas between the vertical equilibrium path and electrodes disposed vertically along the electrically conductive region;
• and
• calculating a vertical position of the interaction from within the defined sub-region based on a vertical distance from the horizontal equilibrium path using characterized vertical reference voltage values, wherein for the horizontal equilibrium path, vertical reference voltage values are characterized for areas between the horizontal equilibrium path and electrodes disposed horizontally along the electrically conductive region.

A method of guarding a defined area using an industrial safety system, the system comprising an electrically-conductive surface and a plurality of field-defining electrodes electrically connected to the electrically-conductive surface the method comprising:

• using the surface and the electrodes to create an electrical field in relation to the defined area, the created electrical field functioning as a passive sensor for the defined area;
• monitoring for changes with the electrical field based on data derived from output from at least some of the electrodes, the derived data being indicative of an interaction with the defined area, the interaction having characteristics including three-dimensional spatial and timing characteristics;
• determining whether the interaction matches one of a plurality of defined templates without relying on a multi-dimensional electrical field reconstruction, the defined templates corresponding to respective industrial safety system safety events related to the defined area, the templates having corresponding actions defined therefor;
• and
• responsive to a determination that the interaction matches one of the defined templates, selectively triggering the corresponding action based on one or more of the characteristics of the interaction.