Light grid with distance measurement

A light grid

• to determine the distance between transmitter and receiver strips
• with a transmitter strip with one or more transmitter elements,
• which emit radiation with a certain intensity,
• with a receiver strip with one or more receiver elements,
• which receive the radiation of an assigned transmitter element, and
• with a control device
• for controlling the transmitter elements and/or the receiver elements and
• for evaluating the receiver elements,
• wherein
• in each case the transmitter element and the receiver element or in each case at least one of the transmitter elements and/or at least one of the receiver elements are designed as qualified transmitter and receiver elements, wherein
• the qualified transmitter element or the qualified transmitter elements are designed to emit different intensities, and/or
• the qualified receiver element or the qualified receiver elements are designed to apply different amplifications and to output an intensity value for the received and amplified radiation, wherein
• the control device is designed
• to control different combinations of intensities and amplifications of the qualified transmitter and/or receiver elements
• and determine a distance value depending on the sum of the resulting intensity values of the controlled combinations,
• wherein the light grid
• includes at least one additional transmitter and receiver element,
• which are each designed as simple transmitter elements and simple receiver elements
• and which are each designed as light barriers,
• wherein the control device is designed
• to control the combinations one after the other in a sequence
• and to repeat the sequence periodically
• and to determine the sum of the controlled combinations of a sequence
• and to determine a distance value for each sequence.