A bending machine, in particular a swivel bending machine, is provided that defines a safety-relevant work area in which an operator of the bending machine is present during its operation, loading, unloading or the like, having a safety module comprising a safety barrier which provides a variable-size shield for the safety-relevant work area such that a shut-off state and an access state can be generated, wherein in the shut-off state access to the safety-relevant work area is at least partially restricted and wherein in the access state access to the safety-relevant work area is at least partially granted. A method is provided for processing a workpiece by means of a bending machine.

Image sensors distributed about a workcell including industrial machinery are registered using a registration object and an information tag associated therewith. The tag contains information specifying the location of the object and/or the pose of the object. This information is acquired along with images of the registration object, and the sensors are registered based at least in part on the images and the acquired information.

A telematics system and method for monitoring objects in a space having a worker and a lifting apparatus or piece of equipment is described. The telematics system may comprise a base station in communication with a plurality of portable units. The portable units may comprise a position sensor and may secure to a lifting apparatus, worker, or other person or equipment. The portable units may communicate the location of the lifting apparatus, worker, or other person or equipment to the base station. The base station may compare or dynamically generate a safety zone around the locations of the lifting apparatus, worker, or other person or equipment to the base station. The base station may issue an alert if a lifting apparatus, worker, or other person or equipment comes within a predetermined distance of or within the safety zone around a different lifting apparatus, worker, or other person or equipment.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for a light curtain system including a support frame arranged around a transport path including a product support, a light-emitting array including multiple light sources arranged along the support frame, each light source of the multiple light sources arranged along the support frame at a respective distance above the product support, a detector array including multiple light detectors, where each detector of the multiple light detectors is arranged on the support frame opposite the transport path from a light source of the multiple light sources and at a respective distance above the product support, and a data processing apparatus in data communication with the light-emitting array and the detector array.

A telematics system and method for monitoring objects in a space having a worker and a lifting apparatus or piece of equipment is described. The telematics system may comprise a base station in communication with a plurality of portable units. The portable units may comprise a position sensor and may secure to a lifting apparatus, worker, or other person or equipment. The portable units may communicate the location of the lifting apparatus, worker, or other person or equipment to the base station. The base station may compare or dynamically generate a safety zone around the locations of the lifting apparatus, worker, or other person or equipment to the base station. The base station may issue an alert if a lifting apparatus, worker, or other person or equipment comes within a predetermined distance of or within the safety zone around a different lifting apparatus, worker, or other person or equipment.

A determination part determines whether or not a shadow of an upper mold is expanded to a photodiode by laser beam projected to a light receiver side based on a light receiving state of a photodiode positioned in a vicinity of the upper mold. When it is determined that the shadow of the upper mold is expanded to the photodiode positioned in the nearest vicinity of the upper mold, the invalidation unit invalidates the photodiode. A detection unit detects a presence or absence of a foreign body between the upper mold and a lower mold based on light receiving states of the effective plurality of photodiodes during a lowering operation of an upper table.

Systems and methods for determining safe and unsafe zones in a workspace—where safe actions are calculated in real time based on all relevant objects (e.g., some observed by sensors and others computationally generated based on analysis of the sensed workspace) and on the current state of the machinery (e.g., a robot) in the workspace—may utilize a variety of workspace-monitoring approaches as well as dynamic modeling of the robot geometry. The future trajectory of the robot(s) and/or the human(s) may be forecast using, e.g., a model of human movement and other forms of control. Modeling and forecasting of the robot may, in some embodiments, make use of data provided by the robot controller that may or may not include safety guarantees.

A multi-optical axis sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a light-transmitting unit comprising a plurality of light-transmitting elements; a light-receiving unit comprising a plurality of light-receiving elements which are arranged to respectively face the light-transmitting elements and respectively receive light from the light-transmitting elements; and an indicator light indicating a light incidence state or a light blockage state of the light-receiving unit, wherein, before a muting state that invalidates the detection function of the multi-optical axis sensor is detected, the light-transmitting unit or the light-receiving unit may operate the indicator light in a light incidence/blockage mode indicating the light incidence state or the light blockage state, and when the muting state is detected, the light-transmitting unit or the light-receiving unit may switch the operation mode of the indicator light from the light incidence/blockage mode to the muting mode indicating the muting state.

A method for monitoring a robot arrangement, which robot arrangement has at least one robot includes capturing optical signals from a plurality of signal sources at least one sensor, wherein the signal sources and/or the sensor is/are positioned on the robot arrangement and triggering a monitoring reaction if a deviation of an actual arrangement of the captured optical signals from a desired arrangement of these signals exceeds a limit value. In one aspect, a reaction may be triggered if at least a predefined minimum number of signals from the desired arrangement is not present in the actual arrangement of the captured optical signals.

A computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) machine is configured to (i) measure a power of a beam of electromagnetic energy at a location between a source of the electromagnetic energy and a destination in the CNC machine, the beam of electromagnetic energy traveling from the source to the destination being susceptible to one or more interferences, and the one or more interferences being capable of altering the power of the beam of electromagnetic energy by at least diverting, away from an intended path for the beam of electromagnetic energy, at least a portion of the beam of electromagnetic energy, (ii) detect, based at least on the measured power of the beam of electromagnetic energy being less than a threshold value, an interference of the beam of electromagnetic energy, and (iii) in response to detecting the interference of the beam of electromagnetic energy, perform one or more actions.