2D laser scanners prevent downtime in automated warehouses

Sometimes the simplest of things can bring multi-million-pound installations grinding to a halt; one such example is a leaning load on a pallet in an automated warehouse. Collisions between the crane mechanism and a pallet or load in high-bay warehouses and AS/RS can be serious. In addition to the obvious risk of damage to the goods and crane, such occurrences require manual intervention and time offline to correct, repair and cleanup - which can cause significant delays to the logistics operation. Effective palletising procedures are the obvious solution to this problem but the reality of the logistics chain often means that there are too many variables to fully control, and too many opportunities for pallets to be damaged, incorrectly packed, or for the product or packaging to move or bend after loading. Pallets that appear perfectly symmetrical when entering the system can, over time, shift and settle after being set down, resulting in product encroaching in to the working area. So how can such changes be identified before there is a collision?

The R2000 Class 1 laser sensor from Pepperl+Fuchs helps to avoid these collisions by scanning a 360-degree area around the sensor, detecting even very small objects in its scanning zone and giving a pre-emptive warning during normal operation. The R2000 laser scanner gives protection at distances of up to 30m, allowing plenty of time for the crane to slow down and stop.

In order to give a highly reliable and accurate scan, the R2000 gives a gapless 360-degree measuring angle with an extremely small light spot. At a scanning frequency of up to 30Hz, this gives 54,000 measurements per second.

Depending on the application, the R2000 scanner can be set for either a high resolution to detect small parts or higher speed for faster reaction times. With the 10Hz setting, an angular measurement of 0.071deg is achieved for detection of extremely small objects. At a distance of 10m this will give a light spot diameter of 15mm and a step of approximately 12mm for a 'gapless' detection area. The scan plane is only +/-0.05deg which enables detection of objects in very tight places. At the same 10m range, other scanners might have a light spot of approximately 200mm. For applications where objects may not be so small but speed is more important, the 30Hz setting gives an angular resolution of 0.2deg. At a distance of 10m this would still give a light spot of 15mm, but the angular step would be approximately 35mm.

Up to 13 detection zones

The R2000 has four configurable outputs associated with four fields. By using the built-in logic, it is possible to configure up to 13 different detection zones by overlapping the four fields. These fields are easily configurable using free graphical software and are fully adjustable to suit the application. Any geometric shape can be used as a field area provided it only has one start and end point. In one recent application the customer was interested in identifying which shelf level the overhang was at, so the four fields were configured into seven zones and a logical output given to each shelf level.

The R2000 has 24 LEDs mounted on the rotating measurement module that act as a projection service for an interactive graphical display. During commissioning the display is used for menu navigation of parameters such as Ethernet settings, display mode or factory reset. During normal operation the display can be used to show the four outputs or field status, or the display can even be programmed to show a bitmap image such as a company logo or a message.

Accurate distance measurement

PRT (Pulse Ranging Technology) means that the R2000 sensor can achieve accurate and reliable readings over long distances. Rather than a continuous light beam, the sensor emits a very short, high-intensity light pulse up to 250,000 times a second. The energy in each single pulse is up to one thousand times more intense than pulses generated by sensors that emit a permanent light beam. The distance to the object is calculated using a time-of-flight method, which measures the time from when the pulse is sent to that of the returning light pulse. By using this method of measurement the housing is much smaller (105x105x116.5mm) and larger detection ranges are achievable than when using a standard triangulation type sensor.

More warehouse applications for 2D laser scanners

Other typical applications which the R2000 detection scanner can be used within automated warehousing include:

• Broken pallet detection: Defective pallets can lead to collisions in automatic warehouses, causing damage to product, crane or racking. Due to the very narrow beams of the R2000 it can reliably detect small fragments of broken pallet and give a pre-emptive warning.
• Skewed pallet detection: The R2000 laser scanner can look down on a pallet and detect if the load is uniform and aligned on the pallet - or if it is skewed. Checking that that the pallet is loaded correctly helps to reduce the risk of damage caused by a collision of the load and the racking, and also prevent oversized loads from being placed on the pallet.

Follow the link for more information about the R2000 Class 1 laser sensor from Pepperl+Fuchs.