Radar Sensor for Fenceless Machine Guarding and Collaborative Robotics

TLDR

Industrial settings require safe, barrier‑free operation to support human‑robot collaboration, with standards such as speed‑and‑separation monitoring demanding accurate operator position sensing. This work introduces a radar‑based sensor for fenceless safety and collaborative operation. The system uses radar to detect operator positions, employing advanced signal processing for trajectory estimation and target classification that enables smart triggering. The demonstrator shows that radar can match laser scanners’ static and dynamic performance while remaining robust to strong light, dirt, dust, and low‑reflectivity surfaces.

Abstract

In industrial environments, ensuring machine safety without physical obstruction and enabling human-robot collaboration brings obvious productivity and profitability advantages. Present safety standards for collaborative robots envision a number of safe operations. One of them is speed and separation monitoring (SSM), which requires a sensing system for estimating the operator position. Traditionally, laser scanners have been used to safeguard a predefined number of zones around dangerous machinery or as SSM sensors. In this paper, we present a radar-based sensor for fenceless safety and collaborative operation. By using radar technology, the proposed demonstrator overcomes the limitations exhibited by optical safety devices in presence of strong light, dirt, dust or simply poorly reflecting surfaces. The measured static and dynamic characteristics of the sensor are comparable to those of state-of-the-art laser scanners. In addition, advanced signal processing allows to perform operations such as trajectory estimation and target classification, enabling smart triggering.