A Novel Capacitive Safety Device for Target Localization and Identification

A novel capacitive device dedicated to the safety of people working on automated production sites has been developed. It can be implemented on an articulated mechanical system (robot, press) to estimate the distance between sensors that are fixed on such a system and a mobile target. An interdigital sensor has been fabricated to identify the target nature among them (human beings or objects). The variable geometry of the system is taken into account as well as its motion relatively towards the ground by means of an ingenious sensitive element design. Furthermore, the sensors are made of conducting paint, thus providing low weight and negligible space hindrance devices. Results show this novel low-cost sensing setup has a great potential to estimate the distance and to discriminate targets.