Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB 
Project background
In industrial production, there is an increasing demand for flexible and adaptable production systems and environments such as matrix production or driverless transport systems and autonomous industrial trucks (AGV). One reason for this is the increasing demand for customized products with a greater variety and variable quantities. To ensure that manufacturing remains cost-effective even with small batch sizes and short product life cycles, the “line and cycle” principle is increasingly being replaced by modular production systems, the configuration or spatial arrangement of which has to be changed more frequently. Changing parameters by replaying optimizations also represents a change. This also changes the requirements for risk minimization (functional safety) equipment for handling machines and for controlling hazardous situations. For example, an efficient, time- and cost-saving reconfiguration when conditions change is required, as well as a robust classification of persons and objects to be protected, and of moving and non-moving objects. Today's protective devices such as safety fences, light barriers or safety laser scanners are unsuitable for this purpose.
Research content
The technology development project SafeInLoc aims to realize a software-based system for defining dynamic safety zones. The system should enable the effective (functionally safe) and efficient (time and cost saving) reconfiguration of safety zones in dynamically changing production environments. The SafeInLoc system uses image-based person and object detection and the precise real-time indoor localization process (RTLS) omlox as its technological basis. The aim is to reliably and accurately merge both information sources in the omlox hub. The next step of the project will consider how to derive functionally secure findings, such as “person without tag”, “concealed person” or simply “stationary object” vs. “moving object”. Even before the research project began, a number of affected companies and institutions had expressed an interest in such a system. To ensure that the research project is relevant to practical applications, the project work is accompanied by discussions with some of these potential users.
Project result
The aim is to develop a demonstrator (TRL 5-6) for a new type of software-defined dynamic safety zone (Smart Safety Zone) and functionally secure person recognition for use in flexible and adaptable production environments within two years.