Collision avoidance system for autonomously or remotely operating robotic assets
The present disclosure provides vehicle collision avoidance system (CAS) that includes a first CAS module for a robotic vehicle that includes an interface to a first network; a hard stop interface communicatively coupled to the robotic vehicle; one or more computer processors; one or more computer readable storage media; and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more computer processors, the stored program instructions including instructions to: determine a relative position of a second CAS module based on information from the first network; responsive to determining that the second CAS module is within a first distance from the first CAS module, issue an alert; and responsive to determining that the second CAS module is within a second distance from the first CAS module, transmit a hard stop signal to the robotic vehicle.
1 . An apparatus for collision avoidance, the apparatus comprising:
an interface to an edge network;
monitoring circuitry; and
at least one computer processor, the at least one computer processor configured to:
determine a relative position of a second collision avoidance system (CAS) module based on information from the edge network;
responsive to determining that the second CAS module is within a first distance from a first CAS module, issue an alert;
responsive to determining that the second CAS module is within a second distance from the first CAS module, transmit a hard stop signal to a robotic vehicle to control the robotic vehicle to perform a hard stop;
detect a heartbeat safety signal from the second CAS module; and
responsive to not detecting the heartbeat safety signal from the second CAS module, transmit the hard stop signal to the robotic vehicle to control the robotic vehicle to perform the hard stop.
2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the edge network further comprises:
an Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) radio; and
a Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) radio.
3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
a Vehicle Safety Transponder (VST) interface, the VST interface configured to transmit the hard stop signal to the robotic vehicle.
4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
input controls; and
status indication, wherein the status indication includes at least one of warning: robot hard stop, protection level minimal, preventing robot movement, within safety assessment report (SAR) standoff, in range, ready, battery low, and fault: no CAS protection.
5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising two computer processors, wherein the two computer processors are arranged in a two-out-of-two (2oo2) checked redundancy configuration, and configured to:
compare data between the two computer processors; and
responsive to the data conflicting between the two computer processors, cause the system to transmit the hard stop signal to the robotic vehicle.
6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the relative position of the second CAS module is determined by calculating a Euclidian distance of a signal propagation path based on Time of Flight (ToF) measurements of one or more signals received over the edge network.