Designing Safer Facilities with Safety Laser Scanners

The adoption of automation is a key element of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Most industries, ranging from manufacturing to warehousing, port and terminal operations, and material handling, are actively adopting automation. The use of autonomous vehicles, robots, cranes, and drones has been increasing across all industries.

According to an industry survey, 80% of businesses reported that they are either currently using autonomous technologies or plan to do so. This increasing reliance on automation is undoubtedly beneficial for the economy, but it also makes intelligent safety systems non-negotiable.
The need to transform these autonomous technologies into smart protective systems is evident, and safety laser scanners are the right solution. Let’s explore how they can help design safer facilities.

The Role of Safety Laser Scanners in Facility Design

Modern industrial facilities have complex layouts, fast working environments, and require advanced technology and skilled personnel to operate efficiently. To keep all of this secure, consider incorporating safety laser scanners into the facility design. Here’s how they help:

Creates a Safer Working Environment

One of the primary roles of safety laser scanners is to mitigate collision risks between autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and human workers or stationary objects. The laser scanners continuously monitor defined safety zones, triggering automated slowdowns or shutdowns when obstacles are detected.

You can mount safety laser scanners, such as Hokuyo’s advanced UAM-05LP, on the chassis of AGVs or AMRs. This way, they’ll have an artificial vision, i.e., the LiDAR sensor will scan a 270° area to detect encroachments along its decided route.

Additionally, they can be installed at the perimeter entry points, high-traffic aisle intersections, or near robotic work cells. Whenever a human or other object enters the defined zone, the autonomous systems slow down or stop, depending on their programming.

Read How Safety Laser Scanners Prevent Collisions in Industrial Automation

Multi-field and Dynamic Scanning for Productive Outputs

The industrial environments are dynamic, and fixed safety zones aren’t always enough. As AGVs and AMRs transition through various operational states, such as loading, unloading, traveling, and docking, their safety requirements change.

In such situations, LiDAR-equipped safety laser scanners with multi-field capabilities like Hokuyo UAM-05LPA allow for a 5-meter complex safety zone with a 30-meter warning zone.

For example, you can configure a protection zone of up to 5 meters, so when an obstacle enters this zone, the sensor commands the robot to slow down. If the obstacle comes even closer, let’s say within a 2-meter range, then the sensor can command the robot to stop operation and to resume once the obstacle retreats out of the protection zone.

The UAM-05LPA supports up to 128 area patterns, which allows for different spatial arrangements for various operational states mentioned above.

Secure Human Robot Collaborations

In collaborative industrial settings, safety laser scanners are indispensable for managing the spatial and temporal dimensions of human-robot interactions. For example, a robotic arm in a steel fabrication plant assists with repetitive welding or heavy lifting. During its active operation, the arm occupies a designated work envelope, yet maintenance teams or operators often have to enter that area for monitoring.

In such cases, a safety laser scanner helps monitor the shared zone in real-time. If a technician enters the warning zone (comes too close) while the arm is in motion, the scanner will send an immediate signal to halt the operation. Once the area clears, the robot resumes its task.
This precise spatial control supports both coexistence (simultaneous but separate activity) and cooperation (shared use of the same space at staggered times) types of collaborations.

Supports Versatile Operations for Targeted Safety Coverage

The laser safety scanner can be mounted both horizontally and vertically. When installed horizontally, the scanner sweeps a flat plane across the floor, ideal for area protection, access control, or perimeter monitoring. This prevents side entries into hazardous zones like robotic cells or AGV pathways.

On the contrary, a vertically mounted safety laser sensor scans a vertical plane, making it perfect for guarding entry/exit points, loading bays, or irregularly shaped areas. This setup is specifically effective for detecting intrusion through doorways or ensuring that no object or person slips through blind spots in high-risk environments.

Advantages Over Traditional Safety Devices

The benefits of using the latest generation of safety laser scanners are significant and help optimize the workflow of industries.

• Uninterrupted Work:
  Traditional methods often require machinery to be manually shut down during human interaction to avoid mishaps. It causes unnecessary delays as operations are paused frequently, leading to decreased productivity and increased labor costs. Whereas safety laser scanners automate this interaction, pausing operations only when human presence enters critical zones and automatically resuming.
   
• Wider Coverage:
  Unlike safety curtains or sirens, which typically protect narrow or fixed zones, scanners offer a 270° field of view and can create customized 2D protection zones.
   
• Dynamic Zone Switching:
  In contrast to safety curtains, the laser scanners can be programmed with multiple safety zones. When an obstacle enters these zones, the sensor can trigger a custom command, such as reducing speed.
   
• Multi-purpose and Easy to Use Applications:
  Safety laser sensors have a compact form factor and are built to withstand the harshest environments. They can also operate independently using battery power and can be deployed across several mobile systems. You can easily mount them on AGVs, AMRs, cranes, cobots, and other machinery.

Learn about Ensuring Personnel Safety in Perimeter Guarding Using Safety Laser Scanners

Use Safety Laser Scanners to Design Safer and More Productive Facilities

As industrial facilities embrace automation at scale, ensuring the safety of both human workers and autonomous robots becomes necessary. Safety laser scanners offer a forward-looking and scalable solution that transforms facilities into safer, smarter, productive, and compliant.

At Hokuyo, we engineer all our LiDAR sensors with precision, reliability, scalability, and affordability in mind. We are powering modern facilities’ autonomous shifts with advanced sensor solutions.

Contact us today to explore how laser scanners can future-proof your facility designs!