Robust Sensing of Human Proximity for Safety Applications

Markus Neumayer, Boby George, Thomas Bretterklieber, Hubert Zangl, and Georg Brasseur
Institute of Electrical Measurement and Measurement Signal Processing Graz University of Technology, Kopernikusgasse 24/IV, A-8010 Graz, Austria Email: neumayer@tugraz.at

AbstractThis paper presents a robust capacitive proximity sensor that facilitates the safety features of power tools. Power tools (e.g. pneumatic metal forming machines) enable easier and faster work but they can also cause severe injuries, if not operated carefully. However, accidents and related injuries can be prevented to a large extent by providing an automatic shut-off functionality. In order to realize such a functionality, a sensing mechanism which detects the presence of a human in the dangerous working areas of the power tool is necessary. A capacitive sensor which is suitable for this application has been developed. In most of the cases, the tools are made of metallic parts and have good electrical conductivity. Typically, the tools have a xed part and a movable part. In the proposed scheme, the proximity sensor is attached to the movable part of the tool. Depending on the position of the movable part, changes of the electric eld distribution across the electrodes will occur. Hence, comparatively large changes of the sensor capacitance are introduced compared to a capacitance change for the presence of a human hand. The current position of the movable part and the prior knowledge of the capacitance values for a vacant condition are used to solve this issue. The practicality of the proposed sensor system is demonstrated with detailed simulation studies and results from the measurements conducted with a prototype sensor installed on a typical metal forming machine.

I. I NTRODUCTION Power tools of various kinds are extensively in use in the industry and workshops to support the work and to increase the efciency of production. Examples of such power tools are metal and plastic forming machines, portable and xed power saws, power nailers, power drills and wood chippers. Even though the power tools are very useful for easier and faster work, they can cause severe injuries to the operator, unless used carefully. Large number of serious power tool injuries are reported to occur annually in each country. The number of such accidents can be substantially decreased by employing suitable techniques to turn-off (or to trigger a power brake) the device when the presence of a human (e.g. a hand or a human nger) in the dangerous area of the tool is detected. In state of the art applications, the detection is done e.g. by light barrier sensors, which are attached at appropriate positions of the tool. However, such systems may fail in dusty and polluted environments. Also, they typically have a limited sensing coverage volume, in which trapping of humans or objects may occur. Compared to state of the art sensor principles for such protection application, systems based on capacitive sensing techniques offer less expensive and reliable operation [1], [2], [3]. Capacitive sensors that improve the

personal safety features of a chain saw have been reported [2], [4]. A seat occupancy sensor based on a capacitive sensing principle has been developed [3]. A proximity sensor using microelectromechanical systems technology has been proposed [5]. A capacitive sensor has been constructed for tamper resistant enclosures to prevent unauthorized intrusion [6]. A capacitive proximity sensor using two measuring electrodes with a middle grounded electrode has been reported for safety applications [7]. Reliable measurement techniques for capacitive sensors, suitable even for harsh environments have been reported in [8], [9]. In this paper, we propose a capacitive sensor suitable for human proximity sensing, for power tool applications. We have chosen a metal forming machine as one important device that needs attention. We have developed a capacitive proximity sensor to sense the presence of a human in the vicinity of the crucial working areas of the tool. The output from the sensor is given to the control unit of the tool. Once the presence of a human is detected at a crucial position, the control unit stops the movable part from moving forward and hence to prevent an accident. Even though the developed scheme is specic for metal forming devices, the method can be adapted for similar applications. The feasibility of the method is demonstrated and discussed in the following sections of the paper by measurements on a developed prototype system and detailed simulation studies. II. T HE C APACITIVE P ROXIMITY S ENSOR A. Working Principle of Capacitive Sensing In the following, the basic sensing effects, which can be exploited for capacitive sensing, are discussed. Figure 1 sketches the principle of operation of a capacitive sensor suitable for proximity sensing applications. In Figure 1(a), a simplied equivalent circuit is shown. Two electrodes, say T and R, are mounted in such a way, that the capacitance between them is mainly inuenced by the objects within the region of interest. The electrode T is connected to a sinusoidal voltage source, the receiver electrode R is connected to a current to voltage converter. The coupling capacitance between the electrodes is changed due to the presence of an object O and is determined by measuring the displacement current i. According to Figure 1, the coupling capacitance is mutually inuenced by capacitances CT O , CRO and COG , which depend on several parameters like the position of the

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COG

vR

Object O
vR,0

D T

CTO R
VT i

CRO

vR,s

RF +
VR

D0

(a) Equivalent Circuit.

(b) Typical Measurement Signal.

Fig. 1. Sketch of the principle of a capacitive sensor used for proximity sensing. (a) Equivalent circuit of the sensor arrangement. Several coupling capacitances are encountered. Depending on ratios of these capacitances, different coupling effects can be observed. (b) Typical trend of the measurement signal for an approaching object. vR,0 denotes the signal level in the absence of an object, vR,s denotes a signal level in the presence of an object.

electrodes, the geometry, the material values, etc. Figure 1(b) depicts a typical capacitance trace for an approaching object. As long as the capacitance COG between the object to ground remains high with respect to capacitances CT O and CRO (this is valid for moderate distances between the object and the sensor plane), the sensor operates in shielding mode. The effective capacitance decreases with decreasing distance between sensor and object. When the object is sufciently near to the sensing area, the capacitances CT O and CRO become large compared to the capacitance COG . A coupling path is formed and a signicant part of the dielectric current enters electrode R, thus increasing the received signal. In this conguration, the sensor operates in coupling mode. A general problem of this sensing principle is ambiguity, i.e. a distant object with a high permittivity may cause the same measuring signal as a near object with a low permittivity. As one can see by the trend depicted in Figure 1(b), also the signal corresponding to the distance D of object O is ambiguous. This problem can be shirked by the use of several receiver electrodes. As CT O , CRO and COG are different for all receivers, different measurement effects can be observed. By using this information it is possible to distinguish between several objets. B. Capacitive Sensing for Safety Applications and Description of the Sensor Setup Figure 2 depicts a general sketch for the application of a capacitive proximity sensor for safety applications, as it can be applied to various working machines where people can get injured, accidently. Figure 3 depicts a photography of the working machine (a press), which was used for the investigations. The electrodes of the proposed capacitive sensor are mounted near or on the moving part of the arrangement as shown in Figure 2. The sensor has a common transmitter electrode T and two receiver electrodes R1 and R2 as illustrated in the exploded view of the sensor part in Figure 2. The capacitance between T and R1 is indicated by C1 while that between T and R2 is named as C2 . There is also a capacitance between each electrode and ground as indicated in the equivalent circuit in Figure 2. By the use of two receivers it is possible to solve

ambiguities. An object (a human) within the sensing volume shields part of the electric eld lines when it is not in the close proximity (but in the vicinity) of the sensor [3]. Also, when the human is very close to the sensor the coupling capacitance will get altered [3]. The effect of shielding and coupling due to an object will be different for C1 and C2 , as the receiver electrodes are kept at different distances from the transmitter electrode. The fact that working machines in general and our arrangement in particular are made of metallic parts, causes large parasitic capacitances to ground as these machines have large surface areas compared to a human body, which needs to be detected. As the frame is xed, the change of the electric eld pattern and the resulting capacitance variation as a function of the position of the movable part can be measured in a vacant condition and stored. Deviation of the measured capacitances from the stored value helps to indicate the presence of an object in the vicinity of the power tool. The overall system has been simulated using a nite element solver environment before developing a prototype. The details are given in the following sections.
C2 T
Moving part Sensor

R1

R2 C1 T R1 R2

Object

Hand

Tool (fixed part)

CGT

CG1

CG2

Fig. 2. Sketch illustrating the application of the capacitive proximity sensor for a metal forming machine. The electrodes are mounted on the moving part of the machine. The resulting sensor capacitances and an electrical equivalent circuit are also illustrated.

Fig. 3.

Photography of the machine under investigation.

III. D ETAILS OF THE S IMULATION M ODEL Due to the large dimensions of the arrangement and the mounting of the electrodes, which are fully exposed to the environment, electromagnetic radiation effects are of concern if the measurement frequency is high. To provide an estimate of the occurrence of wave propagation effects, the wave length

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, velocity of light c and measurement excitation frequency f can be related as given below. c (1) = f For a given measurement frequency of f = 250 kHz, this results in a wave length of about 1200 m. Thus, Faradays law of induction B (2) E = t can be set to zero and a static formulation of the Maxwells equations given by () = 0 (3)
Fig. 4. Overall view of the 3D FEM model for simulation studies.

can be used, where denotes the permittivity and is the electric scalar potential. To complete this Laplace type partial differential equation, we applied Dirichlet type boundary conditions given by R T F B = = = 0 VT R 0 (4) (5) (6)

IV. R ESULTS This section provides the results of the simulation based and experimental investigations. We also demonstrate the usability of the simulation model and evaluate the sensing region of the sensor by providing a sensitivity map. A. Capacitance as a Function of Position In our rst investigations we evaluated and recorded the value of the capacitances when the moving part moves from its open position to the closed position. Figure 5 depicts the results. In Figure 5, the trends of the two capacitances obtained by the simulation model are compared with the measured trends of the capacitances. Comparing the trends of the simulated data (dashed line) and the measured capacitances (marked by circles), it can be seen that the deviation between them increases for an increasing distance between the moving part and the xed part. The accurate computation of capacitance values for the given type of model is a general problem. Especially the fact, that the ratio of the extension of the problem domain compared to the size of the smallest model structures (i.e. the thickness of the electrodes) is large causes problems for accurate computations. Thus, in general only changes of the capacitance can be computed with high accuracy. Therefore, numerical methods are more appropriate to compute general trends but not to compute absolute values. For the given problem we found that the difference between simulation and measurement is given by a single gain error. Multiplying the simulated trend with this gain leads to the bold drawn trends in Figure 5, which provide good accordance with the measured values. Thus the model can be used for simulation based investigations of the sensor. B. Sensitivity Map Sensitivity maps are useful illustrations, which depict the spatial dependent behavior of a system. This map shows the change or the sensitivity of a measured quantity for a certain inclusion, which is placed in the sensing region. As depicted in Figure 6, in the simulation, we used a rod as inclusion in the 3D model. In the quasi-static case, the complex conductivity is

where R and T denote the surface of the receiver and the transmitter electrodes and F B denotes a far boundary which terminates the problem domain. To compute the capacitance between two electrodes, Gauss law is used, i.e. 1 nd, (7) C= VT R R where R denotes the surface of the receiver electrode. VT R is the voltage which is applied between the electrodes. Figure 4 depicts the model used for the simulation studies. It consists of the moving part carrying the electrodes and the xed part. The far boundary, which is used to terminate the problem domain is not plotted for clarity. The model provides a plane of symmetry. In general, symmetry should be incorporated into the model during the preprocessing phase as its consideration decreases the number of nite elements. However, for simulations where also objects are included into the model, the symmetry of the sensor geometry can not be exploited to reduce the model size. Consequently, we applied the full 3D model depicted in Figure 4 for the simulation based investigations. A. Prototype Sensor and Measurement Setup A prototype sensor has been developed and mounted on the moving part of our arrangement. The electrodes are made out of thin copper plates. They are rmly xed to a dielectric material with a relative permittivity of about 2. The dielectric material has a thickness of 2 mm. A thin copper sheet is placed below the dielectric material and is connected to measurement circuit ground. Accurate measurements of the capacitances C1 and C2 with high resolution are crucial for the sensor system. For the experiments, we used a measurement system developed using a sigma-delta capacitance-to-digital converter IC AD7143 [9]. The measurement and simulation results obtained are given below.

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0 1 C1 (C) 2 3

x 10

13

Receiver 1 (Near electrode)

Measured data Simulated trend Simulated trend with gain 0.02

14

4 0

0.04

0.06

0.08 Distance (m)

0.1

0.12

0.14

0.16

5 0 C2 (C) 5 10

x 10

Receiver 2 (Far electrode)

Measured data Simulated trend Simulated trend with gain 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 Distance (m) 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16

15 0

Fig. 5. Simulated and measured values of the capacitances for various positions of the movable part with respect to the xed part.

given by (+j). Due to the low frequency, the conductivity () is dominant for the observed electric effects. As we used static simulations, the permittivity of the rod was set to r = 1000 to model the (partly conductive) behavior of human tissue. Furthermore the distant end of the rod acts as electrode, which was set to ground potential. Thus, the same behavior as caused by the capacitance COG (compare Figure 1) is modeled. To obtain the sensitivity map, the rod was moved such that the tip of the rod reaches most points of the sensing volume.

diameter and 8 cm in length. This copper pipe was connected to the circuit ground of the measurement system. We marked the test space for each 1 cm. The test space has 10 cm length in front direction and a width of 11 cm to each side. Thus, a 10 by 10 matrix map is obtained leading to 100 measurement positions. At each position of the test object, 50 independent readings were recorded and the average of these 50 values was used at the corresponding position to obtain the sensitivity graph. Figure 7 depicts the computed and measured sensitivity maps for the near and the far electrode of the sensor. For the illustration, the investigated changes of the capacitances were plotted in a 3D plot at the position of the tip of the test object (the near end of the pipe/rod). For the experiment and the simulation the moving part of the system was moved to the fully opened position. The contour of the moving part is plotted in the sensitivity maps for illustration. For the measured data the readings are normalized with respect to the maximum capacitance change. As shown in Figure 7,the sensing volume of the far electrode reaches up to 8 cm in moving direction of the mobile part of the arrangement and up to 6 cm in the orthogonal direction. One can see good accordance between the simulated and the measured sensitivity maps. In the simulated sensitivity map for the far electrode (Figure 7(c)), an increased coupling effect for a certain close distance between the inclusion and the moving part is observed. Thus, a system with only one electrode would be ambiguous. By the use of the information from two receiver electrodes, this ambiguity is avoided. C. Functionality Test of the Sensor Arrangement The capacitance values of C1 and C2 were measured for various positions of the moving part. Initially, the movable part was kept 30 cm away from the xed part. The capacitance values corresponding to this position are taken as zero. Then it was gradually moved towards the xed part. The capacitance readings were taken for each 1 cm of displacement of the movable part of the power tool. The change in reading was also recorded for the presence of a human nger for each 1 cm of displacement of the moving part. This is plotted along with the readings for the vacant condition for each 1 cm of movement and given in Figure 8. As can be seen in Figure 8, the presence of a human nger can be detected reliably even when the movable part is very close to the xed part. Tests were also carried-out to evaluate the performance of the sensor under high humidity conditions. We applied a water spray to the sensor and recorded the drift in the output readings. The capacitance readings for this condition with and without the presence of a hand and a nger were also recorded and analyzed. It is found that the sensor has low sensitivity towards variation in humidity or moisture layer on the surface. In some conditions, it is possible that the electrical potential of the metallic parts of the arrangement are oating. In such a condition, the sensitivity of the sensor may vary. However, as the xed part of the arrangement has in general a quite large surface area, it exhibits good capacitive coupling to the ground and therefore helps the system to work as in a grounded

Fig. 6. Overall view of the 3D FEM model for the determination of the sensitivity maps. To obtain the sensitivity map, the rod was moved in forward direction and in up/down direction.

Similar to the simulations, measurements have been performed to obtain the sensitivity map. Thus, a test object has been moved within the sensing volume in the same manner, as explained for the simulations and the capacitance readouts were recorded. The test object was a copper pipe of 2 cm in

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Sensitivity map for the near electrode

Sensitivity map for the near electrode

x 10 0 1 2

14

0.4 0.2 0 0.2

C (F)

3 4 5 6

0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0.1

0.05 0 0.05 Y (m) 0.1 0.1 0.05 X (m) 0.05 0 0.1

7 0.1

0.05 0 0.05 Y (m) 0.1 0.1 0 0.05 X (m) 0.05

0.1

(a) Computed sensitivity map for the near electrode.

Sensitivity map for the far electrode

(b) Measured sensitivity map (normalized) for the near electrode.

Sensitivity map for the far electrode

x 10 0

14

0.4 0.2

0.5 C (F)

0 0.2

0.4 0.6

1.5

0.8 1 0.1
0.05 0 0.05 Y (m) 0.1 0.1 0.05 X (m) 0.05 0 0.1

0.1

0.05 0 0.05 Y (m) 0.1 0.1 0.05 X (m) 0.05 0

0.1

(c) Computed sensitivity map for the far electrode. Fig. 7.

(d) Measured sensitivity map (normalized) for the far electrode.

Simulated and measured (normalized) sensitivity maps.

Change in capacitance [fF]

0 50 100 150 200 250 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 vacant condition (CV) with finger (C )

F

Change in capacitance [fF]

13

14

15

16

17

18

80 60 40 20 0 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Distance between the movable part and the fixed part 17 18 Change in output for the presence of the finger (CVCF)

Fig. 8. Readings obtained with and without the presence of a human nger near to the xed part of the power tool (Figure 3) for various positions of the movable part.

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condition. We have conducted a test series to verify the sensitivity of the developed system towards ground variations and found that the system has low sensitivity towards ground variations. V. C ONCLUSION A capacitive proximity sensor suitable for detecting the presence of a human in the vicinity of dangerous working ares of a power tool has been developed and presented. The sensor uses multiple electrodes and a sigma-delta capacitance to digital converter to measure the capacitance changes. The developed system senses the presence of a human and enables the control unit of the power tool to move backward or stop to proceed in foreword direction in order to avoid injuries to the operator. The proposed scheme has been veried with the help of nite element analysis and measurements on a developed prototype system. This scheme can be easily adapted for similar applications to detect the presence of a human in dangerous regions even in the surrounding of metallic objects. VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This work was partially funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) through the stand-alone project P21855, SafeTom: Safety by Electrical Capacitance Tomography. R EFERENCES
[1] L.K. Baxter. Capacitive Sensors, Design and Applications. IEEE Press, 1997. [2] B. George, H. Zangl, and Th. Bretterklieber. A warning system for chainsaw personal safety based on capacitive sensing. In IEEE International Conference on Sensors, Leece, Italy, October, 26-30 2008. in print. [3] B. George, H. Zangl, Th. Bretterklieber, and G. Brasseur. A novel seat occupancy detection system based on capacitive sensing. In IEEE Conference on Instrumentation and Measurement, pages 15151520, Vancouver Island, Canada, May 15-20 2008. [4] M. Norgia and C. Sevelto. Rf-capacitive proximity sensor for safety applications. In IEEE Conference on Instrumentation and Measurement, Warsaw, Poland, May 1-3 2007. [5] Zhenhai Chen and Ren C. Luo. Design and implementation of capacitive proximity sensor using microelectromechanical systems technology. [6] Halit Eren and Lucas D Sandor. Fringe-Effect Capacitive Proximity Sensors for Tamper Proof Enclosures. In Proceedings of conference on Sensors for Industry (SIcon/05), volume 1, pages 22 26, Feb. 2005. [7] David Kay Lambert. Capacitive proximity sensor. US Patent No.: US 6724324 B1, April 2004. [8] Th. Bretterklieber and H. Zangl. Versatile sensor front end for low-depth modulation capacitive sensors. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Instrumentation and Measurement, pages 830836, Vancouver Island, Canada, May 15-20 2008. [9] Analog Devices. Ad7143. Technical report, Analog Devices, http://www.analog.com/en/analog-to-digital-converters/capacitanceto-digital-converters/ad7143/products/product.html, September 2009.

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