Time-of-flight measurement

Smart Sensors for Monorail Systems

The determination of distances is one of the fundamental technologies in sensor technology. Until now very different methods for distance measurement have been used, but in contrast to the competition Pepperl+Fuchs is now in the position to launch a complete product family on basis of the superior time-of-flight measurement.

Today, one is no longer dependent on the widely used phase correlation procedure, particularly since its original advantages of moderate costs and acceptable accuracy, have become outdated. Our sensor specialists achieve better parameters with the more modern pulse time-of-flight method at lower costs. High range, accuracy and ambient light insensitivity can be ideally combined with the market advantage of an attractive price structuring. The technology is suitable for the entire product spectrum from the complex sensor for object detection for the positioning of automatic storage and retrieval systems through to industry and/or customized solutions.

An example for the implementation of the time-of-flight method is the collision protection sensor VDM54. This sensor replaces mechanical collision avoidance devices, which are still widely used today. Apart from the pure collision protection, the sensor enables the flexible longitudinal control of the automatic guided vehicles due to its measuring ability. Different product versions are available for the measurement in a single direction and other versions for the measurement in curves.