Fraunhofer Comes up With a Crash Sensor for Warehouses

A crash senor will help boost safety in warehouses thanks to a new monitoring system developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS in Duisburg.

The system that was developed in collaboration with IWS Handling GmbH will use a network of wireless sensors to check the shelf supports in high rack storage warehouses.

A single shelf support being damaged can lead to a disastrous tragedy for employees working below. That is why inspecting the supports is a regular task assigned to employees. However these are done in rounds and is a laborious time consuming task. With the new monitoring system all the supports in the warehouse will be under inspection all the time. This will help reduce the instances of accidents caused due to damage to supports of shelves.

Frederic Meyer, project manager at IMS said that the supports are usually fitted with a sort of air cushions to protect them from collisions. The researchers have integrated sensors in this protective fitting that measure the pressure within the air cushion. If an air cushion is collided with, the sensor registers the change in interior pressure and reports this via radio relay to a central control station. This is located in the warehouse manager's office allowing instant action to be taken to prevent further damage.