Safety Sensors keep goal!

Leuze: GOALIAS – that’s the name of the latest innovation project at the IAS, the Institute for Automation and Software Engineering at the University of Stuttgart. Leuze electronic participated in this project as a cooperation and development partner for the necessary opto-electronic safety sensor technology.

GOALIAS is an automated goalkeeper that can even stop the penalties of the German premier division club, VfB Stuttgart. To do this it has to be able to cover the entire 7.32 m wide and 2.44 m high goal. It has just 400 ms to detect the ball, calculate the point of impact in the goal, and then get there in time. GOALIAS requires sophisticated image recognition, a high performance motor, and Leuze electronic’s reliable safety sensor technology to make all this happen.

Nobody can move in the goal while GOALIAS is saving a shot, because the highly-dynamic moving goalkeeper figure, which can reach speeds of up to 60 km/h, causes dangers that could result in serious injuries. The concept for safety risks prevention was developed jointly with TÜV Südwest (German technical inspection authority) and realized with Leuze electronic’s tested and proven - sensors, among other components. A COMPACTplus Safety Light Curtain, mounted at an appropriate distance from the goal, is used as the central protective measure.

The device has a protective field height of 1,200 mm and a 90 mm resolution. An incoming ball will be tolerated when the flexible beam blanking is activated – but persons won’t. If they are in the protective field, they will interrupt more than three horizontal beams, which the ball won’t. Within just a few milliseconds, a switch-off signal is activated and the GOALIAS movement is stopped immediately.

Another danger is that GOALIAS might not brake and could shoot out past its target at the side. For this reason protective grid elements are set up on the sides, which can intercept GOALIAS in an emergency and prevent an accident. Furthermore, hard guard elements work as a safety fence to stop people getting into the danger zone from the side. A supervisor can also stop GOALIAS at any time via an emergency stop button on the operating console. All of these factors together ensure that people and equipment are reliably protected. GOALIAS has already demonstrated its skills at IdeenPark 2008 in the Stuttgart Trade Fair Centre, where it had to hold off more than 10,000 balls – sometimes at speeds of up to 119 km/h.

The IdeenPark 2008 organizer, ThyssenKrupp AG, worked in close cooperation with the state of Baden-Württemberg. More than 100 partner organizations from all over Germany took part, including numerous universities, research institutes, schools and organizations from the Baden-Württemberg region. And GOALIAS was a big hit with the visitors, proving it to be one of the highlights of the event.