Patent Issued for Signal Based Safety System for Construction Zone

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Journal of Engineering -- A patent by the inventors Mendenhall, Robert L. (Las Vegas, NV); Gainey, Leonard (Las Vegas, NV); Cabrera, Gilbert (Las Vegas, NV); Bugay, John (Las Vegas, NV), filed on April 23, 2013, was published online on April 21, 2015, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews correspondents.

Patent number 9014939 is assigned to Mendenhall; Robert L. (Las Vegas, NV).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: "Construction zone safety is critically important to all parties involved including, but not limited to, construction companies, construction workers, insurance companies, land developers and municipalities. The seriousness of construction zone safety is evidenced by the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ('OSHA') which is tasked with monitoring construction zones as well as other areas. In one respect, OSHA is concerned with injuries or death of construction workers.

"It would be advantageous to develop a signal-based safety system to reduce or eliminate injuries and accidents at construction zones."

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, VerticalNews journalists also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent: "The embodiments of the present invention involve the use of one or more readers on heavy construction equipment (e.g., loaders) which detect signals emanating from signal transmitters on clothing or equipment of construction workers. In one embodiment, responsive to the detection of one or more signals emanating from behind a heavy piece of equipment, or in another position relative to the piece of heavy equipment, a controller integrated on the piece of heavy equipment causes the parking/emergency brake to be applied and/or transmission to be disengaged automatically without operator involvement.

"In one embodiment, one or more readers are attached to the rear of the piece of heavy equipment and detect signals from RFID devices attached to the clothing or equipment of construction workers in the construction zone. The readers are positioned to capture signals from behind and/or along sides of the piece of heavy equipment. Hardware installed on the piece of heavy equipment serves to apply the parking brake of the piece of heavy equipment and/or disengage the transmission responsive to a controller signal.

"In another embodiment, a wet brake system (also known as a hydraulic brake system) is triggered automatically responsive to the detection of one or more signals emanating from behind a heavy piece of equipment, or in another position relative to the piece of heavy equipment. This embodiment works well with fully loaded equipment which requires additional distance to slow down and ultimately stop. For example, a fully loaded loader can be stopped in 12 feet when traveling at 10 mph in reverse.

"In other embodiments, additional technology such as infrared sensors, acoustic sensors, thermal imaging sensors, cameras with human recognition software, radar, lidar and/or custom RF equipment (subject to FCC license and FCC Part 15) may be used to locate workers near the piece of heavy equipment namely a danger zone.

"Other variations, embodiments and features of the present invention will become evident from the following detailed description, drawings and claims."

URL and more information on this patent, see: Mendenhall, Robert L.; Gainey, Leonard; Cabrera, Gilbert; Bugay, John. Signal Based Safety System for Construction Zone. U.S. Patent Number 9014939, filed April 23, 2013, and published online on April 21, 2015. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=9014939.PN.&OS=PN/9014939RS=PN/9014939

Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2015, NewsRx LLC