The Boeing Company
Safety system for tracking movable objects during vehicle production

Abstract:

Safety systems and methods for tracking objects such as personnel and tools during a vehicle build process and activating an alarm when the tracked object is within a safety zone where such presence is not permitted under the current circumstances. The safety system includes a multiplicity of active positioning sensors configured to detect the presence of an object at a particular distance from or within a particular area or volume of space and a controller configured to use sensor data to calculate the virtual location of each sensed object relative to a virtual computer-aided design map of the as-built aircraft design. In response to detection of the presence of an object in unacceptable proximity to or within a particular safety zone of the vehicle, an alarm is activated and the planned build process is altered.