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Eight PMD distance sensors are used to re-orient luggage at Heathrow airport. The sensor's red beams are visible on the suitcase above.
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Over one billion passengers travel worldwide by airplane every year. The luggage transport system is a logistic challenge. Now, the security X-ray screening between check-in and the airplane has been successfully automated.
At Terminal One, in London’s busy Heathrow Airport, two operators are needed to re-orient the pieces of luggage so that they can properly pass through security screening.
Hands-free luggage processing with efector PMD
 To automate this, the company F.J. Herbert Engineering, Ltd., in England developed the “Pathfinda,” a conveyor platform that centralizes luggage and re-orientates it parallel to the conveyor belt. Eight pmd distance sensors are used for the detection of position and orientation of the luggage. The sensors monitor the conveyor belt from the side, positioned in a right angle. A vertically-oriented piece of luggage is rotated on a special conveyor belt until all sensors measure the same distance to the object. Then the luggage is re-orientated and can pass through the X-ray screening machine without any additional handling.
Reliable performance, easy to use
During the development of the Pathfinda, many sensors from different manufacturers were tested. Several solutions failed to give accurate and repeatable signals due to the nature and variants of luggage. But, not the efector pmd. The sensor provided reliable results with all surfaces, colors and textures. Further advantages included the sensor’s compact dimensions, integrated numeric display, pushbutton setup, analog output and switching outputs.
In addition, the manufacturer’s decision to select the efector pmd was also based on their bottom line: efector pmd costs only one tenth of the competitor’s products.
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