Speed Monitoring
Speed monitoring and control is a certified J1600 safety function rated Performance Level c (PL c). It supervises how fast the vehicle travels and feeds the speed-dependent behavior of the other safety functions.
How it is built
The function rests on dedicated certified hardware in the safety architecture:
- a safety-certified driving-speed encoder;
- a safety-certified driving-direction encoder;
- an independent safety controller;
- two safety-certified motor controllers.
Because the direction encoder is part of the certified chain, supervision covers both forward and reverse travel — the J1600's 360-degree protective field supports autonomous driving in both directions.
Why speed is safety-relevant
The J1600's top speed is 5.4 km/h (1.5 m/s / 3.4 mph). Its protective field is speed-dependent: the field changes with travel speed and expands at higher speeds, so the vehicle always monitors a zone matched to its current motion. Reliable speed measurement is what makes that adjustment trustworthy — see Safety-field adjustment (PL d).
Speed monitoring also underpins the certified braking function (PL d), which stops the vehicle when a person enters the field or an emergency stop is triggered.
Related pages
- Safety-field adjustment — how field size follows speed.
- Person detection — what happens when someone enters the field.
- Performance levels — all assigned levels in one table.
Performance Levels come from the preliminary January 2026 product documentation and are subject to change.