Cooperation of human operator and small industrial robot

Mechanism and Machine Theory, 2014

This paper describes an experimental procedure consisting of impact tests that simulate a collision of a human head with an industrial robot with the aim to validate a safety index named as New Index for Robots (NIR) and its outputs. The experiments in this paper are based on lab tests. It is an attempt to characterize the NIR index underlying the main parameters that are involved in crash interaction and to highlight limitations and weakness of suggested impact tests.

Interaction between humans and robots was always having great attention, as robots should never hurt human beings. With technological development the totally separated operation of robots is being changed to closer cooperation. Industrial robots now can detect humans in their work-envelope and reduce their speed according to the motion of the human. This is a radical change to the previously in-fenced and no human in work-envelope concept. This paper is investigating today’s policy and standards in human – robot interaction along with solutions for security of production cells. An example demo setup will also be shown, where the utilization of the newest technologies is emphasized. The paper also deals with introduction of high level control of security through simulation software.

International Journal of Social Robotics, 2010

The DLR Lightweight Robot III (LWR-III) developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is characterized by low inertial properties, torque sensing in each joint, and a load to weight ratio similar to humans. These properties qualify it for applications requiring high mobility and direct interaction with human users or uncertain environments. An essential requirement for such a robot is that it must under no circumstances pose a threat to the human operator. To actually quantify the potential injury risk emanating from the manipulator, impact test were carried out using standard automobile crash-test facilities at the ADAC (German automobile club). Furthermore, we introduce our analysis for soft-tissue injury based on swine experiments with the LWR-III. This paper gives an overview about the variety of investigations necessary to provide a safety analysis of a human-friendly robot based on biomechanical injury results. We believe this paper can provide a guideline for the robotics community for future qualifications of other robots and thus serve as a key component to bring robots in our everyday life.

2017

To be able to stay competitive it is important to take advantage of new technology and research. Human-Industrial Robot Collaboration (HIRC) is a concept of a work task division between human and an industrial robot in a shared work space. It is only during the recent years that the idea of automation concepts that includes humans, have been realized, but with specialized small robots, cobots. In systems where an industrial robot traditionally is used there are usually rigorous safety systems consisting of fences to keep the human safe. However, for many tasks in the heavy industry the cobots are too weak and an industrial robot is needed. There are a lot of benefits with automated systems and therefore it is valuable to find a solution where the strengths of an industrial robot are mixed with the abilities of humans. In this project, the collaboration between a human and an industrial robot has been investigated. For a HIRC it will be important to let the human do the task best sui...

International Journal of Human Factors in Manufacturing, 1993

A questionnaire was mailed to 55 industrial robot users in the United States to determine what safety measures were used in the field. Nineteen companies using a total of over 580 robots responded to the survey. The questionnaire investigated types of robots, types of safety devices, optimal work range, ability to enclose, and response to error condition. Only 20% of robots were found to be completely enclosed, while 60% had a limited barrier or no barrier. Active safety measures such as light curtains and floor mats were found to be the most widely used safety devices at 67% and 59%, respectively. In addition, industrial users demonstrated poor conformance to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations and to the American National Standards Institute/Robot Industries Association (ANSIDIA) standards. 01 993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

2009

It is evident that industrial robots are able to generate forces high enough to injure a human. To prevent this, robots have to work within a restricted space that includes the entire region reachable by any part of the robot. However, more and more robot applications require human intervention due to superior abilities for some tasks performance. In this paper we introduce danger/safety indices which indicate a level of the risk during interaction with robots, which are based on a robot's critical characteristics and on a human's physical and mental constrains. Collision model for a 1 DOF robot and "human" was developed. Case study with further simulations was provided for the PUMA 560 robot.

Proceedings of the 28th International DAAAM Symposium 2017, 2017

Collaborative work between human and industrial robot in different areas is developing rapidly. High payload industrial robots that can harm humans execute their tasks in separated protected areas and are regulated by safety standards. The main aim of this study was to design experiments, analyze, and model the collaborative work and safety monitoring systems by using small industrial robots with inbuilt power and force limiting. Different methods of collaboration are standardized by the ISO/TS 15066:2016. Human co-work with robots gives us a variety of options that can be used in manufacturing and other related areas. The advanced multi-level monitoring system of co-work processes can reach the highest level of the human safety with minimum robot downtime. Several methods were analyzed to find the optimal solution for the online monitoring processes. As a result, a safety multi-level monitoring system was designed, tested in simulation software with real-room conditions with an industrial robot. Safety multi-level system, as a part of the control and monitoring online system consist of different types of sensors and a microcontroller that can be attached to the Cyber Physical Production System (CPPS). Those control and monitoring methods and processes were implemented in experimental setup in Robot Operating System (ROS).

Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics, 2019

Industrial robots offer the advantage of flexible manufacturing and increased efficiency when paired with human workers. However, this means breaking well-established safety procedures such as safety fences and workspace separation. Robots present a danger to humans as they work at high speeds with sudden motions. It is therefore necessary to ensure safe interaction during collaboration. This paper presents a collection of sources that explain the trends and advances in the field of industrial robotics specifically to safety in humanrobot interaction. Major trends and popular methods lean towards obstacle avoidance using a sensory planning method of polynomials and a sensory system that is able to map the robot workspace. The goal of these methods is to ensure that the human is kept safe. These methods were used to develop a novel approach to safe interactions. This approach uses a LIDAR sensor for obstacle detection and tracking.

2006

The question of human safety becomes increasingly important as future robots will be required to share their working area with human operator. The following issues have to be considered: What are the requirements on the hardware and on the software? What are the possible dangers for the human? How can we recognize and prevent the danger? What safeguarding systems should be implemented? In this paper were suggested some solutions on assigned questions.

2015 12th Conference on Computer and Robot Vision, 2015

Industrial robots have been employed worldwide in the manufacturing sector for performing tasks quickly, repeatedly and accurately in relatively static environments for over 30 years. In recent years, close physical interaction between industrial robots and human operators has attracted researchers' attention and encouraged a number of technological innovations to turn these robots into humanrobot platforms. In this work a specially designed compliant wrist is developed to support dexterous robotic interaction with live proximity and contact feedback. The compliant wrist incorporates a level of compliance into an initially noncompliant manipulator robot which allows the robot to dynamically adapt to the surfaces it approaches or touches. Furthermore, to facilitate human-robot interactions, the robot must be able to adapt its behavior to the human partner. Therefore, a real-time path planning method is developed to generate online motion, adapt the robot to dynamic changes in the environment and ensure smooth interactions. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated through experimental results on a CRS-F3 manipulator.