A Practical and Effective Layout for a Safe Human-Robot Collaborative Assembly Task

Leonardo Sabatino Scimmi,Matteo Melchiorre,Stefano Mauro,Stefano Pastorelli,Mario Troise

doi:10.3390/app11041763

Leonardo Sabatino Scimmi, Matteo Melchiorre + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app11041763

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Journal: Applied sciences	Publication Date: Feb 17, 2021
Citations: 30	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Polytechnic University of Turin

Abstract

This work describes a layout to carry out a demonstrative assembly task, during which a collaborative robot performs pick-and-place tasks to supply an operator the parts that he/she has to assemble. In this scenario, the robot and operator share the workspace and a real time collision avoidance algorithm is implemented to modify the planned trajectories of the robot avoiding any collision with the human worker. The movements of the operator are tracked by two Microsoft Kinect v2 sensors to overcome problems related with occlusions and poor perception of a single camera. The data obtained by the two Kinect sensors are combined and then given as input to the collision avoidance algorithm. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the collision avoidance algorithm and the significant gain in terms of task times that the highest level of human-robot collaboration can bring.

Highlights

IntroductionCollaborative robotics is becoming a more and more relevant topic
In the last years, collaborative robotics is becoming a more and more relevant topic
This work investigates the feasibility and the potential benefits of a collaborative assembly cell characterized by the highest level of collaboration

Summary

Introduction

Collaborative robotics is becoming a more and more relevant topic. To ensure safety, the workers have been kept physically separated from the robot systems [1]. The existing cobots are mostly anthropomorphic manipulators, which are equipped with passive and active safety features. The most advanced cobots mount a set of sensors and dedicated software packages to actively handle unexpected contacts by stopping the robot if the joint torques or the contact forces exceed the defined thresholds. These features, that come with the cobot out of the box, may not guarantee safe collaborative robotics. The workspace sharing can introduce new hazards and risks for the workers that must be taken into account when designing the application [4,5]

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