Abstract
Abstract Recent research results on human–robot interaction and collaborative robotics are leaving behind the traditional paradigm of robots living in a separated space inside safety cages, allowing humans and robot to work together for completing an increasing number of complex industrial tasks. In this context, safety of the human operator is a main concern. In this paper, we present a framework for ensuring human safety in a robotic cell that allows human–robot coexistence and dependable interaction. The framework is based on a layered control architecture that exploits an effective algorithm for online monitoring of relative human–robot distance using depth sensors. This method allows to modify in real time the robot behavior depending on the user position, without limiting the operative robot workspace in a too conservative way. In order to guarantee redundancy and diversity at the safety level, additional certified laser scanners monitor human–robot proximity in the cell and safe communication protocols and logical units are used for the smooth integration with an industrial software for safe low-level robot control. The implemented concept includes a smart human-machine interface to support in-process collaborative activities and for a contactless interaction with gesture recognition of operator commands. Coexistence and interaction are illustrated and tested in an industrial cell, in which a robot moves a tool that measures the quality of a polished metallic part while the operator performs a close evaluation of the same workpiece.
Highlights
There has been an exceptional growth of attention by industrial end-users about the new possibilities opened by the feasibility of a safe Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), namely with robots and humans sharing a common
Experimental results We present here experimental results on human-robot coexistence and on communication via gestural commands, directly collected on the SYMPLEXITY cell while an Abrasive Finishing (AF) task was under preparation
We designed a safety framework to ensure coexistence of an 835 operator in a robotic cell in which a standard industrial robot is in motion
Summary
There has been an exceptional growth of attention by industrial end-users about the new possibilities opened by the feasibility of a safe Human-. For the considered polishing task, this is implemented for those operations in the work flow where interaction turns out to be beneficial To this purpose, we deployed our effective method based on depth (RGB-D) sensors [11, 16] to com115 pute in real time the relative distance between a moving human and the robot in action. This mode of operation is suitable for the manual placement of objects on the robot end-effector, in static visual inspection, for finishing or complex tasks where human presence is required, or when robots can help the operator with the positioning of heavy components [34] This form of collaboration requires dedicated functionalities to monitor the robot standstill: in the so-called “Safe Standstill” (SST) mode, the robot movement is inhibited completely through dedicated redundant software and electronics-based safety technology [35]. The document specifies how to determine the admissible physical quantities for the collaboration forms SSM and PFL, such as minimum separation distances and limits of mechanical loadings over the human body, 225 depending on the risk assessment
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