Task allocation model for human-robot collaboration with variable cobot speed

Abstract

New technologies, such as collaborative robots, are an option to improve productivity and flexibility in assembly systems. Task allocation is fundamental to properly assign the available resources. However, safety is usually not considered in the task allocation for assembly systems, even if it is fundamental to ensure the safety of human operator when he/she is working with the cobot. Hence, a model that considers safety as a constraint is here presented, with the aim to both maximize the productivity in a collaborative workcell and to promote a secure human robot collaboration. Indexes that consider both process and product characteristics are considered to evaluate the quality of the proposed model, which is also compared with one without the safety constraint. The results confirm the validity and necessity of the newly proposed method, which ensures the safety of the operator while improving the performance of the system.