Facilitating collaboration between humans and robots
The number of installed industrial robots in production systems worldwide is increasing by 19 per cent per year. Even though technologies for safe interaction between humans and robots have been around for quite some time, only around 6 per cent of the newly installed robots can be used for collaborative tasks. However, considering the ageing population and lack of skilled workers it is believed that Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) will be more common in the future.
This module area aims to simplify the human-robot collaboration process by When installing a robot without physical fencing, it is not only the robot arm that needs to be considered, but also how the human and robot will collaborate together effectively. For this, the company needs to have a strategy for implementation and maintaining the robot station. This includes material handling, equipment such as grippers, fixtures, and vision systems as well as the collaboration between the robot and operators. Designing a robot workstation with collaborative tasks can be done both virtual and in real life, in order to test and evaluate different solutions in terms of flexibility, ergonomics, and task allocation.
