State-of-the-Art in Perception Technologies for Collaborative Robots

The developments in sensor technology, information processing, computer science, and artificial intelligence significantly improved robots’ autonomy. Robots’ external perception relies on sensing technology. Thus, capturing accurate sensor information is vital for ensuring robotic security and improving human-machine interaction performance. This paper classifies the main robotic sensors, describes multi-sensor information fusion and processing and contrasts the state-of-the-art sensor technologies for collaborative robots with other state-of-the-art technologies in related fields. In addition, this paper also introduces collaborative robots’ perception applications of the state-of-the-art representative products, the new designs for collaborative robots, the interactive applications of the intelligent Kinect sensor with collaborative robots, and the important applications of collaborative robots in the medical fields. Through a deep analysis of relevant information, this paper aims to introduce the integration of the state-of-the-art sensor technologies and collaborative robots, with hoping of guiding significance for the applications of robot sensors. This paper finally emphasizes the sensors’ impact on robot performance and discusses future research on sensor technologies in robotics.