Towards Safe Human-Machine Collaboration: Intuitive Configuration and Management of Safety Zones in Augmented Reality Environments

This paper introduces an augmented reality-based approach for intuitively configuring safety parameters of a laser scanner-based safety system. Such safety equipment is commonly used in industrial and laboratory environments. However, configuring and setting up these devices can be time-consuming. Moreover, operators may not always be fully aware of the separation distances monitored by the safety system. Unintentional violations of safety spaces by humans can lead to decreased robot availability and compromise the entire system’s safety. The proposed system enables users to define safety and warning zones intuitively through a head-mounted display (HMD). A simple user interface is created, allowing the operator to easily add multiple zones. Each zone can have multiple vertices added or removed to form arbitrary polygons, representing either safety or warning zones. Users can adjust the zones by manipulating the vertices using the HMD interface. The overlay of safety and warning zones onto the real environment facilitates intuitive and precise zone configuration. Additionally, the human operator can simply observe the safety and warning zones around the laser scanner, enhancing situational awareness and promoting safer working conditions. The created zones are forwarded from the HoloLens to the host machine, where Robot Operating System (ROS) manages communication between the laser scanner, HoloLens, and the device being controlled— in this case, a collaborative robot. Experimental results demonstrate that the robot reliably responds to the defined zones through the HMD interface.