Mechanisms and capabilities for human robot collaboration

This paper deals with the concept of a collaborative human-robot workspace in production environments recapitulating and complementing the work of the author presented in [1]. Different aspects regarding collaboration are discussed and applied in an exemplary scenario. Modalities including visualizations and audio are used to inform the human worker about next assembly steps and the current status of the system. The robot supplies the human worker with needed parts in an adaptive manner to prevent errors and to increase ergonomic benefits. Further, the human worker can intuitively interact and adjust the robot using projected menus on the worktable and by force-guidance of the robot. All these functions are brought together in an overall architecture.