Flexible programming and orchestration of collaborative robotic manufacturing systems

A flexible programming and orchestration system for human-robot collaborative tasks is proposed. Five different interaction modes are suggested to test two Task-Managers (TMs) acting as orchestrators between a human co-worker and a robot. Both TMs rely on the task-based programming concept providing modular and scalable capabilities, allowing robot code reuse, fast robot programming and high robot programming flexibility. The TMs provide visual and audio feedback to the user about the robot task sequence being executed, guiding the user during the iterative process. The interaction modes tested were: (1) human arm gestures, (2) human hand gestures, (3) physical contact between human and robot, and (4–5) two hybrid interaction modes combining each one of the two first interaction modes with the last one. Experimental tests indicated that users prefer fast interactions with small number of interaction items to higher flexibility. Both TMs provide intuitive and modular interface for collaborative robots with a human in the loop.