An Interaction Strategy for Safe Human Co-Working with Industrial Collaborative Robots

Within the framework of Industry 4.0, robotics is experiencing a rapprochement between humans and robots. To achieve this, the barriers that have historically separated humans from industrial robots are being eliminated with the main objective of increasing performance by taking advantage of the capabilities in which each one excels. The success of collaborative robotics is possible once safety is ensured, adding the need and importance of a proper human-robot communication interface. In this context, there are many safety techniques in current collaborative robots, but these are not sufficient to guarantee high industrial production and quality products. Non-verbal communication using the hands is one of the most widely used techniques in the industrial environment for the exchange of human-human information. Thus, this work presents a safety solution based on the creation of a new layer that allows the avoidance of human-robot collisions and includes a robust and safe human-robot communication interface. Advanced automatic learning and computer vision techniques have been used in its development, which was experimental analyses and validated in a co-work scenario involving an industrial collaborative robot and an operator.