Safety-optimizing method of human-care robot design and control

Abstract

We propose a safety-optimizing method for safety strategies of human-care robots using our danger evaluation method. First, various safety evaluation methods are discussed, and an optimizing method of safety design is proposed. Second, we make a comparative study of two general safety control methods, and then a method of optimizing robot control is proposed. These proposed methods enable us to optimally distribute cost among several safety strategies, and to derive suitable approaching motion of a multi-link manipulator to a human. The validity and effectiveness of these methods are demonstrated by numerical analysis. As a result, the design and control to increase safety are successfully obtained.