Architecture for task-dependent human-robot collaboration

Abstract

Nowadays, industrial robots are considered standard equipment in modern production systems. Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have already adopted industrial robots in their daily operations. However, the setup, programming and test of various robots need a high level of expertise. Furthermore, the emerging trend of small batch production and rapid product changeover has brought more challenges. To improve flexibility and agility, collaborative robots have been widely used by large manufacturers, but the high costs hinder their usage in SMEs. Thus, in this paper, the potential of using standard industrial robots for human-robot collaboration is exploited. We propose a new system architecture that provides a cost-effective solution and allows traditional industrial robots to perform human-robot collaborations task. The proposed architecture has advanced features of Industry 4.0, which improves both flexibility and agility of a manufacturing system. Due to current safety regulations, our initial experiments are conducted mainly through computer-based simulations.