The concept of "safety bubble" to build ethical reconfigurable assembly systems

Abstract

The concept of Reconfigurable Assembly System has been proposed in the last decade to deal with mass-customization problems and volatile market environment. If physical design or control issues of these systems have been studied intensively, very few works concern the inherent ethical risks and associated safety problems. However these issues are of first interest for reconfigurable robotized systems with frequent interventions of human operators. Indeed, the re-configurability features of these manufacturing systems induce new issues in safety. The manufacturing enterprises must pay attention to the possible consequence of the Reconfigurable Assembly System design on the safety of the humans and on their possible responsibility in case of an accident. The present paper proposes the concept of safety bubble aiming to insure human’s safety by cooperation among safe robotized units. After a presentation of the ethical considerations, a design methodology of such safety bubble is detailed. The on-going works in simulation and on a real demonstrator, including collaborative robots and mobile robots, are then described.