Dynamic Safety System for Safe Collaboration with Industrial Robots

In the industry, robots do tasks in bulk manufacturing that include, e.g., lifting heavy parts, repetitive movements, or working in dangerous environments. Robots are reliable, accurate, and fast to do their tasks if the task stays relatively unchanged—contrary to humans who are very flexible and can adapt to changes in the product and the production environment quite easily. The Human–Robot Collaboration (HRC) utilises the abilities of both. However, the HRC does rise new safety requirements, as humans work in close proximity of robots without fences. Speed and separation monitoring is used in fenceless environments to guarantee the safety of humans. On the other hand this may lead to capacity issues as robots either need to move at slow speed all the time or need to be stopped for unnecessary long times. The Dynamic Safety System for Safe Collaboration with Industrial Robots presents fenceless, safe, flexible, and efficient method for the HRC in industrial applications