A new strategy for ensuring human safety during various levels of interaction with industrial robots

The need for cooperation between humans and industrial robots is in exponential increase, especially in production applications. However, human safety is the main concern, preventing any fenceless cooperation between humans and industrial robots. This paper presents elements of new strategy for ensuring human safety during various levels of interaction with heavy-load industrial robots. The proposed approach classifies the human–robot interaction (HRI) into four levels. In every level, different kinds of safety functions are developed and analyzed. An additional algorithm has been developed for classifying the dangerous during the interaction. The proposed approach is tested and analyzed on a HRI platform