Physical Interactions between Robots and Humans for Highly Flexible Manufacturing Systems

This research work is concerned with the problem of the human cooperating with the robot in a manufacturing environment. We consider the HumanRobot Team as an integrated system and present it as a solution for meeting future requirements in highly flexible manufacturing systems. The main idea is to combine the complementary capabilities of humans and robots through interaction at the physical level. This interaction is achieved through the exchange of tactile information (forces, torques) between humans and robots, the interpretation of the transmitted information, the coordination of the activities and the cooperation between independent system components. After analysing the complementary capabilities of humans and robots we focus on tactile interaction and present typical interaction patterns for the Human-Robot cooperation at the physical level. Equipped with some sensing modalities for the perception of the environment (cameras, force / torque sensors, ultrasonic sensors), the two-arm robot system KAMRO (Karlsruhe Autonomous Mobile Robot) is introduced to demonstrate the principle of the Human-Robot-Team for complex assembly tasks. Finally headlines are given for future studies on physical interaction pattern between humans and robots.