Hands tracking and fuzzy speed control to improve human-robot collaboration

Mestrado de dupla diplomação com a UTFPR - Universidade Tecnológica Federal do ParanáThe demand of collaborative robots has been growing in the industry in general, and with it the need for new ways to improve and make this work environment between human and robot safer and efficient. The objective of this work is to improve and make this environment safer and efficient by controlling the robot’s speed using a fuzzy approach and by getting track of the hand of the operator. For this purpose, the UR3 robot from Universal Robots and Leap Motion was used, which is a sensor capable of detecting the hand, as well as its movements, with the data obtained it was possible to create a system that has the robot’s speed as an output through fuzzy logic, and using the distance between the hand and the gripper obtained from the Leap Motion and UR3 data respectively as input to the fuzzy logic. With this it was possible to achieve satisfactory speed control, moreover, in all the tests performed the approach proved to be able to avoid collisions, and with the testing of different defuzzification methods in the fuzzy control, it was also possible to achieve smooth speed control for some of the methods used, with this in mind the system showed promise for improving Human-Robot Collaboration.A procura de robôs colaborativos tem crescido na indústria em geral, e com ela a necessidade de novas formas de melhorar e tornar este ambiente de trabalho entre o ser humano e o robô mais seguro e eficiente. O objetivo deste trabalho é melhorar e tornar este ambiente mais seguro e eficiente, controlando a velocidade do robô através de uma abordagem fuzzy e da localização da mão do operador. Para o efeito, foi utilizado o robô UR3 dos Universal Robots e do Leap Motion, o qual é um sensor capaz de detectar a mão, bem como os seus movimentos. Com os dados obtidos foi possível criar um sistema com a lógica fuzzy, tendo como saída a velocidade do robô e a entrada a distância entre a mão e a garra, obtida pelos dados do Leap Motion e do UR3, respectivamente. Com isto foi possível obter um controlo de velocidade satisfatório, além disso, em todos os testes realizados a abordagem provou conseguir evitar colisões, e com o teste de diferentes métodos de defuzzificação no controle fuzzy, também foi possível alcançar um controle suave da velocidade para alguns dos métodos utilizados, com isto em mente o sistema mostrou-se promissor para melhorar a Colaboração Humano-Robot

Human–Robot Interaction for Improving Fuselage Assembly Tasks: A Case Study

In current industrial systems, automation is a very important aspect for assessing manufacturing production performance related to working times, accuracy of operations and quality. In particular, the introduction of a robotic system in the working area should guarantee some improvements, such as risks reduction for human operators, better quality results and a speed increase for production processes. In this context, human action remains still necessary to carry out part of the subtasks, as in the case of composites assembly processes. This study aims at presenting a case study regarding the reorganization of the working activity carried out in workstation in which a composite fuselage panel is assembled in order to demonstrate, by means of simulation tool, that some of the advantages previously listed can be achieved also in aerospace industry. In particular, an entire working process for composite fuselage panel assembling will be simulated and analyzed in order to demonstrate and verify the applicability and effectiveness of human-robot interaction (HRI), focusing on working times and ergonomics and respecting the constraints imposed by standards ISO 10218 and ISO TS 15066. Results show the effectiveness of HRI both in terms of assembly performance, by reducing working times and ergonomics-for which the simulation provides a very low risk index

Human-robot interaction for improving fuselage assembly tasks: A case study

In current industrial systems, automation is a very important aspect for assessing manufacturing production performance related to working times, accuracy of operations and quality. In particular, the introduction of a robotic system in the working area should guarantee some improvements, such as risks reduction for human operators, better quality results and a speed increase for production processes. In this context, human action remains still necessary to carry out part of the subtasks, as in the case of composites assembly processes. This study aims at presenting a case study regarding the reorganization of the working activity carried out in workstation in which a composite fuselage panel is assembled in order to demonstrate, by means of simulation tool, that some of the advantages previously listed can be achieved also in aerospace industry. In particular, an entire working process for composite fuselage panel assembling will be simulated and analyzed in order to demonstrate and verify the applicability and effectiveness of human-robot interaction (HRI), focusing on working times and ergonomics and respecting the constraints imposed by standards ISO 10218 and ISO TS 15066. Results show the effectiveness of HRI both in terms of assembly performance, by reducing working times and ergonomics-for which the simulation provides a very low risk index

Human-robot interaction using a behavioural control strategy

PhD ThesisA topical and important aspect of robotics research is in the area of human-robot interaction (HRI), which addresses the issue of cooperation between a human and a robot to allow tasks to be shared in a safe and reliable manner. This thesis focuses on the design and development of an appropriate set of behaviour strategies for human-robot interactive control by first understanding how an equivalent human-human interaction (HHI) can be used to establish a framework for a robotic behaviour-based approach. To achieve the above goal, two preliminary HHI experimental investigations were initiated in this study. The first of which was designed to evaluate the human dynamic response using a one degree-of-freedom (DOF) HHI rectilinear test where the handler passes a compliant object to the receiver along a constrained horizontal path. The human dynamic response while executing the HHI rectilinear task has been investigated using a Box-Behnken design of experiments [Box and Hunter, 1957] and was based on the McRuer crossover model [McRuer et al. 1995]. To mimic a real-world human-human object handover task where the handler is able to pass an object to the receiver in a 3D workspace, a second more substantive one DOF HHI baton handover task has been developed. The HHI object handover tests were designed to understand the dynamic behavioural characteristics of the human participants, in which the handler was required to dexterously pass an object to the receiver in a timely and natural manner. The profiles of interactive forces between the handler and receiver were measured as a function of time, and how they are modulated whilst performing the tasks, was evaluated. Three key parameters were used to identify the physical characteristics of the human participants, including: peak interactive force (fmax), transfer time (Ttrf), and work done (W). These variables were subsequently used to design and develop an appropriate set of force and velocity control strategies for a six DOF Stäubli robot manipulator arm (TX60) working in a human-robot interactive environment. The optimal design of the software and hardware controller implementation for the robot system has been successfully established in keeping with a behaviour-based approach. External force control based on proportional plus integral (PI) and fuzzy logic control (FLC) algorithms were adopted to control the robot end effector velocity and interactive force in real-time. ii The results of interactive experiments with human-to-robot and robot-to-human handover tasks allowed a comparison of the PI and FLC control strategies. It can be concluded that the quantitative measurement of the performance of robot velocity and force control can be considered acceptable for human-robot interaction. These can provide effective performance during the robot-human object handover tasks, where the robot was able to successfully pass the object from/to the human in a safe, reliable and timely manner. However, after careful analysis with regard to human-robot handover test results, the FLC scheme was shown to be superior to PI control by actively compensating for the dynamics in the non-linear system and demonstrated better overall performance and stability. The FLC also shows superior performance in terms of improved sensitivity to small error changes compared to PI control, which is an advantage in establishing effective robot force control. The results of survey responses from the participants were in agreement with the parallel test outcomes, demonstrating significant satisfaction with the overall performance of the human-robot interactive system, as measured by an average rating of 4.06 on a five point scale. In brief, this research has contributed the foundations for long-term research, particularly in the development of an interactive real-time robot-force control system, which enables the robot manipulator arm to cooperate with a human to facilitate the dextrous transfer of objects in a safe and speedy manner.Thai government and Prince of Songkla University (PSU

A sensorless virtual slave control scheme for kinematically dissimilar master-slave teleoperation

The use of telerobotic systems is essential for remote handling (RH) operations in radioactive areas of scientific facilities that generate high doses of radiation. Recent developments in remote handling technology has seen a great deal of effort being directed towards the design of modular remote handling control rooms equipped with a standard master arm which will be used to separately control a range of different slave devices. This application thus requires a kinematically dissimilar master-slave control scheme. In order to avoid drag and other effects such as friction or other non-linear and unmodelled slave arm effects of the common position-position architecture in nonbackdrivable slaves, this research has implemented a force-position control scheme. End-effector force is derived from motor torque values which, to avoid the use of radiation intolerant and costly sensing devices, are inferred from motor current measurement. This has been demonstrated on a 1-DOF test-rig with a permanent magnet synchronous motor teleoperated by a Sensable Phantom Omni® haptic master. This has been shown to allow accurate control while realistically conveying dynamic force information back to the operator

Robot Manipulators

Robot manipulators are developing more in the direction of industrial robots than of human workers. Recently, the applications of robot manipulators are spreading their focus, for example Da Vinci as a medical robot, ASIMO as a humanoid robot and so on. There are many research topics within the field of robot manipulators, e.g. motion planning, cooperation with a human, and fusion with external sensors like vision, haptic and force, etc. Moreover, these include both technical problems in the industry and theoretical problems in the academic fields. This book is a collection of papers presenting the latest research issues from around the world

Human-Robot Collaborations in Industrial Automation

Technology is changing the manufacturing world. For example, sensors are being used to track inventories from the manufacturing floor up to a retail shelf or a customer’s door. These types of interconnected systems have been called the fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, and are projected to lower manufacturing costs. As industry moves toward these integrated technologies and lower costs, engineers will need to connect these systems via the Internet of Things (IoT). These engineers will also need to design how these connected systems interact with humans. The focus of this Special Issue is the smart sensors used in these human–robot collaborations