Human and Robot Interaction based on Safety Zones in a Shared Work Environment

In this paper, early work on how to implement flexible safety zones is presented. In the case study an industrial robot cell emulates the environment at a wall construction site, with a robot performing nailing routines. Tests are performed with humans entering the safety zones of a SafetyEye system. The zone violation is detected, and new warning zones initiated. The robot retracts but continues its work tasks with reduced speed and within a safe distance of the human operator. Interaction is achieved through simultaneous work on the same work piece and the warning zones can be initiated and adjusted in a flexible way.