Human-Robot Collaboration: Task Sharing Through Virtual Reality

Abstract

Collaborative Robots provide many possibilities, when it comes to Human-Robot Collaboration. Until now, these approaches are usually custom made, sensor-integrated solutions, where the robot's safety controller ensures the safety of the human worker. These solutions are according to today's rules and standards. We propose to extend these solutions with including Virtual Realty as a sensor and to provide comfort features to the operator. In order to create cooperation between human and industrial robot in our experiments, we propose to have a simple nut screwing operation as an example, where the industrial robot does the hard part. With sharing the task in such manner, we will ensure that the robot is doing the hard and monotonous work, while the worker benefits from the task sharing. Results are demonstrated through simulation and in reality also.