Virtual reality platform for design and evaluation of human-robot collaboration in assembly manufacturing

Abstract

This paper presents 'virtual collaborative robot', a virtual reality platform for designing and evaluating collaboration between operators and industrial robots. Within the platform, human-robot collaboration scenarios can be created and a user can interact with a robot without the safety risks that might arise with physical industrial robots. In an initial evaluation of the platform a scenario was implemented combining speech recognition, haptic control, and augmented reality to assemble a car model. The results from this evaluation indicate that the suggested platform can be used to successfully test new applications with the standard equipment of virtual reality headsets. [Submitted 9 June 2020; Accepted 10 February 2021]