Prototype of an intelligent textile based robot skin to expand potential applications for cobot’s

Abstract

Human Robot Collaboration (HRC) already dates couple of decades back. However, as Industry 4.0 and 5.0 demands smart human-centered production technologies, more concerns has been raised in the recent years regarding optimization and adaption of collaborative robots (Cobots). The core idea of HRC focuses on sharing the same workspace and performing a joint task, by both robot and humans. This paper focuses mainly on the development of a textile-based cover for industrial robots, integrated by several sensor arrays, resulting in enabling the sense of the human in the vicinity of the robot. This information is further utilized to manipulate the standard robot control algorithm to facilitate a safe collaboration by adaptive speed control based on the distance of human and robot. Additionally, the cover material is based on textile, which in terms of passive safety, facilitates cushioning effect when collision is occurred. In terms of active safety, it provides a wide area of sensing with several proximity sensors integrated over the skin.