Intuitive Teaching Device Mountable on a Robotic Arm for Efficient Collaboration between Humans and Robots

Abstract

Production automation resulting from human-robot collaboration has drawn significant attention owing to increasing demands for automation within the manufacturing process of small electronic items that were previously manufactured manually. Consequently, the field of human-robot collaboration is an active area of research. Intuitive teaching is an essential technology to realize efficient human-robot collaboration. This paper proposes an intuitive teaching tool attached to a robot end effector that can accurately teach motions to a robot manipulator, without being affected by sensor noises. This device consists of three parts: motion operation, motion setting, and status display. It is designed to teach using a combination of buttons and a jog dial. An inherent collision prediction function detects human workers around and helps prevent collisions. A prototype has been implemented to verify the performance of the proposed teaching device.