Roboskin: Increased Robot Working Speed Within Human-Robot-Collaboration Safety Regulations

Abstract

Most human-robot-collaboration-systems (HRC-systems) are having an inherent challenge: safety in terms of speed. An expansion of HRC-systems in the production environment is directly linked to the safety regulations and the specified cycle times. Therefore, robot workings speeds of >500mm/s must be achievable. This paper describes the attempt to develop a method which covers the worst case movements of a lightweight robot (LWR) and thus offers the possibility to develop a passive protection device for the HRC-system. On the basis of this worst case approach, different materials are then tested for their suitability regarding force, pressure, risk of breakage and heat generation. The result is the so called “Roboskin”.