Safety Vest System for Human-Robot Collaboration

摘要

Safety Vest System (SVS) enables safe collaboration between humans and robots in an economical and scalable manner. It provides a third option to what is currently a dilemma between separation of human workers from robots and equipping machines with expensive safety sensors. This paper presents the safety concept behind the SVS, its architecture and technology, and gives a glimpse into how it was developed. The system consists of three devices: one fixed Base Station, Safety Vests worn by humans, and Emergency Stop Modules (ESM) installed in all the robots. Base Station ensures that human entering dangerous area passes safe entry procedure and monitors Safety Vest’s health during the mission. Safety Vest communicates with ESMs via Ultra-Wide Band radio which enables them to determine distance to the human. If this distance falls below predetermined threshold, ESM can initiate appropriate reaction such as slowing down of the robot or a complete stop. The system was developed in context of automated warehouses which have fleets of automated guided vehicles that transfer modular portable racks but has many other potential applications, wherever humans and machines share workspace.