A Framework for Hybrid Cells That Support Safe and Efficient Human-Robot Collaboration in Assembly Operations

Abstract

In this paper, we present a framework to build hybrid cells that support safe and efficient human-robot collaboration during assembly operations. Our approach considers a representative one-robot one-human model in which a human and a robot asynchronously work toward assembling a product. Whereas the human retrieves parts from a bin and brings them into the robot workspace, the robot picks up parts from its workspace and assembles them into the product. Using this collaboration model, we explicate the design details of the overall framework comprising three modules — plan generation, system state monitoring, and contingency handling. We provide details of the virtual cell and the physical cell used to implement our framework. Finally, we report results from human-robot collaboration experiments to illustrate our approach.

Resolving automated perception system failures in bin-picking tasks using assistance from remote human operators

“…The human-robot collaboration based bin-picking described in this paper is one of the key modules required to achieve hybrid work cells for industrial tasks. In our previous work, we have developed other related modules including sequence planning for complex assemblies [27], instruction generation for human operations [28], ensuring human safety [29], and a framework for replanning to recover from errors [30]. As part of the future work, we plan to integrate these individual modules in order to realize the overall operation of the envisioned hybrid cell.…”

Design of Hybrid Cells to Facilitate Safe and Efficient Human–Robot Collaboration During Assembly Operations

“…(1) Deviations that leads to process errors, (2) deviations that leads to improvements in the assembly speed or output quality, and (3) deviations that leads to adjustment in the assembly sequence.…”

“…Preliminary works related to this paper were presented in Refs. [2] and [3]. There are several works in the human-robot collaboration literature that compared different modes of collaboration [4][5][6][7].…”

An ontology to enable optimized task partitioning in human-robot collaboration for warehouse kitting operations

“…[4][5][6][7] These advances present an opportunity for creating hybrid work cells where humans and robots can collaborate in close physical proximities. [8][9][10][11] The underlying idea behind such cells is to decompose assembly operations into tasks such that humans and robots can collaborate by performing tasks that are especially suitable for each of them.…”