Towards Ergonomic Control of Collaborative Effort in Multi-human Mobile-robot Teams

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a control framework for a multi-human and mobile-robot collaborative team, that takes into account the co-workers' ergonomic requirements as well as the demand for high flexibility in the manufacturing industries. The new MObile Collaborative robotic Assistant (MOCA), which is composed of a lightweight manipulator arm, an underactuated hand, and a mobile platform driven by four omni-directional wheels enabling mobility in the workspace, is able to accomplish multiple tasks in a wide area with a high level of adaptability. In addition, an ergonomics module to anticipate and mitigate the human risk factors by means of a multi-object optimisation is integrated into the framework to ensure human safety and improvement of working conditions. The main advantage of this approach is that MOCA can assist multiple human operators, reducing their physical risks, with fast-adaptive capacities due to agile mobility and advanced interaction and manipulation. We validated the proposed method with an experiment simulating a simple manufacturing line which involves two subjects and the MOCA. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework is able to address multi-workers' ergonomics with a high level of flexibility in the workplace.

Man is not a machine – anthropocentric human-machine symbiosis for ultra-flexible smart manufacturing

“…Physical and mental state can have a significant influence on personal work performance [25,26]. Physical responses, such as muscle fatigue build-up [12] and bad posture [27], can lead to increased difficulty performing manufacturing tasks [28,29]. Mental responses, such as a high cognitive workload, can result in higher stress levels and lower satisfaction, ultimately reducing productivity [12,30].…”

A Collaborative Robotic Approach to Autonomous Pallet Jack Transportation and Positioning

“…is the general relationship between the generalized joint torques and the operational forces [23]. We point out that torque in (10) is just one solution of (18). The solution of problem (16) is retrieved by means of the Lagrangian multipliers method.…”

“…On the other hand, they can exploit the flexibility of a multi-purpose machine, relieving the cost burden. In fact, the reconfigurability of this platform has already demonstrated to be effective also in other industrial scenarios, i.e., in human-collaborative manufacturing [18] and palletizing [19] tasks, and in teleoperation applications [16].…”

A Visuo-Haptic Guidance Interface for Mobile Collaborative Robotic Assistant (MOCA)

“…To address the above challenges, we recently introduced the MObile Collaborative robot Assistant (MOCA), a robotic coworker able to perform loco-manipulation tasks in manufacturing [8], [9] and logistic scenarios [10], [11]. The main objective was to create a modular system that can reconfigure and operate in various applications scenarios in industry, not only autonomously, but also through far-distance [12] and close-distance [11] teleoperation.…”