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An Approach for Risk Mitigation and Safety During Human-Robot Collaboration

Parvangada Chinnappa, Uthaiah (2023) An Approach for Risk Mitigation and Safety During Human-Robot Collaboration.

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Abstract:With the advent of industry 4.0, collaborative robots(cobots) have emerged as the enabling technologies driving forward the smart factories. The advantages to combine human cognitive abilities with robot precision and accuracy has resulted in improved ergonomic working conditions for human worker, better quality and higher efficiency of the production process. This thesis presents a safety approach for human-robot collaboration. The main objective of this research is to address the challenge of ensuring the safety of human operators while working alongside robots whilst also improving productivity and complying with one of the main existing safety standard in this regard, ISO/TS 15066. The work employed in this research includes an overview of the general aspects in human robot collaboration and a thorough literature review of the existing safety standards and safety methods in human-robot collaboration. Concluding with the discussion on the gaps in the previously mentioned safety aspects, a new safety framework is proposed that combines the safety methods of speed and separation monitoring (SSM) and power and force limiting (PFL) from ISO/TS 15066 for a collaborative application. Following the case scenario description of the considered collaborative application and the initial hazard study, simulations and calculations are done based on the influencing parameters between human and robot at different hazardous positions to visualise and support the strategy of this framework. The results obtained are based on ISO/TS 15066 and describe a less stringent value pertaining to safe human-robot distance and safe impact force values, this shows that a safe and productive human robot collaboration can be achieved without placing the strict limiting values on the robot performance as per current standards.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:ET: Engineering Technology
Subject:52 mechanical engineering
Programme:Mechanical Engineering MSc (60439)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/94441
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