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rob@work is the prototype of an intelligent assistant in production environments developed in 2001.
It consists of the same mobile platform as Care-O-bot and the museum robots, able to navigate and localise itself autonomously.
It is additionally equipped with a commercial manipulating arm. The controls
for the arm are completely integrated in the mobile platform. rob@work can support a human
operator in fetch and carry, assembly and tool handling tasks and thereby help to reduce
costs and enhance the quality of a product.
The human operator is responsible for command, supervisory, and instructional functions, while rob@work will carry out boring,
repetitive, and strenuous operations.
Scenarios
So far, two exemplary scenarios have been developed on rob@work:
Human-Robot cooperation in the assembly of hydraulic pumps and in
manual gas metal arc welding (GMAW).
Fetch and Carry Task (Assembly of Hydraulic Pumps)
An application that was realised with rob@work was the assembly of hydraulic pumps.
In this scenario, rob@work fetches shafts from a conveyor belt and carries them to a manual workplace.
The shafts can be handed over from the robot assistant to a human worker and vice versa.
In order to assure the safetly of the worker, the joint workspace of worker and robot is supervised by a number of cameras.
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| Figure: rob@work assisting in the assembly of hydraulic pumps |
Assistance in Manual Task (Manual Arc Welding)
For this task, the end effector of the robot arm is equipped with a force-torque sensor.
It is therefore possible to measure the forces applied to the end effector by the operator
and generate an adequate motion of the robot assistant accordingly. The task sharing
between robot and worker is done as follows: The worker moves the
welding torch on the trajectory of the geometrically unknown workpiece. The robot
assistant supports this operation by keeping a constant velocity and constant welding angles.
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| Figure: rob@work assisting in manual gas metal arc welding |
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Images
Images may be used for editorial purposes only. There is no charge for usage, provided there is a reference to the source in the publication and two free copies of the publication are sent to Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart. Alterating the images - except for highlighting the main motif - is not permitted.
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