Safecobot Project
The Safecobot project conducted an industrial experiment aimed at validating and characterizing a sensor system to activate safety mechanisms and adapt the production process to the presence of people in the field of collaborative robotics. This includes slowing down the COBOT, stopping it, or changing its program. The distinctive features of the system lie in the use of various sensor technologies, their low cost, and the potential reuse of the same technology for energy and health monitoring in workplaces.
The activity took place at the CogniMade headquarter, within a production scenario typical of the electronics sector, such as the preparation of electronic device enclosures and product assembly, in an environment shared with office and laboratory.
This feature will certainly spread in the future thanks to the evolution of collaborative robotics and the sensor systems tested in the project. The production sequence was programmed into the COBOT software, and the sensor system was then integrated into the scenario through their installation, wiring, and configuration of the Central Processing Unit. The tests were filmed to evaluate response times by measuring the number of frames between the crossing of the monitored area and the actual reaction of the robot. Multiple tests were then repeated to perform a statistical analysis on the system’s reliability in terms of the uncertainty of estimating the operator’s position in the monitored area.
For more information, you can consult the technical report here.