SICK and Universal Robots make human-robot collaboration less complicated
Modern collaborative robots enable the efficient automation of production processes. By closely working together, robots and humans can handle even flexible and complex tasks with high productivity. However, to ensure safe interaction between humans and robots, dynamic safety solutions and concepts are essential.
Safety is paramount, especially in direct human-robot collaboration (HRC), where both operate in the same workspace simultaneously. The comprehensive portfolio of sensors from SICK offer innovative and intelligent solutions for this with sensor technologies for Robot Vision, Safe Robotics, End-of-Arm Tooling and Position Feedback. We have identified the five biggest challenges of HRC and present a groundbreaking new safety solution.
The future of human-robot collaboration
Many industry sectors are increasingly facing a dilemma: on one hand, there is a shortage of skilled workers, and on the other, production capacities need to be expanded and manufacturing quality assured. Fully automating processes with a complete redesign is not always practical or economical.
However, progressively automating subprocesses can offer a solution. This involves partially automating manual workstations with collaborative robots or converting them into hybrid workstations. The advantages of partial automation are driving the development of human-robot collaboration (HRC) forward. As humans and robots work more closely together, the safety requirements also evolve.
1. A robot application should be simple, fast and cost-effective to construct.
Adapting robots to today's manual workstations requires solutions that are simple, fast, and cost-effective. Cobots are ideal for this purpose as they are quickly installed, easy to use after a brief training period, and relatively affordable. With their integrated safety functions and inherently safe design, cobots meet the basic requirements for a collaborative partnership between humans and robots.
Cobots have transformed the robotics market with their ease of integration and programming, allowing for seamless implementation of robotic applications. They are designed with safety in mind, featuring built-in safety functions like safe force and speed monitoring, and a collaborative design with no sharp edges, making them ideal for close human collaboration.
However, challenges arise in the tool or workpiece area, which often lacks the same level of protection as the cobot itself. This has hindered the widespread acceptance of truly safe, efficient, and productive human-robot collaboration (HRC).
2. The collaborative application should be freely accessible without an enclosure.
Collaborative applications should be freely accessible without enclosures. Operators often need to inspect individual work steps or results and make corrections without interrupting the robot's work process. Unrestricted collaboration between humans and robots can unlock new possibilities for efficient production processes.
To ensure safe operation of HRC applications, pressure limits at potential crush points must not be exceeded. When contact surfaces are small, such as at tool or workpiece edges, these limits can only be maintained by significantly reducing the robot's speed or using costly collaborative tools. As a result, HRC applications are often not efficient, safe, or productive enough to implement. Many operators avoid these limitations by foregoing the benefits of HRC and opting for traditional safety measures like enclosures or safety laser scanners.
There is also the issue of acceptance by the operators, i.e. those who work in close collaboration with the robots on a day-to-day basis. All the currently available protective measures only take effect when contact or crushing has already occurred. Humans would feel uneasy about that and not fully trust the safety application.
Another challenge is gaining acceptance from operators who work closely with robots daily. Current protective measures only activate after contact or crushing has occurred, which understandably makes humans uneasy and less likely to fully trust the safety applications.
3. Balancing Productivity, Efficiency, and Risk Reduction in HRC Applications
To ensure productive protection in collaborative applications, safety measures must focus on the hazardous areas of the tool while minimizing protective fields:
- Risk Assessment and Safe Engineering: Productivity starts at the engineering phase. Efficiently designing and implementing the safety concept requires identifying, evaluating, and mitigating the risks associated with human-robot interaction for the specific application.
- Safety vs. Availability: Achieving interruption-free, productive operation of the robot is crucial. This balance ensures safety in collaborative applications while maintaining a level of productivity that makes robot operation economical.
- Cost of Safety Solutions: The costs of safety solutions must be proportionate to the overall application costs.
4. Achieving Desired Ergonomics and Operator Acceptance in HRC
Current protective measures for collaborative applications rely on contact-based technologies, which can cause discomfort and acceptance issues among operators. These measures allow human body parts to be touched or crushed, triggering a stop if force limits are exceeded. To improve acceptance, protective measures should be contactless.
5. Ensuring Economic Viability of HRC
For robot applications to be economically viable, they must be efficient and productive in operation while incorporating necessary risk-reducing measures. Cost-effectiveness begins before operation, with the selection of suitable and efficient protective measures that ensure human safety and fit within the project budget for purchasing, validation, and commissioning.
Smooth PRC processes using End-of-Arm-Safeguard (EOAS)
SICK has thoroughly investigated these challenges and offers an optimal solution with its End-of-Arm-Safeguard (EOAS). This world-first technology, developed jointly with Universal Robots (UR), balances productivity and safety in collaborative applications.
EOAS is installed directly on the robot flange, creating a cone-shaped protective field around the tool and workpiece, effectively safeguarding this area. The robot carries the sensor and protective field with it, ensuring the contactless protective device only activates where there is an actual crush risk from the tool and workpiece.
When the EOAS protective field is interrupted, the robot immediately stops its movement based on the situation. Once the protective field is clear, the robot can automatically resume its movement. Unlike human-robot collaboration applications protected by force and pressure limiting functions, a robot with EOAS generally achieves higher speeds because these functions can be implemented differently in the tool area.
Contactless protective measure – efficient and economical
End-of-Arm-Safeguard allows for contactless protection of human-robot collaboration applications in the tool area. The small protective field enables new enclosure-free and openly accessible HRC applications, allowing humans to work with the cobot simultaneously in the same workspace. Safety is assured as the robot stops before crush situations arise in the tool/workpiece area. Special collaborative grippers, design changes (such as rounding corners/edges or adding protective covers), or extremely slow cobot speeds are usually no longer necessary.
The mandatory validation of protective measures for HRC applications becomes significantly easier because the hazardous points protected by EOAS no longer need time-consuming pressure and force measurements. This can lead to significant cost savings. The small protective field also has the advantage of not occupying productive areas, supporting the economical use of factory space.
EOAS creates acceptance and trust
EOAS places a local protective field around the workpiece and gripper. Unlike previous protective measures based purely on force and power limitation, this ensures crushing no longer occurs. Humans can move freely and easily in the immediate vicinity of the active robot and collaborate closely with it. This increases acceptance of human-robot collaboration, creates trust, and improves working conditions.
Intuitive configuration and installation as well as fast engineering
EOAS offers a new safety solution that allows targeted risk reduction in HRC applications without overshooting the mark. It is installed directly on the robot flange, fully embedded in the robot safety system of Universal Robots via the special EOAS Safety URCap, and can be intuitively and quickly configured using the UR Teach Pendant. It is a true plug-and-play system. Currently designed for Universal Robots applications, EOAS will also be available for other systems in the future.
EOAS has the potential to be a game-changer in the cobot sphere. With its many advantages, it enables the industry to implement safe HRC applications not only in niche areas but also across the board.
