Events and Trade Shows

WS#61 Democratizing Safe Human-Robot Collaboration on Industrial Shop Floors

Questions to be Answered

• How can intelligent tools support rapid and simple implementation of safe human-robot collaboration?
• How can AI, such as ChatGPT, be integrated into tools for supporting and guiding users with limited safety expertise?
• Why is it essential to consider worker-specific characteristics (such as age, gender, and disabilities) in ensuring the safety of human-robot collaboration in industrial settings?
• How can user-specific needs be considered in the safe design of human-robot collaboration on the industrial shop floor with the help of digital risk assessment tools?.

Description

The democratization of safe human-robot collaboration involves efficiently and simply designing risk assessment processes while considering the diverse needs of various user groups. The following points will be discussed in this workshop:

• Robotics for everyone: Addressing worker’s diversity in the safe design of Human-Robot-Collaboration (age, gender, disabilities)
• Upcoming challenges of robot safety: Need for fast reconfigurability, easy adaptation to new tasks, adaptable or automated CE
• Potential solution: Use of intelligent software tools that guide users through risk assessment and risk reduction, automatically identify optimal safety parameters, facilitate a dynamic electronic CE certification, and also provide methods for evaluating safety functions that include AI
• Explore currently existing approaches and tools and discuss future potential; identify requirements for further development of such tools from end-user perspective
• Robotics for inclusion ·Diversity in Robot Safety: Integrating gender and diversity aspects in current safety requirements and design guidelines for HRC
• Hazards in human-robot collaborations: studies on new injury thresholds, key learnings on the diversity of injury severity
• Robotic solutions for worker support: relieve overstraining, prevent work-related illnesses, and compensate for age-related changes or disabilities, exoskeletons in production
• Semi-automatic and user-oriented safety: how existing tools can be further developed to meet the diversity in industrial shop floors

Organisation of the Workshop

• WS Introduction (5–10 min)
  • What is the WS about and how is it organized?
  • Who are the speakers?
  • What are the goals?
• 3 pitch presentations (30 min total (8 min + 2 min questions each))
  • Topic 1: Making Risk Assessment Simple and Fast with Intelligent Software Tools
    Theo Jacobs, Fraunhofer IPA
    • Motivation: Maintaining safety fast, simple, and prospectively autonomous in changing applications
    • Tools for the planning stage: CARA, Digital Risk Assessment
    • Tools for safety at runtime: Digital Safety Validation, Robo-Dashcam
  • Topic 2: Addressing Worker’s Diversity in the Safe Design of Human-Robot-Collaboration
    Clara Fischer, Joanneum Research Robotics
    • Biomechanical limits according to ISO 15066-1 with differentiation between different groups of people
    • Effect of body size in collisions collision scenarios
    • An adaptive workplace
  • Topic 3: Practical Applicability of Considering Diversity in Safe Human-Robot Collaboration through Digital Risk Assessment
    Roland Behrens, Fraunhofer IFF
    • Concept of a holistic, digital safety
    • Extension of the risk assessment process to consider the individual user
• Interactive part (30 min)
  • Attendees will be divided in 3 break out sessions (related to the pitch presentations)
  • Each group elaborates on one of the three topics presented using the Start-Stop-Continue method
• Final summary (20–25 min)
  • The outcomes of the breakout sessions will be shared and discussed with all participants

Intended Outcome

• Get feedback from the market
• Dissemination (state of the art, ongoing research and feedback received in the WS)
• Awareness (Risks, Safety, users needs, diversity, acceptance)
• Build project consortiums / new contacts for consortiums

Speakers, Panelists, Moderators

Roland Behrens, Fraunhofer IFF, Germany; Theo Jacobs, Fraunhofer IPA, Germany; Clara Fischer, JOANNEUM RESEARCH ROBOTICS, Austria; Cecilia Scoccia, Università Politecnica delle Marche, ilabs, Italy; Rasmus Adler, Fraunhofer IESE, Germany