Initial Situation

In many ranges of mass production industrial robots are in use today. In prototyping and small series productions the degree of automation can be increased with the integration of industrial robots. An optimized integration of the robot in the assembly process has to be realized for an effective human-robot co-operation.

Future assembly systems are characterised by a direct co-operation between humans and robots without separating safety equipment or safety areas. The bases for this co-operation from technical and legal view are created.

Goal

In order to make the full potential of human-robot co-operation usable, an interactive and dialogue-based instruction system is necessary. Co-operation between humans and robots becomes possible with a high level of interactivity. In place of rigid program sequences, interactive dialogue techniques are used. The worker should be able to teach and interact with the complex system in a fast and efficient way. Different methods of object tracking, speech and gesture recognition should be integrated to the system.

Approach

In the context of the CoTeSys subproject "Joint Action for Humans and Industrial Robots" (JAHIR), interaction between robots and humans in the common work space at a research platform is examined. Here, the individual strengths of the interaction partners are linked: The robot is to be used for the handling of heavy construction units and for the execution of repetitive tasks. Humans can implement sensitive and fine-motor work in co-operation with the robot. It has to be guaranteed by the integration of different safety components in the system and an intelligent path planning method that the robot is closely integrated in the assembly process and can adapt to the actions of humans optimally.

Public Demonstrations

The members of JAHIR successfully presented their demonstration platform and research results during several major public events including the AUTOMATICA 2008, Münchener Kolloquium 2008, 1st CoTeSys Workshop for Industry 2008, Münchener Kolloquium 2009, the Schunk Expert Days 2009, and CARV 2009. The JAHIR-demonstrator has moreover been demonstrated at several TUM events and demonstrations for external guests from other research institutes and industry, e.g. Festo, BMW, Schunk, Reis Robotics, KUKA. JAHIR sparked the interest of several industrial partners and paved the way for future cooperations with CoTeSys.

Acknowledgement

This ongoing work is supported by the DFG excellence initiative research cluster Cognition for Technical Systems CoTeSys, see http://www.cotesys.org for further details. 

Status: completed

Funding Period: 11/2006-04/2011

Last Update: 06.09.2011

People and Partner

Robotics and Embedded Systems, TUM (Prof. Knoll),
http://www6.in.tum.de

Dipl.-Ing. Claus Lenz

Institute for Human-Machine Communication (MMK), TUM (Prof. Rigoll),
http://www.mmk.ei.tum.de

Dipl.-Inf. Jürgen Blume
Dipl.-Ing. Alexander Bannat
Prof.-Dr. Frank Wallhoff

Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb), TUM (Prof. Zäh, Prof. Reinhart),
http://www.iwb.tum.de

Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Rösel

Funding Organization: DFG (cluster of excellence CoTeSys)

Publications:

Reinhart, G.; Vogl, W.; Rösel, W.; Wallhoff, F.; Lenz, C.: JAHIR - Joint Action for Humans and Industrial Robots. Fachforum "Intelligente Sensorik - Robotik und Automation", 21. Juni 2007, Bayern Innovativ - Gesellschaft für Innovation und Wissenstransfer mbH. Augsburg, 2007.

Reinhart, G.; Vogl, W.; Tekouo, W.; Rösel, W.; Wiesbeck, M.: Robotergestützte kognitive Montagesysteme - Montagesysteme der Zukunft. wt - Werkstattstechnik online 97 (2007) 9.

Lenz, C.; Nair, S.; Knoll, A.; Roesel, W.; Gast, J.; Wallhoff, F. and Rickert, M.: Joint-action for humans and industrial robots for assembly tasks. in Proceedings of the 17th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN), Munich, Germany, August 2008.

Reinhart, G.; Rösel, W.: Safety Aspects in an Industrial Environment with Human-Robot Interaction. in Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Changeable, Agile, Reconfigurable and Virtual Production (CARV), Munich, Germany, 2009.

Koll, S. und Rösel, W.: Kollege Roboter: Menschliche Maschinen heben leichter. Industrieanzeiger, Vol. 131, No. 12, p. 48 to 49, 2009.

Bannat, A.; Gast, J.; Rehrl, T.; Roesel, W.; Rigoll, G. and Wallhoff, F.; A Multimodal Human-Robot-Interaction Scenario: Working Together with an Industrial Robot. in Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), San Diego, CA, USA, J. Jacko, Ed., vol. LNCS 5611. Springer, July 2009.

Zaeh, M. and Roesel, W.: Safety Aspects in a Human-Robot Interaction Scenario: A Human Worker is Cooperating with an Industrial Robot. in Advances in Robotics: FIRA RoboWorld Congress, International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR), Incheon, Korea, August 2009.

Wallhoff, F.; Blume, J.; Bannat, A.; Rösel, W.; Lenz, C.; Knoll, A.: A skill-based approach towards hybrid assembly. Advanced Engineering Informatics, Vol. 24, pp. 329-339, 2010.

Reinhart, G., Rösel, W.: Interaktiver Assistenzroboter in der Montage - Sicherheitsaspekte in der Mensch-Roboter-Kooperation. Zeitschrift für wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb (ZwF), Nr. 1/2, S. 80 bis 84, 2010.

Zaeh, M. F.; Roesel, W.; Bannat, A.; Bautze, T.; Beetz, M.; Blume, J.; Diepold, K.; Ertelt, C.; Geiger, F.; Gmeiner, T.; Gyger, T.; Knoll, A.; Lau, C.; Lenz, C.; Ostgathe, M.; Reinhart, G.; Ruehr, T.; Schuboe, A.; Shea, K.; Stork genannt Wersborg, I.; Stork, S.; Tekouo, W.; Wallhoff, F.; Wiesbeck, M.: Artificial Cognition in Production Systems. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 2010.

Further Links:

Homepage of the cluster of excellence CoTeSys:http://www.cotesys.org
Homepage of the project JAHIR: http://www6.in.tum.de/Main/ResearchJahir
Homepage of the project CustomPacker: http://www.custompacker.eu
Informations on the project CustomPacker: more

Film of the Cognitive Factory: http://www.iwb.tum.de/iwb/Institut/Publikationen/iwb_Filme.html