ROBOSKIN tactile skin for safe human-robot interaction with Care-O-bot 3

In order to bring manipulating service robots into applications which include direct interaction with humans, safety for the operator and the surrounding persons must be ensured at all time. While the movements of mobile platforms in 2D can be secured through safety certified 2D-Sensors, no sensors are currently available for manipulation in 3D. In the ROBOSKIN project, a tactile skin was developed which can be used as a safety sensor for 3D environments as well as for intuitive control of a manipulator by hand guiding. In the following paper, the applicability of ROBOSKIN as a safety device is discussed and an evaluation conducted on the manipulating service robot Care-O-bot 3 is described.