Development of collaborative robots (COBOTS) for flexible human-integrated assembly automation

This paper addresses the stability and safety issues in powered human-robot-environment interactive systems. It presents the extension of the robust control design framework, initially established for the interaction between an industrial robot and stiff environment, to novel human-robot-environment and human-robot-human-environment interactive systems with physical interfaces. This theoretical framework has been utilized for the control design of novel collaborative robot supporting complex assembly process in automotive industry developed in the PISA project. The practical design and initial application tests with a novel power collaborative developed in the PISA project are also presented in the paper.