Upcoming technologies and fundamentals for safeguarding all forms of human-robot collaboration

New sensors and robot technologies enable different degrees of human-robot collaboration, ranging from fenceless coexistence to close collaboration. The first part of the paper will introduce different forms of co-work and how they can be characterized using three essential characteristics. Then for each form of co-work, the safeguarding modes from the ISO/TS 15066 which are applicable and make sense will be determined. The second part gives an overview of sensor technologies which can be used for the four safeguarding modes in compliance with the current standards. This overview focuses on recent sensor technologies developed by the authors.