Human–Robot Shared Workspace Safety Enhancement Using Predictive Control

Abstract

The concept of human-robot collaboration (HRC) is becoming a significant part of the contemporary industry as it aims at enhancing productivity, flexibility, and ergonomics. As opposed to conventional industrial robotics, where keeping physical distance between humans and robots guarantees safety, collaborative robots (cobots) work in the same work areas whereby humans and robots are in close and simultaneous contact. The above paradigm shift brings about huge safety issues because of unpredictable human behaviors, changing environments as well as balancing between safety and operation. Traditional reactive safety measures, e.g., emergency stops and fixed safety zones, tend to cause unjustifiable down-time and low productivity. In this paper, the paper builds up detailed research on improving the safety of the shared workspace of human and robot with predictive control methods the author emphasizes the idea of Model Predictive Control (MPC) and its variations. Predictive control provides the opportunity to predict upcoming human behaviors and environmental variations enabling the adjustment of the robot paths, its speed, and interaction forces in advance. This framework is suggested and combines human motion prediction, dynamic safety constraints, and optimal control formulation to realize safe, smooth, and efficient human-robot collaboration. An elaborate system architecture is created which includes sensor fusion, real time prediction models and constrained optimization. The mathematical formulations of the predictive control problem are offered, including cost functions and safety constraints that meet the international safety standards. The feasibility of the suggested solution is assessed by the means of simulation-based scenarios of the most common industrial processes, including cooperative assembly and handling of materials. Findings indicate that the involved safety measures, the lower probability of a collision, the ease of control of the behavior of a robot, as well as greater functionality in its tasks, are significantly better than those of the traditional reactive control schemes. The article is informative and gives a systematic guide to scholars and developers intending to implement predictive safety control in the collaborative robot system and the future research directions to adhere to robust, explainable, and standardized human-robot safety solutions.