A human-robot collision avoidance method using a single camera

Abstract

Human-robot collaboration is a flourishing work configuration in modern plants. Yet, the potentially hazardous collision between human workers and collaborative robots raises safety concerns. In this study, we proposed a collision avoidance method in which a single camera and a computer-vision algorithm were deployed to sense the location of human workers. Two collision avoidance schemes were further developed to determine the timing for robot to retract its arm. Specifically, the static scheme continuously monitors whether a worker is in a hazard zone, while the dynamic scheme predicts worker’s position after a short time, and monitors whether the predicted worker’s position is in a hazard zone. Preliminary validation showed that our proposed method can effectively enable a collaborative robot to retract its arms when a worker is approaching.