Abstract
A teach pendant is a hand-held portable control and display device used for teaching and recording the movements of an industrial robot. There is no standard design for hand-held control pendants for robotic applications. A research project was undertaken by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to evaluate the effect of the location and the diameter of the emergency stop button on the time required for a person to initiate an emergency stop during a simulated robotic task. A prototype teach pendant simulator was designed and constructed. The simulator pendant accommodated an emergency stop (E-stop) button of two different button diameters at ten different pendant locations. Using reach time as the dependent variable, statistically significant effects were found between the E-stop button diameter and button location.
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