Simulation of genuine collaborative robot solutions

The project is about carrying out 2-3 feasibility studies with companies to explore possibilities of introducing such collaborative robots at existing manual workplaces. We will apply simulations to analyze and to decide if collaborative robots can actually relieve the operator at a manual workplace.

SDUs TEK afdeling. Demonstration with robot arm

Information

Background

Genuine collaborative robot solutions, in which operators and humans work together on the same task and where operators permanently and dynamically interact with robots in their working environment, are still difficult to design and configure.

Aim / Vision

Simulations in our project will start with descriptions of the setup of the existing workplace (CAD data) and of the workflow. In the first step, we will use the descriptions to model the setup of the manual workplace as-is. For modeling the workflow, we will use a Motion Capturing system to digitize the motions of the operator. To transform the manual workplace into a collaborative robot solution, we will replace actions in the (digitized) manual workflow with corresponding actions for collaborative robots. Based on the simulation, we can then analyze the timing of the interactions of operators and robots as well as safety aspects.

Expected results

The simulations of the collaborative robot solutions for existing manual workplaces will help the decision makers in the partner companies to decide if it is feasible and useful to further invest in the drafted robot setup.