Collaborative Conversation in Safe Multimodal Human-Robot Collaboration

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel communication architecture for human-robot collaboration that emulates human dialogue, improves safety, and enhances efficiency, demonstrated by reduced execution times and robot downtime.

Contribution

It presents a new architecture with a predictive simulator for safe, efficient communication in HRC, validated on a UR10e robot with significant performance improvements.

Findings

23% reduction in execution times

50% decrease in robot downtime

Enhanced user experience

Abstract

In the context of Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC), it is crucial that the two actors are able to communicate with each other in a natural and efficient manner. The absence of a communication interface is often a cause of undesired slowdowns. On one hand, this is because unforeseen events may occur, leading to errors. On the other hand, due to the close contact between humans and robots, the speed must be reduced significantly to comply with safety standard ISO/TS 15066. In this paper, we propose a novel architecture that enables operators and robots to communicate efficiently, emulating human-to-human dialogue, while addressing safety concerns. This approach aims to establish a communication framework that not only facilitates collaboration but also reduces undesired speed reduction. Through the use of a predictive simulator, we can anticipate safety-related limitations, ensuring smoother workflows, minimizing risks, and optimizing efficiency. The overall architecture has been validated with a UR10e and compared with a state of the art technique. The results show a significant improvement in user experience, with a corresponding 23% reduction in execution times and a 50% decrease in robot downtime.