Rob@work: auxiliary hand

2001/04/20 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Robotika

Workers around the world have ever dreamed of another hand to help them work, especially to relieve heavy, boring and long jobs. It seems that this dream is coming true and can soon be accessible. In fact, for use in industrial production, the Fraunhofer Institute has presented at the Hannover fair the easy and intelligent rob@work robotic system.

When the task requires sensory capabilities, knowledge or special skills, automation is limited. In many cases there are technical problems to make designs of this type of work or they are excessively expensive. Therefore, they have thought that the best solution is the collaboration between the operator and the machine and have developed an auxiliary robot. In this way, the operator can focus all his attention on the most difficult tasks or direct the operations, since the mechanical work remains in the hands of the robot. This collaboration allows, in addition to efficiency, to improve quality.

The rob@work system basically consists of an arm connected to a mobile platform. This arm has the ability to move in any position or take things and thanks to its sensors and cameras can distinguish between humans and things, so you can move in the workplace without any controversy. Multimodal and intuitive communication ensures understanding between staff and robot, even in case of noise and workplace interference. You can use the word, touch and gesture to send the robot, for example by verbally pronouncing commands or pointing the task on the screen.

The robotic system is yet to be completed, but the model exhibited at the fair can perform various functions and engineers are working to improve it.