PIROS: Cooperative, Safe and Reconfigurable Robotic Companion for CNC Pallets Load/Unload Stations

Handling and assembling applications with small batch size and high production mix require requires high adaptability, reconfigurability and flexibility. Thus, human-robot collaboration could be an effective solution to ensure production performance and operator satisfaction. This scenario requires human-awareness in different levels of the software framework, from the robot control to the task planning. The goal is to assign high added value activities to the human as much as possible, while the robot has to be able to substitute the human when needed. Team PIROS faces this goal by designing a IEC 61499/ROS-based architecture which integrate safety assessment, advanced force control, human-aware motion planning, gesture recognition, and task scheduling.