Shafti, A; Ataka, A; Urbistondo Lazpita, B; Shiva, A; Wurdemann, H; Althoefer, K; (2019) Real-time Robot-assisted Ergonomics. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2019. (pp. pp. 1975-1981). IEEE: Montreal, Canada.

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Abstract

This paper describes a novel approach in human-robot interaction driven by ergonomics. With a clear focus on optimising ergonomics, the approach proposed here continuously observes a human user's posture and by invoking appropriate cooperative robot movements, the user's posture is, whenever required, brought back to an ergonomic optimum. Effectively, the new protocol optimises the human-robot relative position and orientation as a function of human ergonomics. An RGB-D camera is used to calculate and monitor human joint angles in real-time and to determine the current ergonomics state. A total of 6 main causes of low ergonomic states are identified, leading to 6 universal robot responses to allow the human to return to an optimal ergonomics state. The algorithmic framework identifies these 6 causes and controls the cooperating robot to always adapt the environment (e.g. change the pose of the workpiece) in a way that is ergonomically most comfortable for the interacting user. Hence, human-robot interaction is continuously re-evaluated optimizing ergonomics states. The approach is validated through an experimental study, based on established ergonomic methods and their adaptation for real-time application. The study confirms improved ergonomics using the new approach.

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