On Peak and Integral Criteria to Assess Physical Contact in Human-Robot-Collaboration (HRC)

Abstract:
Risk assessment for collaborative robot applications that do not exclude contact between humans and moving robots requires methodologies and data to predict the severity of a collision between robot and human operator. While ISO/TS 15066 and the risk assessment approach proposed by DGUV focus on peak forces and peak pressures given as pain thresholds, in this paper we propose integrated quantities, in particular energy flux density and power flux density as alternatives. We present motivations, theoretical perspective as well as experimental investigations based on collisions between a robot and a pendulum device, emulating a collision with a human arm