Abstract
From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents o btained the following quote: “Traditional machinery for manufacturing and other industrial applications has been supplanted by, or supplemented with, new forms of automation that save costs, increase productivity and quality, eliminate dang erous, laborious, or repetitive work, and/or augment human capability. For examp le, industrial robots possess strength, speed, reliability, and lifetimes that m ay far exceed human potential. The recent trend toward increased human-robot col laboration in manufacturing workcells imposes particularly stringent requirement s on robot performance and capabilities. Conventional industrial robots are dang erous to humans and are usually kept separate from humans through guarding-e.g., robots may be surrounded by a cage with doors that, when opened, cause an elect rical circuit to place the machinery in a safe state. Other approaches involve l ight curtains or two-dimensional (2D) area sensors that slow down or shut off th e machinery when humans approach it or cross a prescribed distance threshold. Th ese systems disadvantageously constrain collaborative use of the workspace.
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