HANNOVER, Germany—Engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (IWU) have developed a way for people and robots to work together in an intuitive way that feels like human teamwork. Robots can recognize gestures, faces and postures to make the interaction safe and efficient.
The robot detect can detect a component in the worker’s grasp and cautiously follows it until he or she hands it over. Various safety zones around the robot determine whether and how robot and human can work together in each zone.