Augmented Reality-Assisted Human-Robot Collaborative Manufacturing

Traditional methods for programming and interacting with industrial robots using a teach pendant is often cumbersome and unintuitive. The complexity of the interface itself makes interactions with robots slow, and takes away the user’s focus from the task and workspace. To enable safe and efficient human-robot interaction and collaboration, this project explores the possibilities of augmented reality together with the use of multimodal communication including speech, gesture, haptics, and gaze in creating more natural and intuitive user interfaces.

Using a tether-free augmented reality headset, we have created a user interface that allows users to create, edit, preview, and execute robot trajectories through natural gestures and speech. Our system allows the user to control the robot through interactions with virtual models and objects rendered directly in the same physical workspace as the robot, allowing the user to maintain his/her focus on the task space. Through user studies we have shown that our system allows users to more efficiently work with robots, reduces physical demand, and encourages human-robot collaboration.

As an ongoing project in collaboration with the German Aerospace Agency DLR and the University of British Columbia, we are currently working on further developments and integration to address safety, usability, and productivity in human-robot collaboration. Our goal is to apply our system to the manufacturing process of carbon-fibre-reinforced-polymers for aircraft bodies at DLR’s factory.