Research on Identifying Robot Collision Points in Human–Robot Collaboration Based on Force Method Principle Solving

Abstract

After years of more rigid and conventional production processes, the traditional manufacturing industry has been moving toward flexible manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing in recent years. After more than half a century of development, robotics has penetrated into all aspects of human production and life, bringing significant changes to the development of human society. At the same time, the key technology of human–machine cooperative operation has become a research hotspot, and how to realize a human–machine integrated safety system has attracted attention. Human–machine integration means that humans and robots can work in the same natural space, coordinating closely and interacting naturally. To realize real human–robot integration under human–robot cooperative operation, the good judgment of intentional interaction and accidental collision and the detection of collision joints and collision points when accidental collision occurs are the key points. In this paper, we propose a method to identify the collision joints by detecting real-time current changes in each joint of the robot and solve the collision point location information of the collision joints through the principle of virtual displacement and the principle of force method using the force sensor data installed at the base of the robot as the known condition. The results show that the proposed method of identifying the collision joints using changes in joint current and then establishing a collision detection algorithm to solve the collision point location is correct and reliable.