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Experimental Validation of an Interface for a Human-Robot Interaction Within a Collaborative Task
This paper presents a prototype of a non-contact UR robot based Virtual Control (UR-VC) system for collaborative robots of the UR family, which is based on computer vision techniques and a virtual interaction interface. A control method involved specific hand movements within a field of view of a web camera, which was connected to a laptop with the running UR-VC system. We present the UR-VC system and the results of an experimental validation. To inquire if the UR-VC system is comfortable and user-friendly for an interaction with collaborative robots and to study opportunities for a further development and expansion directions of the system, we designed a test case that simulates a joint product assembly in a collaborative workspace. The constructed collaborative workspace included the UR3e robot, the laptop with the running UR-VC system and assembly parts for a collaborative task. 24 participants were involved in the experiments. First, the participants learned how to control the robot using the UR-VC system. After the training, all participants successfully controlled the robot using the proposed interface for performing the collaborative task. Participants’ experience of operating the robot was analyzed via surveys, their unconstrained comments and video recordings of the experiments.