Human-industrial robot collaboration has been introduced as the ultimate combination for industry. The endurance and strength of a robot is combined with a human’s flexibility, precision and quality skills. One challenge in the implementation of human-industrial robot collaboration is to create a safe working station for the operators, therefore most of the research focuses on these safety aspects. Industrial designers and engineers verify and optimise workstations in different simulation and visualisation tools in order to improve competitiveness, reduce late changes and reduce cost. Several robot tools and digital human modelling tools are available, but there are no or few simulation and visualisation tools that include both humans and robots. The aim of the proposed paper is to illustrate how unique software can be used to verify human-industrial robot collaboration. This software is a combination of the robot simulation tool IPS and the digital human modelling tool IMMA. The software demonstration is promising, covering the gap between digital human modelling tools and robot simulation tools. The simulation and visualisation tools generate pictures and animations, as well as quantified numbers to aid well-founded decision-making. The demonstration software was used to analyse a truck tyre assembly station. Fully manual, fully automated and human-industrial robot collaboration were compared.
Practitioner Summary: The presented paper illustrates simulation and visualisation software for the virtual verification of Human - Industrial Robot collaboration. The software demonstration is a combination of the robot simulation tool IPS and the digital human modelling tool IMMA. The software demonstration is promising, covering the gap between digital human modelling tools and robot simulation tools.
Keywords: ergonomics, digital human modelling, robot simulation, simulation and visualisation