A Comparative Study of Safety Zone Visualisations for Virtual and Physical Robot Arms Using Augmented Reality
The use of robot arms in various industrial settings has changed the way tasks are completed. However, safety concerns for both humans and robots in these collaborative environments remain a critical challenge. Traditional approaches to visualising safety zones, including physical barriers and warni...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Computers |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-431X/12/4/75 |
| _version_ | 1827745447389691904 |
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| author | Yunus Emre Cogurcu James A. Douthwaite Steve Maddock |
| author_facet | Yunus Emre Cogurcu James A. Douthwaite Steve Maddock |
| author_sort | Yunus Emre Cogurcu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The use of robot arms in various industrial settings has changed the way tasks are completed. However, safety concerns for both humans and robots in these collaborative environments remain a critical challenge. Traditional approaches to visualising safety zones, including physical barriers and warning signs, may not always be effective in dynamic environments or where multiple robots and humans are working simultaneously. Mixed reality technologies offer dynamic and intuitive visualisations of safety zones in real time, with the potential to overcome these limitations. In this study, we compare the effectiveness of safety zone visualisations in virtual and real robot arm environments using the Microsoft HoloLens 2. We tested our system with a collaborative pick-and-place application that mimics a real manufacturing scenario in an industrial robot cell. We investigated the impact of safety zone shape, size, and appearance in this application. Visualisations that used virtual cage bars were found to be the most preferred safety zone configuration for a real robot arm. However, the results for this aspect were mixed for a virtual robot arm experiment. These results raise the question of whether or not safety visualisations can initially be tested in a virtual scenario and the results transferred to a real robot arm scenario, which has implications for the testing of trust and safety in human–robot collaboration environments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T05:07:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8e5cd4f6c3cb4c3493165ca6e28d7eeb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-431X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T05:07:09Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Computers |
| spelling | doaj.art-8e5cd4f6c3cb4c3493165ca6e28d7eeb2023-11-17T18:49:20ZengMDPI AGComputers2073-431X2023-04-011247510.3390/computers12040075A Comparative Study of Safety Zone Visualisations for Virtual and Physical Robot Arms Using Augmented RealityYunus Emre Cogurcu0James A. Douthwaite1Steve Maddock2Department of Computer Science, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DP, UKDepartment of Automatic Control & Systems Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UKDepartment of Computer Science, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DP, UKThe use of robot arms in various industrial settings has changed the way tasks are completed. However, safety concerns for both humans and robots in these collaborative environments remain a critical challenge. Traditional approaches to visualising safety zones, including physical barriers and warning signs, may not always be effective in dynamic environments or where multiple robots and humans are working simultaneously. Mixed reality technologies offer dynamic and intuitive visualisations of safety zones in real time, with the potential to overcome these limitations. In this study, we compare the effectiveness of safety zone visualisations in virtual and real robot arm environments using the Microsoft HoloLens 2. We tested our system with a collaborative pick-and-place application that mimics a real manufacturing scenario in an industrial robot cell. We investigated the impact of safety zone shape, size, and appearance in this application. Visualisations that used virtual cage bars were found to be the most preferred safety zone configuration for a real robot arm. However, the results for this aspect were mixed for a virtual robot arm experiment. These results raise the question of whether or not safety visualisations can initially be tested in a virtual scenario and the results transferred to a real robot arm scenario, which has implications for the testing of trust and safety in human–robot collaboration environments.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-431X/12/4/75augmented realityhuman–robot collaborationsafety zone visualisationsvirtual and physical robot arms |
| spellingShingle | Yunus Emre Cogurcu James A. Douthwaite Steve Maddock A Comparative Study of Safety Zone Visualisations for Virtual and Physical Robot Arms Using Augmented Reality Computers augmented reality human–robot collaboration safety zone visualisations virtual and physical robot arms |
| title | A Comparative Study of Safety Zone Visualisations for Virtual and Physical Robot Arms Using Augmented Reality |
| title_full | A Comparative Study of Safety Zone Visualisations for Virtual and Physical Robot Arms Using Augmented Reality |
| title_fullStr | A Comparative Study of Safety Zone Visualisations for Virtual and Physical Robot Arms Using Augmented Reality |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Comparative Study of Safety Zone Visualisations for Virtual and Physical Robot Arms Using Augmented Reality |
| title_short | A Comparative Study of Safety Zone Visualisations for Virtual and Physical Robot Arms Using Augmented Reality |
| title_sort | comparative study of safety zone visualisations for virtual and physical robot arms using augmented reality |
| topic | augmented reality human–robot collaboration safety zone visualisations virtual and physical robot arms |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-431X/12/4/75 |
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