It is regarded as one of the cornerstones of future production concepts in the context of the fourth industrial revolution - the direct cooperation between man and machine without separating protective devices. This requires a rethink on the part of both manufacturers and users, because: If you look into production facilities at the moment, you will find - with very few exceptions - almost exclusively robots behind fences, strictly separated from people.

With the aim of having these questions answered first-hand by experts, the 'Humans and Robots Forum' took place for the first time on October 17 and 18. In his keynote speech, Kuka's Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), Dr. Bernd Liepert, began by explaining the key drivers for HRC - first and foremost the trend towards increasingly individualized products: "This means that we will move more and more towards options in production and away from high volumes." As a result, rigid, fully automated lines are often no longer worthwhile and are also too inflexible. In addition, the inevitable ageing of the workforce requires ergonomic optimization of workstations - for example in the form of an HRC-capable robot as a helper or third hand.

But why is it that hardly any robots are still working 'hand in hand' with their flesh-and-blood colleagues, when a wide range of suppliers - including major players such as Kuka, ABB, Bosch and Fanuc, as well as newcomers such as Universal Robots and Hahn Robotics - have now committed themselves to this idea? The answer from Prof. Dr. Bernd Kuhlenkötter, Head of the Chair of Production Systems at Ruhr University Bochum and responsible for strategic research and development at ABB Robotics: "The difficulty is not to build an HRC robot, but to integrate it into existing processes!" And this is precisely what most production managers are still struggling with, as the questions and reactions from the audience repeatedly revealed. Trying to integrate the robot into existing lines is often difficult, as these are generally not designed for HRC. In addition to the actual production process, other processes such as the material flow would often have to be adapted in order to really exploit the potential of HRC. In other words, HRC should ideally be planned in at the beginning of the plant engineering process and not 'grafted on' later. The problem with this is that "there are currently only a few production planners who have fully understood the topic of HRC," says Bernd Liepert.

Still a lot to do in terms of safety

When considering any application, it is crucial to keep safety in mind. Although there are now a number of standards and guidelines, such as EN ISO 12100, EN ISO 10218-2 and TS 15066, which deal with the functional safety of cooperating robot systems, there is no fixed timetable for implementation.

Prof. Dr. Norbert Elkmann from the Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg, who has been working intensively on safety in robotics for many years, also admits that mobile robotics in particular still poses considerable challenges in terms of functional safety. He is convinced that, among other things, manageable simulation tools that also cover safety requirements will be needed in the future. It will be even more difficult if the robots work autonomously on the mobile platforms: "What do I do with the CE marking then?" Elkmann asks. There is currently no answer to this question.