A cooperative robotic system based on multiple sensors to construct metallic structures

Abstract

This paper describes a multisensorial robotic system to automatically construct metallic structures. Two robots must work cooperatively in the same workspace to perform the task. The robots are automatically guided using visual and force sensor information. A new time-independent visual force control system which guarantees the adequate robot behaviour during the construction of the structure is described. During the construction of the structure, a human operator works cooperatively with the robots in order to perform some tasks which cannot be automatically developed by the robots. To do so, a new human–robot cooperation approach is described in order to guarantee the human safety. The correct behaviour of the different subsystems proposed in the paper is demonstrated in Section 6 by the construction of a real structure composed of several metallic tubes and different types of pieces to join them.