Safety Analysis for a Human-Friendly Manipulator

Abstract The DLR Lightweight Robot III (LWR-III) developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is characterized by low inertial properties, torque sensing in each joint, and a load to weight ratio similar to humans. These properties qualify it for applications requiring high mobility and direct interaction with human users or uncertain environments. An essential requirement for such a robot is that it must under no circumstances pose a threat to the human operator. To actually quantify the potential injury risk emanating from the manipulator, impact test were carried out using standard automobile crash-test facilities at the ADAC (German automobile club). Furthermore, we introduce our analysis for soft-tissue injury based on swine experiments with the LWR-III. This paper gives an overview about the variety of investigations necessary to provide a safety analysis of a human-friendly robot based on biomechanical injury results. We believe this paper can provide a guideline for the robot...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: IJSR
• Authors: Sami Haddadin, Alin Albu-Schäffer, Gerd Hirzinger
• Keywords: Human-friendly Robot, IJSR 2010, Robot, Soft-tissue Injury