Safety control of industrial robots based on a distributed distance sensor

In the field of human–robot interaction in industrial environments, the active control of robot based on exteroceptive sensors’ measurements is a viable approach to the issue of safety enhancement. Among all possible solutions, onboard sensors have several advantages, in terms of ease of deployment and calibration, and absence of occlusions. In this paper, we present a prototype of a distributed distance sensor that can be mounted on an industrial robot. The sensor’s outputs have been used as part of a newly conceived control strategy, aimed at improving human safety by means of assessing the level of danger induced by the robot. Several experiments on an ABB IRB140 industrial robot have been carried out, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed approach in a realistic scenario.