Safe Human-Robot Interaction in a Life Science Environment

In this paper we present the actual stage in the development of a mobile robot assistant that is going to be capable of safe cooperation with humans in a populated environment. The service robot is intended to assist users in biological and pharmaceutical laboratories by carrying out routine jobs such as filling and transportation of microplates. Relevant safety requirements are outlined and a safety concept is devised, which consists of various sensor systems such as laser scanners, thermographic components and artificial skin. An overview of the design of the mobile platform with a robotic arm is provided. Moreover, the approaches to object recognition and intuitive multimodal human-machine interaction using speech and touchpad input are described. All aspects are regarded concerning safety since the robot and humans share a common environment and interact closely.