Complementary Manipulator Tool Development for Safe Cobot-Assisted Hydroponics

Abstract

Human-robot collaboration is gaining ground in Manufacturing, Healthcare and Logistics but also in Agriculture. Different types of applications in the latter field are becoming more common. However, in all scenarios, safety assessment and verification are crucial to cope with the related standards and specifications. In this paper, the development and safety testing of a complementary manipulator tool (Clip) is presented which can by design limit the physical interaction energy in a hazardous collaborative robot (cobot) scenario, namely when loading the plant of a Hydroponic System.