Sensors for Safe, Collaborative Robots in Smart Manufacturing

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing performance metrics for collaborative robotic systems for smart manufacturing applications. Using a suite of sensor platforms, feedback mechanisms, and novel test artifacts, NIST seeks to provide industry with the means to characterize the performance of robots working collaboratively with humans and other robots. This report serves to outline the applications, requirements, and developmental opportunities for the sensors being used toward this effort. Sensing for safety, human-robot interaction, human-machine interfaces, and multi-robot coordination performance are discussed.