Image based 3D Surveillance for flexible Man-Robot-Cooperation

In today's industrial production men and robots usually work separately from each other in order to avoid accidents. By this, the advantages of an interoperable automated and manual assembly can not be used for a flexible and efficient production. If it would be possible to overcome the separation of man and robot, the accuracy and speed of robots could be combined with the flexibility and reliability of human workers. Especially for complex assembly and handling tasks, this combination is useful. A system based on digital 3D image analysis has been developed, which supervises the common working area of robot and man.