SHERLOCK | Seamless and safe human - centred robotic applications for novel collaborative workplaces

Human robot collaboration (HRC) has evolved to address the need for flexible production, presenting however drawbacks such as: Inability to cover all applications, Low performance/quality of collaboration and Complexity..

SHERLOCK aims to introduce the latest safe robotic technologies in production environments, enhancing them with smart mechatronics and AI based cognition, creating efficient HRC stations that are designed to be safe and guarantee the acceptance/wellbeing of operators.

SHERLOCK's objectives are driven by production requirements involving a portfolio of 19 s/w and h/w modules:

1. Soft Robotics Collaborative Production Station:
   • High payload collaborative manipulator (HPCM)
   • Low payload collaborative manipulator (LPCM)
   • Enhanced exoskeleton device (EED) with adjustable level of assistance
   • Mobile dual arm manipulator (MDAM)
   • Production orchestration module (POM)
   • Knowledge repository (KR)
2. Human - centred interaction, collaboration and awareness by developing
   • Physical human robot interaction module (HPCM)
   • Operator support module (OSM)
   • Robot to human communication module (RHCM)
   • Operator Psychological Safety Module (OPSM), involving design principles/standards to maintain operator psychological safety/wellbeing in HRC
   • Design principles/standards to maintain operator psychological safety/wellbeing in HR
3. AI enabled cognition for autonomous HRC applications: enabling robots to understand their environment, reason over it and adapt by:
   • Process perception module (PPM)
   • Workplace monitoring module (WMM)
   • Tasks and actions planning software (TAPS)
   • Shopfloor digital representation (SDR)
   • Learning and programming module (LPM)
4. Modules for design and certification of Safe HRC applications:
   • Automated Risk Assessment Module (ARAM) within design/simulation packages
   • HRC validation module (HVM), involving VR/AR tools for validating collaborative operations - reducing certification time
   • Online safety assessment module (OSAM)
   • HRC training module (HTM), involvingAR/VR training methods specialized for HRC

SHERLOCK demonstrated its result in 4 sectors: renewable energy, industrial modules, aeronautics structures and machine tools production.