Real-time and Robust Collaborative Robot Motion Control with Microsoft Kinect ® v2

Abstract

Recent development in depth sensing provide various opportunities for the development of new methods for Human Robot Interaction (HRI). Collaborative robots (co-bots) are redefining HRI across the manufacturing industry. However, little work has been done yet in the field of HRI with Kinect sensor in this industry. In this paper, we will present a HRI study using nearest-point approach with Microsoft Kinect v2 sensor’s depth image (RGB-D). The approach is based on the Euclidean distance which has robust properties against different environments. The study aims to improve the motion performance of Universal Robot–5 (UR5) and interaction efficiency during the possible collaboration using the Robot Operating System (ROS) framework and its tools. After the depth data from the Kinect sensor has been processed, the nearest points differences are transmitted to the robot via ROS.