Patent ID: 9694497
Date: 2017-07-04
CPC Classifications: B25J,G05B,G06K,G06T,Y10S

Claim:
1. A method for controlling a robot in an industrial environment, comprising: determining by a camera of a safeguarding apparatus a position and body posture of a person situated outside of an action range of a movable part of a robot; determining an action range of the person by a monitoring computer of the safeguarding apparatus in response to the determined body posture to thereby define the action range by locations expected to be reachable within a predetermined time interval by the person, wherein the monitoring computer predicts a movement of the person based on a behavior rule prescribed for a behavior of the person in a surrounding of the robot, said person always having a right-of-way and said person not stopping if said person crosses a path of the robot; determining a risk class RK0 which indicates no danger of a collision, or a risk class RK1 which indicates no acute risk of a collision but the person has the possibility to enter into a collision zone such that the robot is prepared, or a risk class RK2 which indicates that the person is too close to the robot such that there is an acute risk of a collision by the monitoring computer in response to data received by the camera; checking by a collision monitoring computer of the safeguarding apparatus whether the action range of the person and the action range of the movable part intersect; and switching the robot from a work mode into a safety mode to reduce a speed with which the movable part moves or to guide the movable part past the person, in the event the action range of the person and the action range of the movable part intersect so as to avoid a collision of the person with the movable part and injury to the person.