Method of operating a robot interaction system which is arranged at a metallurgical or rolling-mill plant and associated thereat with a work place or work region, for task execution with division of work between a robot and a human worker in temporal and spatial interaction in the work and movement area of the robot at the work place or work region of the metallurgical or rolling-mill equipment or plant, wherein the robot interaction system comprises the robot with its work and movement area, a safety sensor system with the functions of recognition of human presence and monitoring of the work place for risk states, a robot control and a man/robot interface, which by means of manual control or verbal control enables performance of different kinds of operation and modes of operation as the respective form of interaction between man and robot , wherein the robot control comprises the man/robot interface and the kinds of operation and modes of operation influencing the action of the man/robot interface, the kinds of operation and modes of operation corresponding with the requirements of the respective work place being stored either directly in the robot control or in memory elements co-operating with the robot control, wherein a mode of operation or a kind of operation each represents the sequence in which the human worker and the robot together perform the respective work task in a man/robot interaction, wherein the robot interaction system is for that purpose adapted to the respective work place or work region and the modes of operation and kinds of operation respectively necessary for the actual work task are determined on the basis of an analysis of the work processes and individual activities elapsing at the respective work place or work region, wherein the safety sensor system comprises a sensor or a combination of sensors and the presence of the human worker in a safety area and/or entry area associated with the work area of the robot is detected and monitored, wherein the signals determined and/or processed by the sensors and the safety sensor system are fed to the robot control and the safety sensor system or a safety sensing unit associated therewith reacts when a human worker enters the safety area and/or the entry area and by way of the robot control triggers appropriate robot actions in dependence on a respectively selected mode of operation and in dependence on the active kind of operation, and wherein the kinds of operation and modes of operation adapting the robot to different functionalities and/or work activities can be switched on and switched off in such a way in the robot control or filed and imaged in memory elements co-operating with the robot control that the robot interaction system has access thereto and the different kinds of operation and modes of operation can be operated in desired alternation so that the robot is adapted by means of the respectively switched-on or switched-off kind of operation or mode of operation to different functionalities and/or work activities, wherein the kinds of operation and modes of operation of the robot control are adapted in such a way to different degrees of automation of the robot and/or to different temporal and/or spatial positionings of the interaction partners of human and robot in a work space that they comprise an automated operation of the robot and kinds of operation and modes of operation in the use of which a work-technological interaction between human and robot takes place in which the human and the robot are present together in terms of time and space in the work and movement area of the robot or in which the human and the robot are present in succession in the same spatial region of the movement or work area of the robot or in which the robot and the human are active in separate positions in terms of space and particularly also differently in terms of time and nevertheless co-operate with one another in interaction for execution of a common task. <EOS>