PHRIENDS - Physical human-robot interaction: dependability and safety

PHRIENDS is about developing key components of the next generation of robots, including industrial robots and assist devices (which include robots for the emerging market of non-industrial applications, e.g. for service, health-care, and entertainment), designed to share the environment and to physically interact with people. Such machines have to meet the strictest safety standards, yet also to deliver useful performance: this poses new challenges to the design of all components of the robot, including mechanics, control, planning algorithms and supervision systems. We propose an integrated approach to the co-design of robots for safe physical interaction with humans, which revolutionizes the classical approach for designing industrial robots – rigid design for accuracy, active control for safety – by creating a new paradigm: design robots that are intrinsically safe, and control them to deliver performance.