Motion Recognition System for Worker Safety in Manufacturing Work Cell

With a paradigm shift of the manufacturing process into an active module process system, an increasing demand for a lightweight and safe manufacturing environment has developed. To share a workspace between a worker and robot in a manufacturing work cell, technical methods ensuring the safety of the worker must be provided. In this paper, we propose a vision-based worker safety system for enabling a safe operation even when the worker of a manufacturing process shares a workspace with a robot. The proposed system monitors the position of the worker based on a vision system and supports the worker safety by avoiding collisions with the robot according to the workspace classification. The system also recognizes dangerous movements of the worker, and provides safety services through interactions with the manufacturing robot by matching predefined motion models.