Optimizing Collaborative Robotic Workspaces in Industry by Applying Mixed Reality

Collaborative robots (cobots) find increased use in industrial workspaces. The aspects of safety and ergonomics are important challenges when designing such workspaces. In this work Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are used for the design of cobot workspaces in industrial environments. ROS (Robotic Operating System) together with Unity is used to simulate and visualize cobot applications. Simulated and real robotics are merged into one tool developed for Extended Reality (XR). To allow early planning in VR, existing industrial environments are reconstructed digitally using state-of-the-art 3-D laser scanners. VR and MR are then applied to test the developed scenarios in various environments, like variation of workspace or robot. In addition, an external tracking system allows us to monitor a human operator and to visualize ergonomics and to mitigate potential safety risks.