Human Robot Collaboration

The current chapter presents an overview and state of the art in the field of collaborative robotics (commonly called cobotics), where several issues, challenges and contributions in the field are summarized. Therefore, the chapter addresses different aspects of collaborative robotics and its positioning in the context of the whole robotics research. A particular focus is made on physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI) where different aspects are addressed according to the level and frequency of physical interaction. It starts from the space sharing and collision avoidance, through the punctual collision, until the permanent physical interaction between humains and robots. Hence, the specific context of physical Human-Robot Collaboration (pHRC), defined as a key task of human-robot object co-manipulation, is deeply addressed. The importance of collaboration quality evaluation is addressed in this chapter as well, and how this field of pHRC can be considered as a part of the human-centered robotics field thanks to its impact on human beings.