automatica - Human-Robot Collaboration

Robots are learning how to feel. Will the boundary between human and robot soon disappear? Barriers are being broken down in production anyhow. The robots are leaving their cages and mingling with the work force: at CONTINENTAL for instance in Regensburg. In the final as-sembly of onboard control units, man and machine share a common working area. Robots take over very stressful and repetitive activities during the work process. Researchers from Cognitive Systems at Technical University of Munich are trying to let the robot learn a profoundly human characteristic: feelings. They are already on the right path with the help of artificial skin. It is so sensitive, that just touching it with a feather is enough to make the machine back away. The secret lies in the lu-minous sensors, they measure whether the temperature of the environment changes, the speed which the robot moves and whether it touches anything. Robots are becoming more human, and that seems inevitable. One thing is certain however: the future belongs to human-robot collaboration.