Airbags could protect humans working with robots
German researchers have developed a system of airbags to protect people working with robots from injury. The scientists from the DLR Robotics and Mechatronics Centre came up with the idea in 2016, and have now released a video explaining the system. The airbag inflates automatically around sharp edges when the manipulator arm moves, before deflating to allow the arm to work. The new safety measure complements existing methods such as cameras and sensors which can detect human workers, and force-limited joints that shut down the robot if resistance is encountered.
Making robots that can work safely alongside humans is an important and unavoidable challenge for the manufacturing industry. If something goes wrong with a robot and it confuses a squishy human body with open air, the result might not just be delayed production, but broken bones and torn flesh. In the most straightforward way possible, robots just don’t know their own strength.

But in order to guard against this sort of mishap, researchers at Germany’s DLR Robotics and Mechatronics Center have been working a reassuringly familiar safety measure: airbags for robots. The scientists came up with this idea back in 2016, but last week published a new video showing how the technology works in a collaborative task — in their example, assembling a heater pump.

As the video above shows, the airbag surrounds the robot’s manipulator tool and its sharp edges, automatically inflating when the arm is moving to protect any nearby humans. When the robot needs to use the manipulator, the airbag deflates in less than a second. Lights built into the ‘bag let nearby humans know when the machine is safe, and built-in pressure sensors detect if it bumps into anyone. A video of an earlier prototype from March shows a researcher testing the efficacy of the system in the most straightforward way possible: by letting it ram into his head.