COBOTS in Industry 4.0: Safe and Efficient Interaction

Cyberphysical systems will have a great development with the digital transformation known as industry 4.0. Cyberphysical Systems systems are devices that integrate capabilities to control and interact with a physical process. Among these are the Cobots, robots that perform tasks directly in conjunction with humans within a shared or nearby space. Safety is a fundamental issue when talking about Cobots, because there are requirements in terms of materials and design, kinetic limitations, and the implementation of sensors and algorithms that guarantee a safe workspace. Therefore, the potential risks of Cobot applications within the boom of industry 4.0 in cyberphysical systems are presented. Defining the fields of: Safety inspections; Routes and algorithms to avoid obstacles; Human-machine interfaces; Humans and Industry 4.0; Cyber security. Framed within the human-machine standards and protocols, within the safety functions and performance of a Cobot (ISO 10218-1 and ISO 10218-2 and ISO TS 15066). In this chapter, we discuss the different problems that are in the application of Cobots, in conjunction with different proposals for improvement and aspects to consider.

Interoperable Internet of Medical Things platform for e-Health applications

The development of information and telecommunication technologies has given rise to new platforms for e-Health. However, some difficulties have been detected since each manufacturer implements its communication protocols and defines their data formats. A semantic incongruence is observed between platforms since no common healthcare domain vocabulary is shared between manufacturers and stakeholders. Despite the existence of standards for semantic and platform interoperability (e.g. openEHR for healthcare, Semantic Sensor Network for Internet of Medical Things platforms, and machine-to-machine standards), no approach has combined them for granting interoperability or considered the whole integration of legacy Electronic Health Record Systems currently used worldwide. Moreover, the heterogeneity in the large volume of health data generated by Internet of Medical Things platforms must be attenuated for the proper application of big data processing techniques. This article proposes the joint use of openEHR and Semantic Sensor Network semantics for the achievement of interoperability at the semantic level and use of a machine-to-machine architecture for the definition of an interoperable Internet of Medical Things platform.

Ethics and risks between human and robotic interaction

Robot is definitely playing important role in human society. Low contact on machine standards is mostly on industrial robot while close contacts are in increasing demand in service robot, etc. The development of robotics with advanced hardware and artificial intelligence (AI) provide the possibility with human beings while close contacts raise many new issues on ethics and risks. For interaction, the related technique of perception, cognition and interaction are briefly introduced. For ethics, rules should be given for the robot designers to include ethics for certain application while risks should be evaluated during the experiment test. To make efficient decision, safety design with AI technology should be put on agenda for roboticists. Except from the risks, ethics raise many challenges while most of them can be solved by developing technologies while some of the problems exist in human’s society which also raise the questions for the human beings. More broader vision should be taken from different social departments together to avoid the possible embarrassed issues. It’s time to welcome the world of robotics and related techniques will make life more efficient while human-robot coexistence society will come one day and law should be imposed on both.