Measuring the Movement Force of a CoBot to Evaluate Hand Guiding Operation

—In this study, we produced a testing model for evaluating the movement force involved in the hand guidance of a collaborative robot (CoBot). Hand guiding is a new concept in the field of CoBots and is one of the main topics of the International Organization for Standardization’s Technical Specifications 15066. The movement force of a four-degrees-of-freedom ceiling-mounted CoBot in a workspace was analyzed in this study. The research proposed a new method to evaluate the hand guiding operation of a CoBot: first, the movement force was measured; second, an image model was produced using these measurements; third, the movement forces for a workspace were analyzed ; finally, using these image models, conclusions and recommendations were formulated, detailing the safety requirements of hand guiding operations.