Holding out for a HIRO

Humanoid robots are expected to join the production line at Airbus by June 2015, claims an engineer working on a project to integrate humans and robots into the same workspace.

Dr Urko Esnaola Campos and his team from the department of robotics and automation at Tecnalia in Spain are integrating a HIRO humanoid robot into the production line at Airbus’ manufacturing plant in Puerto Real.

HIRO, which was developed by Japan’s Kawada Industries, is being integrated into the Puerto Real facility as part of a study into automating aeronautical assembly processes.

‘Our future view is a place where robots and humans share [the work space],’ said Dr Esnaola Campos. ‘They share their capabilities also, so there are some tasks that are really easy for a person and really difficult for a robot, and sometimes really tiring and dangerous for a person and really easy for a robot.’

HIRO’s vision systems consist of two cameras in its head and two cameras in each wrist.