I have been thinking a lot about thresholds since we started the project. Thresholds for me relate to safety, comfortability, barriers, awareness, reading intention and perception. At the moment we are throwing boxes with the robot arm to me behind a barrier. The barrier has moved in recently but remains at a distance beyond the reach of the robot. My question is can we remove the barrier and share space? Move more intimately around one another?
The industrial ABB robot I have been working with at the ARM Hub has lasers that provide information about movement within the robots work space and act as a safety switch. This has led to the approach of throwing the box and developing game structures with me behind the barrier.
The challenge for me behind the barrier is becoming one of missing the tactility and more direct interaction when able to work more closely together.
It was suggested that perhaps working with the model of the robot in the HoloLens might be a solution. However, this becomes another vision based tool, with a strong frontal relationship that doesn’t enable my whole body at once to be involved in sensing and responding to the robot. I’m wondering how we can move beyond relying on vision as a feedback mechanism and engage our senses holistically to perceive, interpret and respond appropriately. Can I attune myself to reading the robots next move without seeing it?
The next big thing for me is to have a conversation with a safety expert. I’d like to ask a series of curly questions to see how much closer I can be to the robot and what negotiations might need to occur.