Gesture-based Human-Machine Interaction in Industrial Environments

Abstract

The traditional human-machine interaction systems for manufacturing processes use peripheral devices that require physical contact between end user and machines. This physical contact causes an alteration of the elements that constitute the system due to the transmission of undesirable particles such as oil, chemical substances and pollution. This Master's thesis gives a solution for this issue which is based on the integration of a device used by game industry in entertainment applications that enables human-machine interaction through a non-physical contact modality. Several purposes are offered by the market such as kinect sensor and leap motion controller (LMC). However, the solution used in this thesis was focused on a hand gesture-based device called "LMC", which promising features that make it an attractive tool for future solutions in the industrial domain. The obtained result was the integration of this gesture sensor with different technologies that enables the interaction via hand gestures with a monitoring system and also a robot cell which is part of a manufacturing system.