Preliminary Study on a Handle with Haptic Devices for Collaborative Robotics in a Remote Maintenance Environment

Operators involved in plant and machine maintenance operations are often exposed to many risks due to hazardous tasks. This is evident especially during the maintenance of offshore wind turbines, which implies that the human workers are in contact with dangerous components with risk of falls, as they must climb the turbine to perform their intervention. Therefore, an ethical approach is necessary to promote a more sustainable industrialization and safe work. Studying new safe solutions is essential to improve job conditions and economic growth. A new handling device is proposed for a telerobotic platform that uses collaborative robots and Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) to increase safety and efficiency in the maintenance of renewable energy machines as offshore wind turbines. The study aims at achieving the SDG8 objectives of Decent Work and Economic Growth by reducing hazards and risks for operators, as well as the SDG7 objective of Affordable and Clean Energy. Two versions of a maneuvering device for remote maintenance of offshore wind turbines are compared in terms of ergonomics and safety. The tests are carried out with a sample of 13 operators also equipped with tactile devices useful to regulate the application of force by the operator when the contact between the tool and the machine to be maintained occurs.