Workstations with one or more robots are known from practice in various forms. As a rule, they are designed as fully automatic stations and they are equipped with protective partitions, which mechanically prevent the access of workers or switch off the industrial robot, for accident prevention for the workers.
Furthermore, there are efforts to allow humans to cooperate or collaborate with industrial robots, especially tactile robots. This is called human-robot cooperation (HRC). Tactile articulated arm industrial robots suitable for this are known from, e.g., DE 10 2007 063 099 A1, DE 10 2007 014 023 A1 and DE 10 2007 028 758 B4.
On the other hand, a safety monitoring at an industrial robot by means of desired values is known from DE 10 2007 059 481 A1. DE 10 2005 027 522 B4 discloses an industrial robot with a moving monitored area around the tool or the dangerous area by means of a capacitive sensor system. A risk assessment according to DIN EN ISO 12100 is to be performed for designing workstations.