For decades, robots have been a fixture in the industrial landscape, performing tasks that are tedious or arduous or unsafe for humans. Robots could function at a higher speed than humans and sustain it over an entire shift without getting tired or losing focus. The mass and speed of typical industrial robots presented significant risk to human operators, however. As a result, industrial robots were traditionally placed inside of fixed enclosures. A new type of robot makes it possible for humans to work closely and safely together with the robot without the need for safety barriers. Different levels of collaboration exist. At the most sophisticated, a collaborative robot is capable of collaborative operation, which means cooperation with a human being within a defined workspace. They tend to be built to handle lower forces and move more slowly to enable them to respond in a safe manner around human operators.
来源：Motion Control & Motor Association 6.25
