A socio-technical assistance system for learning-conducive work design in robot-assisted assembly

This contribution of the journal Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO) is dedicated to designing a learning-conducive robot-based assistance system for industrial assembly tasks. Individualized products, smaller batch sizes and accelerated processes are aspects of the digital transformation in industrial manufacturing and require a more flexible production paradigm. Human-robot collaboration and knowledge-based engineering are approaches to meet these requirements. Based on the application example of wiring control cabinets, this article presents a first approach, in which knowledge-based technologies (mainly ontologies and their logical interpretation) are used to automatically propose task allocations between humans and robots according to both economic and human work design criteria. On the one hand, the requirements of each task can be compared with the individual skills and strengths of the employees as well as with those of the collaborative robot system in a mixed-skill concept according to operational parameters (e.g., time, quality) to approach an optimal production process. On the other hand, aspects of humane design of the human-machine interaction (HMI) can be considered, which are primarily combined with regard to their conduciveness to learning. Learning in HMI presupposes time, room for maneuver and conducive content and is at the same time an increasing necessity to react in a forward-looking manner to the dynamic changes in work requirements. The use of technology in particular is associated with a strong change in work activities in the direction of decision-makers and problem solvers, which requires low-threshold, work-integrated learning opportunities in addition to qualification and further training. Especially collaborative robotics, as a key technology of flexible manufacturing, necessitates the development of new concepts for the organization of the hybrid interaction of humans and robots. In the following, building on the basic approach, the concept of a technical demonstrator is presented, which was developed alongside an empirical case study. The prototypical, technical implementation is based on a workspace with a robotic arm and related tools, the formal semantic description of the capabilities and work activities of humans and robots, and an intuitive user interface, among other things, for the individual adaptation of the generated work assignments.