Development and Evaluation of a Knowledge-Based Cyber-Physical Production System to Support Industrial Set-Up Processes Considering Ergonomic and User-Centered Aspects.

Dynamic markets and constantly changing work practices are causing an increased number of industrial set-up operations on production machines in the wake of a growing demand for customized product requirements. Augmented reality (AR)-based cyber-physical production systems (CPPS) can be used to support complex and knowledge-intensive processes. Resting on a comprehensive ethnographic study, this topic was addressed to identify practices of machine operators in the course of set-up processes on forming or bending machines through a qualitative research approach. Subsequently, a set-up application for an AR-mediated head-mounted display was developed according to a user-centered design approach. For a holistic, objective and subject-related human factors analysis on the handling of AR-based CPPS in the context of assembly or set-up processes, ergonomic sub-studies were conducted. The research work advances the state of the art in the design of digital technologies or CPPS to support operators who are entrusted with set-up processes of industrial production machines.