Design and Validation of a Learning Factory with Adaptive Human-Robot Collaboration

Technological developments in the field of human-robot collaboration have great potential for manufacturing companies. Due to ever faster development cycles, the fit between competences acquired in vocational training and actually required skills and abilities in the workplace is decreasing. The Bremen Institute for Mechanical Engineering (bime) has designed and implemented a learning factory that enables a team of four employees to explore collaborative and cooperative human-robot interaction in an assembly line scenario. The concept is based on an experimental modular assembly line that allows a free configuration of the arrangement of assembly stations and allows different degrees of automation. Based on a visual part recognition, the robot can react to human movements and the presence of components. In particular, the interaction between human and machine is in focus. The influence on the cycle times of a flow assembly in human-robot teams and the corresponding learning effects are investigated.