Design and implementation of a human-robot collaborative assembly workstation in a modular robotized production line

Abstract

Over the last decades, the Industrial Automation domain at factory shop floors experienced an exponential growth in the use of robots. The objective of such change aims to increase the efficiency at reasonable cost. However, not all the tasks formerly performed by humans in factories, are fully substituted by robots nowadays, specially the ones requiring high-level of dexterity. In fact, Europe is moving towards implementing efficient work spaces were humans can work safely, aided by robots. In this context, industrial and research sectors have ambitious plans to achieve solutions that involve coexistence and simultaneity at work between humans and collaborative robots, a.k.a. “cobots” or co-robots, for permitting a safe interaction for the same or interrelated manufacturing processes. Many cobot producers started to present their products, but those arrived before the industry have clear and several needs of this particular technology. This work presents an approach about how to demonstrate human-robot collaborative manufacturing? How to implement a dual-arm human-robot collaborative workstation? How to integrate a human-robot collaborative workstation into a modular interconnected production line? and What are the advantages and challenges of current HRC technologies at the shop floor? by documenting the formulation of a human-robot collaborative assembly process, implemented by designing and building an assembly workstation that exemplifies a scenario of interaction between a dual arm cobot and a human operator, in order to assembly a product box, as a part of a large-scale modular robotized production line. The model produced by this work is part of the research facilities at the Future Automation Systems and Technologies Laboratory in Tampere University.