Human-Robot Collaboration in Assembly

Abstract

The main objective of human-robot collaboration (HRC) in shared workspace is to integrate the best of two worlds: strength, endurance, repeatability and accuracy of the robots with the intuition, flexibility and versatile problem solving and sensory skills of the humans. HRC in assembly is getting momentum not only in academic research but also in industrial applications. The presentation first suggests a generic solution approach to assembly planning which is facing the problem of arranging objects in space and actions in time so that products specified by design can be realized in production. Next, methods of dynamic, context-dependent tasks assignment, adaptive robot control as well as mobile, multi-modal worker assistance are discussed. Human safety must be warranted all the time by active collision avoidance. The presentation emphasizes that designing, planning, controlling and supervising the operation of HRC assembly workcells need an advanced digital twin. Examples will be provided from a recent European R&D project targeting symbiotic HRC in the aeronautic and automotive industries. Finally, research issues of cooperative teamwork, performance improvement by machine learning, as well as trust in and responsibility of autonomous robotic agents are exposed.

Short Bio: József Váncza is Head of the Research Laboratory of Engineering and Management Intelligence at the Institute for Computer Science and Control (SZTAKI) of Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA). He received his MSc in electrical engineering (1984) and PhD in mechanical engineering (1994). His research interest includes computational intelligence, advanced planning in production and energy management, robotics, and has special interest in cooperative and sustainable production. He has been lecturing for three decades at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics where he is Associate Professor at the Department of Manufacturing Science and Engineering. He is Fellow of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP), and Chair of the Scientific Technical Committee on Production Systems and Organizations (STC O). In Hungary, he is Vice President of the John von Neumann Computer Society and represents the engineering sciences in the Council of the Academic Research Centers of MTA. He is in various capacities on the editorial board of five leading international journals. He published over 200 scientific papers that received 3000+ citations.