Abstract — As manufacturing enters an era of mass customisation, new technological solutions with more versatility and flexibility are brought to the industry. Collaborative robots, or cobots, can now safely work near humans, a key advantage that enables highly flexible production and opens the possibility of tackling the incidence of occupational health problems.
Although the advantages of collaborative robotic manufacturing have been extensively praised, adapting a manual production workstation to integrate robotic technology is far from being a linear and easy process. In this project, we explore the delicate balance between ergonomic, production, and safety requirements in the design of a new collaborative cell. We explain the different steps of this digital transformation process and the thought process behind human-robot task allocation to maximise the collaborative robot efficiency while improving the work conditions.
Results show a significant reduction in the global ergonomic risk score associated with the workers’ actions and postures and an increase in production quotas, compared to the previous manual process.
Index Terms — Collaborative Robots, Human-Centred Work-Cells, Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders
This repository holds:
- Videos and images of the manual and collaborative workstations for comparison @Multimedia;
- CoppeliaSim simulation scenes and models @CoppeliaSim.
To this project are associated the following scientific contributions:
Articles:
- "From Handcrafting to a Certified and Ergonomic Collaborative Workstation: the Digital Transformation Process" - João G. Cunha, Carlos Faria, Ana Colim, João Oliveira, Luís A. Rocha, Márcio Silva, Sérgio Monteiro, Estela Bicho - IEEE International Conference On Intelligence And Safety 2021
- "Physical Ergonomics Improvement and Safe Design of an Assembly Workstation with Collaborative Robotics" - Ana Colim, Carlos Faria, João G. Cunha, João Oliveira, Nuno Sousa, Luís Rocha - Safety 2021
- "Safety Requirements for the Design of Collaborative Robotic Workstations in Europe – A Review" - Carlos Faria, Ana Colim, João G. Cunha, João Oliveira, Nelson Costa, Paula Carneiro, Sérgio Monteiro, Estela Bicho, Luís A. Rocha, Pedro Arezes - Advances in Safety Management and Human Performance 2020
- "Towards an Ergonomic Assessment Framework for Industrial Assembly Workstations - A Case Study" - Ana Colim, Carlos Faria, Ana Cristina Braga, Nuno Sousa, Luís Rocha, Paula Carneiro, Nélson Costa, Pedro Arezes - Applied Sciences 2020
Masters Dissertations:
- "A Collaborative Work-Cell to Improve Worker Ergonomics and Productivity" - João Gaspar Oliveira Cunha - University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal Alternative link.
Refer to the following link for a kinematic analysis of the UR robots.
