Adaptive Qualification and Assistance Modules for Manual Assembly Workplaces

Abstract

Enterprises must be able to make decisions for increasing process effectiveness and efficiency in view of shrinking natural resources. A globalised work force has to be made aware of the challenges in resource scarcity and material wealth. Special attention has also to be paid on health and safety at work due to recent demographic developments. We present two solutions based on human motion capture technology which can improve efficiency while enabling ergonomic working, thus addressing challenges in sustainable manufacturing. With a qualification module, intuitive work descriptions can be generated and distributed. An assistance module automatically adjusts the workplace to enable working in a comfortable pose. First tests regarding our qualification module show the ability to implicitly convey knowledge during simple working tasks. Studies on the assistance module show its capabilities to predict what test subjects working at the workplace would consider as configuration for “comfortable” and “ergonomic” working.