Plug, Plan and Produce as Enabler for Easy Workcell Setup and Collaborative Robot Programming in Smart Factories

Abstract

The transformation of today's manufacturing lines into truly adaptive systems facilitating individualized mass production requires new approaches for the efficient integration, configuration and control of robotics and automation components. Recently, various types of Plug-and-Produce architectures were proposed that support the discovery, integration and configuration of field devices, automation equipment or industrial robots during commissioning or even operation of manufacturing systems. However, in many of these approaches, the configuration possibilities are limited, which is a particular problem if robots operate in dynamic environments with constrained workspaces and exchangeable automation components as typically required for flexible manufacturing processes. In this article, we introduce an extended Plug-and-Produce concept based on dynamic motion planning, co-simulation and a collaborative human-robot interaction scheme that facilitates the quick adaptation of robotics behaviors in the context of a modular production system. To confirm our hypothesis on the efficiency and usability of this concept, we carried out a feasibility study where participants performed a flexible workcell setup. The results indicate that the assistance and features for planning effectively support the users in tasks of different complexity and that a quick adaption is indeed possible. Based on our observations, we identify further research challenges in the context of Plug, Plan and Produce applied to smart manufacturing.

Human-centred design in industry 4.0: case study review and opportunities for future research

“…In addition, the smart robots work safely with humans in collaborative production systems to autonomously and seamlessly perform collaborative tasks working towards common goals (Boschetti et al, 2021 ; Cohen et al, 2019 ; Gervasi et al, 2020 ; Wojtynek et al, 2019 ). These collaborative robots, often called cobots , relieve the factory workers from the low-level tasks to work side-by-side with humans in order to increase the workstation performance: production pace, efficiency, and higher throughput.…”

“…One of the technical challenges is that the boundaries between technologies and humans are increasingly fuzzy: language processing, social robotics, artificial intelligence, cyber physical systems, virtual reality, and augmented reality. This phenomenon is blurring the limits of where the human ends and technology starts (Frauenberger, 2019 ; Gervasi et al, 2020 ; Weichhart et al, 2019 ; Wojtynek et al, 2019 ). Moreover, recent research tends to focus on technical aspects instead of tackling existing problems related to error-prone interaction between human and non-human actors (Klumpp et al, 2019 ; Song et al, 2016 ).…”

Assisted Planning and Setup of Collaborative Robot Applications in Modular Production Systems

“…7 degrees of freedom (Kuka IIWA 7 R800) in the constrained workspace of a Modular Production System presented in Fig. 1 and published in [14]. In this evaluation, the focus is on the simulation and generation of the workspace layout to validate the functionality of the automated and algorithmic planning.…”

“…This contribution is based on our previous work 1 combining industrial aspects with active operator assistance in a Modular Production System (MPS) using a collaborative robot for material handling [14], [15]. Further, the co-bot is facilitated for the rapid reconfiguration of the modular workspace.…”

“…However, the iWA system must perform an automated and vendorspecific code generation or joint angle streaming to supply the desired target platform with the robot motion and behavior information. Either the operator transfers the base coordinates of the components manually into the real world, or the operator uses calibration methods to exploit collaborative and kinematic functionalities of the robot such as the approach described in our previous publication [14]. F i n a l D r a f t…”