Adaptive Task Sharing in Human-Robot Interaction in Assembly
Christina Schmidbauer, Sebastian Schlund, Tudor B. Ionescu, Bernd Hader
Abstract
The ongoing development of collaborative robots (cobots) bears great potential for assembly processes by enabling new possibilities of task allocation between humans and machines. A detailed, empirically based evaluation of how cobots can live up to these possibilities in industrial practice is still missing in the manufacturing literature. In this paper some of the existing shortcomings -referred to as "the productivity gap" - in current assembly automation processes are discussed. To cope with this gap, adaptive human-cobot task sharing is proposed and implemented as a complementary task allocation model. Its potential to increase productivity and flexibility in new and existing assembly applications is evaluated.