Information support development with human-centered approach for human-robot collaboration in cellular manufacturing

The purpose of this work is to develop information support for human-robot collaboration in cellular manufacturing based on human-centered approach to improve the human adaptability of the support system. In this paper, six main developments are presented to illustrate the human-centered approach. Before the human-robot collaboration system can be developed, a human-human collaboration experiment is conducted to investigate the interactions within the collaboration. Instead of analyzing the assembly process in conventional mechanical approach, task analysis approach is used to analyze human operations in assembly. This approach explains the assembly process by human operations for better understanding of the assembly by the operator. Collaboration analysis in both quantitative and qualitative analyses is conducted in design phase to understand the collaboration relationship in assembly. The collaboration is analyzed from the given assembly operations and the tasks are reassigned to the appropriate working agent based on the capabilities of the human operator and the robot system. Risk assessment is conducted to enhance safety information in the support system. Based on human cognitive process and experimental studies, a multimodal information support system is developed with horizontal display providing information support by multimedia presentation. Support information design and presentation are developed based on human information processing. A set of design guidelines is developed to prepare the multimedia presentation. The support system is successfully implemented in a prototype production cell for cable harness assembly. Comparison study is conducted to validate the improvement by the support system.