From Handcrafting to a Certified and Ergonomic Collaborative Workstation: The Digital Transformation Process

Abstract

As manufacturing enters an era of mass customization, 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 to tackle 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 work, we explore this delicate balance between the 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 maximize the collaborative robot efficiency while improving the work conditions. This work describes the development of a certified and production-ready collaborative workstation based on ergonomic criteria. 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.