An Industry 4.0 Tool to Enhance Human-Robot Collaboration

Abstract

The Industry 4.0 is strongly connected with the use of robotic systems and specifically the use of autonomous ground vehicles.A critical issue is the manipulation of the information flows in the industrial facilities and the integration of the robotic systems in the production line.Human Machine Interaction interfaces enable production line employees to monitor in almost real-time the information streams and handle robotic systems and robotic vehicles, but the use of handheld devices is rather limited.In most of the cases the robotic systems are controlled from a central system, and this prohibits the flexibility of the overall system and the re-initialization of the system when an error occurs.The proposed research work focuses on robotic vehicles that are working within the industrial facility and presents a user-friendly Industry 4.0 software tool for transparently monitoring the information streams in the production line and controlling the vehicle's behaviour using mobile devices (e.g., mobile phones and tablets).The developed software tool enables the transparent communication and interaction among the industrial machinery, the robotic systems, and the employees, supports the execution of everyday activities by providing information about the vehicles and assesses the operation of the mobile vehicles.