Robotic vocational accommodations in manufacturing jobs

Abstract

A person with a physical disability may posess the mental aptitude to competently and efficiently perform the decision-making aspects of a range of vocational tasks, but may not be employable because of an inability to manipulate the tools and/or product associated with those tasks. A project has b een carried out to address this limitation by investigating the use of an interactive automated system to expand job opportunities for people with manipulation disabilities in manufacturing jobs. An outcome of this project is an interactive robotic system that was designed to enable a physically disabled person to perform the job of visual inspector of hybrid microcircuits. This paper describes details of this interactive robotic system, and the procedures followed in its installation and evaluation. Implementation requirements for the general application of interactive robotic systems are discussed.