Application-specific design of assistance systems for manual work in production

Merkel, Lukas; Berger, Christoph; Schultz, Cedric; Braunreuther, Stefan; Reinhart, Gunther

doi:10.1109/ieem.2017.8290080

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Short-term fatigue measurement [16,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] Reduction of fatigue [7,15,24,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] Integration of human short-term fatigue in an industrial decision system [2,[44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]…”

Section: Short-term Fatiguementioning

confidence: 99%

Health-Related Parameters for Evaluation Methodologies of Human Operators in Industry: A Systematic Literature Review

et al. 2021

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Human factors have always been an important part of research in industry, but more recently the idea of sustainable development has attracted considerable interest for manufacturing companies and management practitioners. Incorporating human factors into a decision system is a difficult challenge for manufacturing companies because the data related to human factors are difficult to sense and integrate into the decision-making processes. Our objectives with this review are to propose an overview of the different methods to measure human factors, of the solutions to reduce the occupational strain for workers and of the technical solutions to integrate these measures and solutions into a complex industrial decision system. The Scopus database was systematically searched for works from 2014 to 2021 that describe some aspects of human factors in industry. We categorized these works into three different classes, representing the specificity of the studied human factor. This review aims to show the main differences between the approaches of short-term fatigue, long-term physical strain and psychosocial risks. Long-term physical strain is the subject that concentrates the most research efforts, mainly with physical and simulation techniques to highlight physical constraints at work. Short-term fatigue and psychosocial constraints have become a growing concern in industry due to new technologies that increase the requirements of cognitive activities of workers. Human factors are taking an important place in the sustainable development of industry, in order to ameliorate working conditions. However, vigilance is required because health-related data creation and exploitation are sensible for the integrity and privacy of workers.

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Section: Short-term Fatiguementioning

confidence: 99%

Health-Related Parameters for Evaluation Methodologies of Human Operators in Industry: A Systematic Literature Review

et al. 2021

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“…In the past, workers had to be able to adapt to machine conditions ( Casla et al, 2019 ). In contrast, to meet the requirements of the dynamic and complex working environment with its diverse work tasks and high product individualization, highly flexible and adaptable operators are needed in the future factory ( Longo et al, 2017 ; Merkel et al, 2017 ; Mark et al, 2021 ). Only this way will it be possible to achieve the necessary flexibility and agility in the future.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since there is a close dependency between the perceived complexity, the situation-specific functionality of the support technology, and the operator’s skills, these aspects must be dynamically adjusted to each other ( Hinrichsen and Bornewasser, 2019 ). Support systems such as exoskeletons are well suited to cope with the increasing complexity of manual production ( Merkel et al, 2017 ). When exoskeletons are intended to support humans, the technology and its interaction with operators ( Di Pasquale et al, 2021 ) must also be capable of adapting and coping with changing conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Framework for qualifying exoskeletons as adaptive support technology

2022

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The fifth industrial revolution and the accompanying influences of digitalization are presenting enterprises with significant challenges. Regardless of the trend, however, humans will remain a central resource in future factories and will continue to be required to perform manual tasks. Against the backdrop of, e.g., societal and demographic changes and skills shortage, future-oriented support technologies such as exoskeletons represent a promising opportunity to support workers. Accordingly, the increasing interconnection of human operators, devices, and the environment, especially in human-centered work processes, requires improved human-machine interaction and further qualification of support systems to smart devices. In order to meet these requirements and enable exoskeletons as a future-proof technology, this article presents a framework for the future-oriented qualification of exoskeletons, which reveals potential in terms of user-individual and context-dependent adaptivity of support systems. In this context, a framework has been developed, allowing different support situations to be classified based on elementary functions. Using these support function dependencies and characteristics, it becomes possible to describe adaptive system behavior for human-centered support systems such as exoskeletons as a central aspect. For practical illustration, it is shown for an exemplary active exoskeleton using the example of user-individuality and context-specificity how the support characteristics of exoskeletons in the form of different support characteristics can bring about a purposeful and needs-based application for users and can contribute valuably to design future workplaces.

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“…Although one of the main principles of Industry 4.0 is that the cyber-physical system should make decisions and perform tasks as autonomously as possible, the worker remains one of the most important resources inside the factory; in the era of digitalisation and data exchange, the supervision of workers' actions inside the factory is crucial [5]. For example, manual tasks are often required to guarantee flexibility in the production process, especially in semi-automated or non-automated settings, and incorrect movements and action may significantly affect the production processes [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validation of a modular and wearable system for tracking fingers movements

et al. 2020

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<p class="Abstract">Supervising manual operations performed by workers in industrial environments is crucial in a smart factory. Indeed, the production of products with superior quality, at higher throughput rates and reduced costs with the support of the Industry 4.0 enabling technologies is based on the strict control of all the resources inside the factory, including workers. This paper shows a protocol for validating a new wearable system for tracking finger movements. The wearable system consists of two measuring modules worn on the thumb and on the index measuring flexion and extension of the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint by a stretch sensor and rotation of the proximal phalanx (PP) by an inertial measurement unit. An optical system is used to validate the system by capturing specific finger movements. Four movements that simulate typical tasks and gestures, such as grasp and pinch, were performed to validate the proposed system. The maximum root-mean-square error is 3.7 deg for the roll angle of PP. The resistance changes of the stretch sensors with respect to flexion and extension of PIP joint is 0.47 Ohm/deg. The results are useful for the data interpretation when the system is adopted for monitoring finger movements and gestures.</p>

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Application-specific design of assistance systems for manual work in production

Cited by 11 publications

References 12 publications

Health-Related Parameters for Evaluation Methodologies of Human Operators in Industry: A Systematic Literature Review

Health-Related Parameters for Evaluation Methodologies of Human Operators in Industry: A Systematic Literature Review

Framework for qualifying exoskeletons as adaptive support technology

Validation of a modular and wearable system for tracking fingers movements

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