Virtual reality simulation of human-robot coexistence for an aircraft final assembly line: process evaluation and ergonomics assessment

Ergonomics and Human Factors as a Requirement to Implement Safer Collaborative Robotic Workstations: A Literature Review

“…Regarding the year of publication, our study shows that the oldest paper presented in this review dates to 2013 [31] (Figure 3). Moreover, the largest number of studies found have been published in 2021 [11,12,19,22,27,32,33,37,38]. These two findings point ou that E&HF as a requirement in HRC systems is an emergent/recent research topic.…”

“…This evidence is sustained by the fact that innovative research fields start from laboratory context and then are exploited to realworld context [39]. Regarding the Virtual Simulation context, five studies [16,30,31,36,37] were found, all of them related to physical ergonomics. This kind of context seems to be very appropriate for considering ergonomics requirements when designing and testing HRC configurations since it provides the opportunity to evaluate the feasibility of the process through different scenarios.…”

“…This kind of context seems to be very appropriate for considering ergonomics requirements when designing and testing HRC configurations since it provides the opportunity to evaluate the feasibility of the process through different scenarios. Additionally, these types of context are proven to appreciably reduce the time and cost of product development [30,31,37]. Related to this, three papers were found in which workstations were studied in a virtual environment.…”

“…Hedaryan et al [30] used the software Tecnomatix Process Simulate to model an assembly workstation, and Pini et al [16] used the simulation tool DELIMA for ergonomic analysis of the HRC. Ottogalli et al [37] proposed a Virtual Reality simulator to perform and evaluate multiple design assembly processes and assess the worker's ergonomics. This kind of simulation environment has many advantages in the design of collaborative workstations, especially when one intends to consider ergonomic requirements.…”

“…This kind of simulation environment has many advantages in the design of collaborative workstations, especially when one intends to consider ergonomic requirements. The major advantage that can be mentioned is that it allows the capability to study the ergonomics of the human worker while assembling the parts and coexisting with robots, without compromising the worker's safety [37]. Related to theoretical context, there was found only one study [35].…”