The use case scenario involves the collaborative assembly of a latch valve in a fenceless environment including auxiliary activities as logistics and maintenance. Main challenges faced in this use case, are the adaptation of the workplace to process (e.g. work order, part reference, control program, etc.) and human (i.e. physical characteristics, capabilities, skills, etc.) and context (e.g. operation being performed) variability, the introduction multimodal Human-Robot interaction, the provision of adaptive assistance to the maintenance technician and the evaluation of trust, usability and worker satisfaction.

WHAT

To introduce active safety measures supporting Human-Robot
collaboration; to support personalized ergonomic adaptation; to provide
natural Human-Automation multi-channel interaction; to provide
decision support dashboards for quality and maintenance.

WHY

To evaluate trust, usability and worker satisfaction (in terms of
safety, interaction, ergonomics, assistance).

The assembly of a complex hydraulic system of the A350 Aircraft consists of several manual operations as well as big diversity of components. The challenge arising, is to provide assembly instructions adapted to the worker’s profile and context. Moreover, accurate information must be traceable and available to quality inspectors.

WHAT

To optimise hydraulic system assembly through the usage of smart
tools and Virtual/Augmented Reality.

WHY

To evaluate the impact of an adapted AR HMI in terms of
performance and error rate for different skilled groups of people and to
enable full quality assurance approach and operators performance thanks
to traceability.

The RWTH use case, is set in the ramp-up factory Aachen, for the assembly of a small electric vehicle prototype for short-distance traffic. This use case is challenging as technician’s skills and experience are not considered, training times are high and due to the prototyping environment, the processes are complex and unknown to the workers. Moreover, special tools are often not where they are required. The movement for the trolley causes ergonomic issues and cognitive stress.

WHAT

To incorporate AR based guidance based on operator’s profile and
to provide the tools required for the assembly by means of an automated
tool trolley.

WHY

To improve worker satisfaction, to reduce training time, to improve
process efficiency; to improve ergonomics; to validate a tool to determine
the optimal degree of automation.

CESA use case comprises the assembly of the retraction actuator for a commercial aircraft main landing gear. Two scenarios apply for this use case, i) an essential deburring operation, and ii) the assembly process itself. As such, challenges emerge from the lack of good ergonomics conditions and the need of wearing safety measures to avoid the related health issues. Moreover, there is a high variability in the deburring process, potentially causing quality issues and reducing productivity. On the contrary, assembly information is fragmented through different platforms, complex assembly instructions are not adapted to technicians’ profiles, training is long and complex and feedback gathering mechanisms from technicians must be improved.

WHAT

To incorporate a robot to assist the worker in the deburring
operation | To incorporate AR based guidance based on operator’s profile
as well supporting knowledge sharing.

WHY

To increase the quality, efficiency and ergonomics of the deburring
process | To reduce operators training time through AR; to reduce time for
reviewing documentation; to increase confidence, participation, and
internal communication among the personnel.

This paper forms a review of the lessons learned from the point of view of five EU funded H2020 research projects (A4BLUE, Factory2Fit, INCLUSIVE, HUMAN and MANUWORK, 2016-2020), working in parallel and constituting the Human-Centred Factories (ACE Factories) cluster. Knowledge and technology providers, as well as industrial partners, have grouped together to deliver solutions that will bridge the gap to the factories of the future.

The purpose of this white paper is to share the ACE Factories cluster understanding of future human-centred factories and to provide recommendations on how to get this vision into industrial practice.  This is a key report of the ACE Factories cluster, which aims to support the replication of successful innovative technologies tested through the end-users of the ACE Factories cluster projects. The core target groups of this report are people in academia, industry practitioners and policy makers at the local, national and EU levels.