Designing collaborative robot workstations for human-centred automation in final assembly - A task allocation approach

Sammanfattning: With the rise of increasingly intricate products, human operators are stretched thin by greater physical and cognitive demands. A growing necessity has also arisen for automation to assist these operators supportively and productively while maintaining optimal efficiency. One solution to this problem is the integration of collaborative robots; specifically, the use of task allocation to correctly apply collaborative robots in the design process. Thus, this thesis aims to enable task allocation in designing human-centred automation by using collaborative robot workstations in final assembly. This aim is achieved through theoretical and empirical research and a mixture of different research methods, such as qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research. This thesis focuses on collaborative robots in manufacturing and final assembly. It analyses the current and intended use of these robots in final assembly and explores how task allocation can help develop collaborative robot workstations that support human-centred automation. Through theoretical research, the thesis finds that collaborative robot applications are highly useful in manufacturing and final assembly and can easily be combined with other human-centred automation technologies. However, the thesis also highlights the fact that in complex assembly processes, there is negligible collaboration between humans and robots. The empirical research presented in this thesis finds that companies recognise the potential benefits of using these robots to tackle human operators’ challenges. However, for human-robot collaboration to be successful, the collaboration must be based on the capabilities of humans and robots. This can be achieved using task allocation. This thesis uses task allocation based on levels of automation (LoA). This thesis proposes a new LoA that can serve as a helpful tool for production designers to create collaborative robot workstations. This approach enables production designers to obtain valuable insights on effectively distributing tasks between robots and humans. By doing so, they can determine the level of collaboration required and the necessary skills from the human operators required to accomplish a particular task.