AQUIAS Project Aims to Make Human-Robot Collaboration Appealing Even to Employees with Disabilities

Robots are already becoming widely established in German factories. But how can companies be sure to split the work between people and robots such that human workers don’t lose out on the desirable tasks? An event marking the start of the AQUIAS project showcased approaches to guaranteeing quality of work for manufacturing employees, including those with severe disabilities.

The new dimension of collaboration between humans and robots can be measured in just a few centimeters: the latest generation of high-precision sensors tells the robotic arms of today’s manufacturing assistants to stop whenever a person gets near. This happens so fast and so reliably that the otherwise standard safety barrier can be dispensed with. And it is this level of safety that makes it possible for people and machines to work hand in hand, in turn allowing companies to completely redesign how humans and robots can share tasks.

Guaranteeing rewarding work for people with severe disabilities too

To make human-robot collaboration appealing and accessible for a wide range of employee groups, the AQUIAS project is pursuing an unconventional path. In the first of two pilot schemes, Robert Bosch GmbH’s “APAS assistant” – a mobile manufacturing assistant – is being put to work at ISAK gGmbH, a company that gives assembly line jobs to people with all kinds of severe disabilities. “Our goal is to fine-tune the robots so that they can provide each employee with tailored support, thus enabling them to perform higher-value tasks,” explains Fraunhofer IAO project manager David Kremer. This benefits both the employees and ISAK gGmbH and allows the company to use the higher returns to secure jobs for its workforce.

For the second pilot scheme, Robert Bosch GmbH is using its APAS assistant to test various ways of dividing tasks between people and robots – that way, connections in the work organization can be discussed and developed with the relevant stakeholders. Here, the target groups are employees without disabilities; the findings from the first pilot scheme involving workers with severe disabilities from ISAK gGmbH are fed in to provide a comparison.

AQUIAS kickoff event – February 2 and 3, 2016

Fraunhofer IAO in Stuttgart hosted the AQUIAS project’s kickoff event on February 2 and 3, 2016. In addition to presentations on human-robot collaboration, a particular highlight was a live demonstration of the APAS assistant: the audience saw how an employee and APAS could work together on an assembly cell without a safety barrier. Workshops addressed questions posed by a variety of interest groups, including the trade associations and social partners of participating companies. The workshops also presented the first scenarios of what human-robot collaboration might be like in the year 2030.

Fraunhofer IAO drafts scenarios for future human-robot collaboration

To get the discussion on new ways of shaping human-robot collaboration underway as early as possible, part of Fraunhofer IAO’s work on the AQUIAS project is to develop alternative scenarios for future working processes. Comparing these scenarios sheds light on the various ways labor can be divided between humans and robots and allows stakeholders to discuss them. Doing so leads to conclusions about how the tasks people perform change, are expanded to include other tasks, or become superfluous. These changes are evaluated using human factors criteria in order to review the quality of the revised ways of working from a human perspective. Companies will be able to use the findings to develop appealing tasks for human-robot collaboration.

Bosch is developing robot interfaces for production employees with severe disabilities

If people with severe disabilities are to benefit from future opportunities opened up by new robotics solutions, the way robots and people interact needs adjusting. Reexamining tools, data displays and working processes is just as essential as answering questions relating to user behavior and workplace safety. To meet these challenges, as part of the AQUIAS project Bosch is developing solutions that enable people with severe disabilities to work with mobile manufacturing assistants. And analysis of the findings will also allow the project partners to derive ways in which robots can support employees with mild or no disabilities: “In AQUIAS, we want to learn from people with severe disabilities so we can improve human-robot interaction. What we’re doing allows us to take a much closer look at just what requirements a manufacturing assistant has to fulfill,” says Bosch project manager Wolfgang Pomrehn. In the long term, this will mean employees without disabilities will also benefit from additional support from mobile manufacturing assistants – support that can be tailored to the requirements of each individual employee.

Fraunhofer IPA compiles roadmap for connecting robotics and digital production

In facing the challenges posed by industry 4.0, the greatest potential of robotics lies in increasing flexibility. In particular, it is collaboration between humans and robots that will allow companies to keep pace with the growing complexity of manufacturing. However, human-robot collaboration also places new demands on the connectivity of machines. “To control robots intelligently, we need flexible ways of having production system data at our fingertips,” explains Fraunhofer IPA project manager Christian Henkel. To master this task, Fraunhofer IPA is developing a digitalization roadmap that charts the connectivity of manufacturing IT systems step by step. This roadmap acts as a guide that manufacturing companies can follow when integrating robots into their IT setups. It also factors in compatibility with industry 4.0, for instance by allowing scope for further cyber-physical systems to be gradually integrated into the digital factory.

ISAK is coordinating robotics pilot scheme for manufacturing employees who have severe disabilities

ISAK is just one of Germany’s inclusion companies that for years have been bearing the brunt of considerable economic challenges. At these businesses, the customer structure, production orders and product requirements have been changing just as fast as at companies where people with severe disabilities make up only a small fraction of the workforce. To hold its own against competitive pricing, ISAK employs a key strategy: increasing added value. “Using the APAS assistant within the AQUIAS project gives us the chance to increase our cost effectiveness, since it lets us cover more of the production process than we can today. We also want to offer our employees attractive tasks when working together with the mobile manufacturing assistant,” says Thomas Wenzler, managing director of ISAK gGmbH. And improving the company’s profitability will serve to safeguard the jobs of manufacturing employees with severe disabilities.

The AQUIAS research project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and coordinated by the DLR Project Management Agency. In addition to Fraunhofer IAO, the project’s funded partners are ISAK gGmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH and Fraunhofer IPA.