Towards Adaptive, Interactive, Assistive and Collaborative Assembly Workplaces Through Semantic Technologies

Assembly systems are characterised by being mainly manual labour environments with high flexibility but low productivity. To increase productivity while maintaining flexibility, assembly systems need to be redesigned by incorporating automation mechanisms and assistance tools that adapt themselves to the context and complement human capabilities. In this paper, we present a semantic approach which can adapt the workplace in real time to the production context and operators’ characteristics. The approach is based on a semantic representation of the workplaces, processes and workers’ profiles, as well as their environmental situation, like a workplace digital twin. Furthermore, the approach guides operators in a personalised way providing intuitive communication channels such as voice and gestures to interact with the automatisms in place, ensuring the process execution correctness and operators’ satisfaction. The approach is validated in two specific assembly workplaces, demonstrating the easy adoption of it in different scenarios.