Bernhard Kausch

Self-optimising Production Systems

One of the central success factors for production in high-wage countries is the solution of the conflict that can be described with the term “planning efficiency”. Planning efficiency describes the relationship between the expenditure of planning and the profit generated by these expenditures. From the viewpoint of a successful business management, the challenge is to dynamically find the optimum between detailed planning and the immediate arrangement of the value stream. Planning-oriented approaches try to model the production system with as many of its characteristics and parameters as possible in order to avoid uncertainties and to allow rational decisions based on these models. The success of a planning-oriented approach depends on the transparency of business and production processes and on the quality of the applied models. Even though planning-oriented approaches are supported by a multitude of systems in industrial practice, an effective realisation is very intricate, so these models with their inherent structures tend to be matched to a current stationary condition of an enterprise. Every change within this enterprise, whether inherently structural or driven by altered input parameters, thus requires continuous updating and adjustment. This process is very cost-intensive and time-consuming; a direct transfer onto other enterprises or even other processes within the same enterprise is often impossible. This is also a result of the fact that planning usually occurs a priori and not in real-time. Therefore it is hard for completely planning-oriented systems to react to spontaneous deviations because the knowledge about those naturally only comes a posteriori.

Automation of robotic assembly processes on the basis of an architecture of human cognition

A novel concept to cognitive automation of robotic assembly processes is introduced. An experimental assembly cell with two robots was designed to verify and validate the concept. The cell’s numerical control—termed a cognitive control unit (CCU)—is able to simulate human information processing at a rule-based level of cognitive control. To enable the CCU to work on a large range of assembly tasks expected of a human operator, the cognitive architecture SOAR is used. On the basis of a self-developed set of production rules within the knowledge base, the CCU can plan assembly processes autonomously and react to ad-hoc changes in assembly sequences effectively. Extensive simulation studies have shown that cognitive automation based on SOAR is especially suitable for random parts supply, which reduces planning effort in logistics. Conversely, a disproportional increase in processing time was observed for deterministic parts supply, especially for assemblies containing large numbers of identical parts.

Work Process Models

Empirical studies are a prerequisite for creating meaningful models of work processes, which can be used to analyze, improve, and automate design processes. In this contribution, a modeling procedure is presented, which comprises the creation of semi-formal models of design processes, their analysis and improvement, and finally the formalization of the models as a prerequisite for the implementation of supportive software tools. Several modeling languages have been created for representing design processes, including the C3 language for participative modeling of design processes on a semi-formal level and a Process Ontology for the formal representation of design processes.

Innovation of Homely Rehab with Help of Telemedical Services

Caused by demographic changes the costs for the health system increase in most industrial countries. To encounter this problem this paper presents a new telemedical approach for homely rehab. The importance of homely rehab is not just to decrease the arising expenses of hospitalization as well the down times of employees. By deploying an integrated usage of information and microsystem-based technology a sustainable rehab is getting possible at acceptable costs. The network presented in this paper integrates the patients, rehab clinics, family doctor and medical service providers (MSP) and so ensures complete medical care. Latter are responsible for gathering, summarizing and evaluating of the patient’s vital signs such as blood pressure, body temperature or pulse. The detection is realized with help of micro sensors that are worn on the body, and who transfer the parameters into a central database. By this means a continuously monitoring is provided, while all authorized network participants, such as the rehab clinic or the patient itself, can access the data in almost real-time. Beyond the medical and cost advantages, the network has the potential to establish further value added services (VAS) that hedge the business model for both, telemedical application and service providers.

Cognitive Engineering for Direct Human-Robot Cooperation in Self-optimizing Assembly Cells

In a work system with direct human robot cooperation the conformity of the operators expectation with the behavior of the robotic device is of great importance. In this contribution a novel approach for the numerical control of such a system based on human cognition and a cognitive engineered approach for the encoding of the systems a priori knowledge is introduced. The implementation using an established method in the field of design of cognitive systems is compared to a schema describing human decision making. Finally, simulation results of the implementation are compared to empirical tests with individuals.

Organizational simulation of complex process engineering projects in the chemical industry

In this paper, we demonstrate that, with a suitable instrument for project engineering, the project structure and resource allocations can be modeled and simulated even for weakly structured and distributed development projects. The instrument was developed with the goal of providing project planners and project leaders with a simple tool for fast and intuitive model development for project planning. For this reason the tool should make the comparison of different work organizational project constellations under the consideration of various boundary conditions possible. First results from industrial application of the instrument indicate that project concepts can be compared with each other and then optimized with regard to selected target criteria.

Adequate Assistance for Elderly People in Homely Rehab

This paper presents an approach for arranging, allocating and interchanging the gain in knowledge and experience during projects of the eHealth sectors and related domains. The know-how is transcribed into design-patterns, whose concept has proven its effectiveness in versatile areas. A framework for specifying the pattern-structure that meets the specific requirements of this area is defined.

Integrative Simulation of Work Processes

The design and optimization of creative and communicative work processes requires a detailed analysis of necessary activities, organizational structure, and information flow as well as the identification of weak spots. These requirements are met by the C3 modeling technique, which was specifically developed for design processes in chemical engineering (cf. Subsect. 2.4.4). C3 is also the foundation of the simulation-based quantitative organizational study described in this section. Therefore, a transformation technique from semi-formal models of work organizational dependencies into formal workflow models has been developed and implemented. The verified results of test-runs show the various fields of application of this technique, including its benefits for the reduction of cycle times, for the optimization of the operating grade of the employees, and for the capacity utilization of tools and resources.

User focused design of human-robot interaction for people suffering from unusual ailments

This paper presents the results of two years of empirical research with regard to the design of interfaces in human-robot interaction for elderly and disabled persons. Focus is on establishing telemedical services and service robots for homely aftercare and rehabilitation. Within several user studies and clinical trials the aspects of information input with the help of swabbing movements for people suffering from hand tremor and design recommendations for tactile stimuli in the use of touch screens were investigated. Additionally the comparison of different icon categories for archetypical telemedical scenarios and the implementation of intuitive acoustic feedback mechanisms were accomplished in empirical user studies, considering the requirements of the prospective user.

An Integrative Simulation Model for Project Management in Chemical Process Engineering

The planning of development projects significantly influences the costs created by the projects as well as the success of the development projects. However much potentials are actually wasted because of the inherent complexity unmanageable for project managers. Various methods and tools, from project modeling to the workflow management system, are used to handle this complexity and to develop these potentials, but the development of software solutions alone, however, is not sufficient. Instead, an extensive instrument consisting of methods, specification techniques and software tools for the integrated transformation and simulation of a graphical process model is needed. The presented approach shows a method for the modeling and simulation of development projects in process engineering based on Petri net simulation. The simulation of an example process displays the connections between different influencing parameters such as team configuration, the availability of needed tools, the variance in processing times, and the qualification of the persons involved. Selected mathematical relationships illustrate the interaction of these influencing parameters. It could hereby be determined which parameter combination is the best to achieve setted goals like with which amount of employed staff the shortest development time can be attained. In the outlook several additional parameters are named that will be added in order to make further detailed analyses possible in a future research project.