James W. Wells

Cobots for the automobile assembly line

Intelligent assist devices (IADs) are a new class of hybrid devices for direct, physical, interaction with a human operator in shared workspaces. These devices-designed for the assembly line worker-can reduce ergonomics concerns that arise due to on-the-job physical and cognitive loading, while improving safety, quality and productivity. Cobots, a sub-set of IADs, implement software defined virtual guiding surfaces while providing some amplification of human power. They exemplify the central theme of this paper-that humans are critical in many assembly operations and ergonomics tools that enable them to perform their duties are necessary. The paper describes broad design principles for human-machine interaction in these industrial settings. Prototype industrial cobots designed for testing and validation are described.

Panel discussion: Co-X and humanoids?

A renewed focus on robotics as part of national R&D has been proposed. As part of this, the concept of Co-Workers, Co-Inhabitants and Co-Defenders, or Co-X for short, has been introduced as focal points for R&D. The concept is based on a need for tighter integration between perception and action generation to have a higher degree of flexibility. Recently progress also suggests that major new opportunities are available through leveraging of richer interfaces between humans and robots both in terms of dialog complexity, task and skill learning and handling of ambiguity. Research on humanoids clearly has relevance to the general theme of Co-X. In this panel we will discuss challenges and opportunities within the general theme of Co-X and how it relates to humanoid systems.