Towards gestured-based technologies for human-centred Smart Factories. Issue 1 (2nd January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Manghisi, Vito Modesto; Wilhelm, Markus; Uva, Antonello; Engelmann, Bastian; Fiorentino, Michele; Schmitt, Jan
• Is Part Of: International journal of computer integrated manufacturing. Volume 36:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: 110
• Page End: 127
• Publication Date: 2023-01-02
• Subjects: Gesture-Based monitoring -- gesture-based control -- assembly -- manufacturing; Computer integrated manufacturing systems -- Periodicals; 670.427
• DOI: 10.1080/0951192X.2022.2121424
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0951-192X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Despite the increasing degree of automation in industry, manual or semi-automated are commonly and inevitable for complex assembly tasks. The transformation to smart processes in manufacturing leads to a higher deployment of data-driven approaches to support the worker. Upcoming technologies in this context are oftentimes based on the gesture-recognition, − monitoring or – control. This contribution systematically reviews gesture or motion capturing technologies and the utilization of gesture data in the ergonomic assessment, gesture-based robot control strategies as well as the identification of COVID-19 symptoms. Subsequently, two applications are presented in detail. First, a holistic human-centric optimization method for line-balancing using a novel indicator – ErgoTakt – derived by motion capturing. ErgoTakt improves the legacy takt-time and helps to find an optimum between the ergonomic evaluation of an assembly station and the takt-time balancing. An optimization algorithm is developed to find the best-fitting solution by minimizing a function of the ergonomic RULA-score and the cycle time of each assembly workstation with respect to the workers' ability. The second application is gesture-based robot-control. A cloud-based approach utilizing a generally accessible hand-tracking model embedded in a low-code IoT programming environment is shown.