In the context of continuous industrial development, new and innovative technologies provide potential for various business applications. As a part of them, collaborative robots offer potential for use. Among other areas, there is particular interest in applying this technology in manual assembly. For this reason, this master’s thesis includes an analysis and discussion of the use of collaborative robots in the field of manual assembly. To make this possible, an extensive literature review was conducted on manual assembly and collaborative robotics. In the context of manual assembly, this is firstly defined and differentiated from other forms of assembly, whereby it is identified that manual assembly focuses on human involvement and is generally carried out by hands. In addition, other alternative assistance systems are identified, like for instance augmented reality, artificial intelligence or exoskeletons, which are used in the field of manual assembly. In order to further analyse collaborative robotics, collaborative robots are described and differentiated from other robot systems. In addition, human-robot collaboration is explained. Furthermore, the functions and capabilities of robots are identified, ethic aspects of collaboration are shown, exemplary collaborative robots are presented and the combination with artificial intelligence and the safety in collaboration are considered. In the course of these explanations, it becomes clear that safety is considered in various subject areas and that safety is regarded as essential in human-robot collaboration. Subsequently, the two topics of manual assembly and collaborative robots are combined. It is analysed which specific tasks collaborative robots are suitable for in manual assembly. Furthermore, the ergonomic impacts of collaboration, the application of collaborative robots in combination with artificial intelligence and augmented reality, and the challenges of the use in manual assembly are discussed. Through a comprehensive literature analysis and the discussion of various studies and experiments, it is shown that collaborative robots are suitable for a wide range of activities, such as quality control in the field of manual assembly or assembling itself, and that collaboration also has an impact on human ergonomics. In addition, the results of the literature research also show that there is a large number of different challenges, limitations and barriers, such as the limitation of strength or the restriction of speed, which have to be overcome or make the use of collaborative robots in manual assembly more difficult. Considering various studies, a combination with other technologies such as artificial intelligence or augmented reality is also identified as possible for the application.
Möglichkeiten von kollaborativen Robotern als Assistenzsystem in der manuellen Montage
Wienerroither, M. (Author). 2024
Student thesis: Master's Thesis