Computer vision-enabled human-cyber-physical workstations collaboration for reconfigurable assembly system

Manufacturing flexibility is strategically important to firms for improving competition in the fast-changing market. This research inspired by the assembly cells system, which significantly appears rapid response, high flexibility and efficiency on the high-mix, low-volume (HMLV) environment. However, due to the non-repetitive operations caused by various products, high dependency on workers' skills and inevitable exceptions and disruptions in manual operation, the complexity and uncertainty within the assembly cell will cause the system disturbance propagation and amplification. This paper presents a reconfigurable assembly system consisted of multiple intelligent assembly workstations (iWorkstation), named W-RAS. Based on a proposed human-cyber-physical system (HCPS) framework, the innovated iWorkstation can assist workers with differences in abilities and characteristics. Computer vision technology is applied to monitor and analyze the operation process and status for work measurement and ergonomic assessment. This real-time information visibility and traceability can support feedback-based optimal management and enhance coordination among the iWorkstations for enhancing the adaptability and reconfigurability of W-RAS. Finally, an operational mechanism is proposed for multiple iWorkstations collaboration and a numerical example shows the benefits in shortening the lead time of various orders.