Proactive Human–Robot Collaboration Toward Human-Centric Smart Manufacturing is driven by an appreciation of manufacturing scenarios where human and robotic agents can understand each other’s actions and conduct mutual-cognitive, predictable, and self-organizing teamwork. Modern factories’ smart manufacturing transformation and the evolution of relationships between humans and robots in manufacturing tasks set the scene for a discussion on the technical fundamentals of state-of-the-art proactive human–robot collaboration; these are further elaborated into the three main steps (i.e., mutual-cognitive and empathic coworking; predictable spatio-temporal collaboration; self-organizing multiagent teamwork) to achieve an advanced form of symbiotic HRC with high-level, dynamic-reasoning teamwork skills. The authors then present a deployment roadmap and several case studies, providing step-by-step guidance for real-world application of these ground-breaking methods which crucially contribute to the maturing of human-centric, sustainable, and resilient production systems. The volume proves to be an invaluable resource that supports understanding and learning for users ranging from upper undergraduate/graduate students and academic researchers to engineering professionals in a variety of industry contexts. Offers pioneering information on an industry 5.0 topic that has attracted much research interest in recent years Takes advantage of a structured and comprehensive approach to seamlessly combine theory, latest technological developments, and their practical applications Includes actionable methods, while conceptualizing future implications for smart manufacturing

Human-robot collaboration (HRC), where humans and robots work together on specific tasks, is a growing part of smart manufacturing that entails artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in manufacturing processes. Robots need to be able to dynamically understand their working environments and human partners both accurately and quickly, as inaccurate or slow predictions can be dangerous to humans and collaborative tasks. To handle challenging environments, robots need to utilize commonsense knowledge (CSK), which is everyday knowledge about fundamental concepts, such as how basic objects interact with each other, what their properties are, and how they are associated. Human beings utilize CSK regularly, and robots can effectively collaborate with humans through it. This thesis outlines the fundamentals of CSK to provide prerequisite information and demonstrates how robots utilize it to collaborate with humans. The thesis also demonstrates the effectiveness of CSK and HRC through simulation studies and real-world human-robot collaboration experiments by deploying commonsense knowledge priorities and mathematical modeling for task optimization in robot action planning. Human-robot collaboration is compared with humans working without aid from robots. This thesis presents the results of this work along with a survey of relevant literature, as well as open issues for further research. To the best of our knowledge, ours is pioneering work on proposing a specific approach based on commonsense knowledge for human-robot collaboration in smart manufacturing.

Smart Product-Service Systems draws on innovative practice and academic research to demonstrate the unique benefits of Smart PSS and help facilitate its effective implementation. This comprehensive guide explains how Smart PSS reshapes product-service design in several unique aspects, including a closed-loop product design and redesign manner, value co-creation with integrated human-machine intelligence, and solution design context-awareness. Readers in industry as well as academia will find this to be an invaluable guide to the current body of technical knowledge on Smart Product-Service Systems (Smart PSS), future research trajectories, and experiences of implementation. Rapid development of information and communication technologies, artificial intelligence, and digital technologies have driven today’s industries towards the so-called digital servitization era. As a result, a promising IT-driven business paradigm, known as Smart Product-Service Systems (Smart PSS) has emerged, where a large amount of low cost, high performance smart, connected products are leveraged, together with their generated on-demand services, as a single solution bundle to meet individual customer needs. Explains what factors a company needs to consider in their transition towards digital servitization and its advantages Describes how this field relates to the sustainability movement, and how Smart PSS can be implemented in a sustainable way Includes detailed case studies from different industries, including DELTA Electronics Inc. Singapore (smart commercialization), COMAC aviation industry (smart manufacturing servitization), and Van High Tech (smart building services)

This book presents state-of-the-art research, challenges and solutions in the area of human–robot collaboration (HRC) in manufacturing. It enables readers to better understand the dynamic behaviour of manufacturing processes, and gives more insight into on-demand adaptive control techniques for industrial robots. With increasing complexity and dynamism in today’s manufacturing practice, more precise, robust and practical approaches are needed to support real-time shop-floor operations. This book presents a collection of recent developments and innovations in this area, relying on a wide range of research efforts. The book is divided into five parts. The first part presents a broad-based review of the key areas of HRC, establishing a common ground of understanding in key aspects. Subsequent chapters focus on selected areas of HRC subject to intense recent interest. The second part discusses human safety within HRC. The third, fourth and fifth parts provide in-depth views of relevant methodologies and algorithms. Discussing dynamic planning and monitoring, adaptive control and multi-modal decision making, the latter parts facilitate a better understanding of HRC in real situations. The balance between scope and depth, and theory and applications, means this book appeals to a wide readership, including academic researchers, graduate students, practicing engineers, and those within a variety of roles in manufacturing sectors.

Cognitive Assistant Supported Human-Robot Collaboration covers the design and development of cognitive assistants in the smart factory era, its application domains, challenges, and current state of the art in assistance systems with collaborative robotics and IoT technologies, standards, platforms, and solutions. This book also provides a sociotechnical view of collaborative work in human-robot teams, investigating specific methods and techniques to analyze assistance systems. This will provide readers with a comprehensive overview of how cognitive assistants function and work in human-robot teams. Introduces fundamental concepts of cognitive assistants and human-robot collaboration Investigates the optimization capabilities of human-cyber physical systems Discusses planning and implementation of cognitive assistant projects Explores concepts and design elements of human collaborative workspaces

This book aims to discuss the technical and ethical challenges posed by the present technological framework and to highlight the fundamental role played by human-centred design and human factors in the definition of robotic architectures for human–robot collaboration. The book gives an updated overview of the most recent robotic technology, conceived and designed to collaborate with human beings in industrial working scenarios. The technological development of robotics over the last years and the fast evolution of AI, machine learning and IoT have paved the way for applications that extend far beyond the typical use of robots performing repetitive tasks in exclusive spaces. In this new technological paradigm that is expected to drive the robotics market in the coming years, robots and workers will coexist in the same workplace, sharing not only this lived space, but also the roles and functions inherent to a process of production, merging the benefits of automated and manual performing. However, having robots cooperating in real time with workers, responding in a physical, psychological and social adequate way, requires a human-centred design that not only calls for high safety standards regulating the quality of human–robot interaction, but also demands the robot's fine-grained perception and awareness of the dynamics of its surrounding environment, namely the behaviours of their human peers—their expected actions/responses—fostering the necessary collaborative efforts towards the accomplishment of the tasks to be executed.

This is an open access book. It gathers the first volume of the proceedings of the 31st edition of the International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing, FAIM 2022, held on June 19 – 23, 2022, in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Covering four thematic areas including Manufacturing Processes, Machine Tools, Manufacturing Systems, and Enabling Technologies, it reports on advanced manufacturing processes, and innovative materials for 3D printing, applications of machine learning, artificial intelligence and mixed reality in various production sectors, as well as important issues in human-robot collaboration, including methods for improving safety. Contributions also cover strategies to improve quality control, supply chain management and training in the manufacturing industry, and methods supporting circular supply chain and sustainable manufacturing. All in all, this book provides academicians, engineers and professionals with extensive information on both scientific and industrial advances in the converging fields of manufacturing, production, and automation.