Robot Workmate: a trustworthy coworker for the continuous automotive assembly line and its implementation

The automotive industry is facing significant challenges due to shortened product lifecycles, increased product variances, and fluctuating markets. The current assembly systems are unable to handle the increased requirements for mass customisation, so they need to be optimised with new technologies. Human-robot cooperation has evolved as a solution to overcome these difficulties and create flexible and customizable automation processes. This paper delivers an approach for a methodology to implement HRC robotic systems into the continuous assembly line. This optimisation allows for cooperation between robots and the manual labour, which enhances the ergonomics, productivity, and quality level of the process station. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.