Monitoring and Digitising Human-Workpiece Interactions during a Manual Manufacturing Assembly Operation Using KinectTM

Automation boosts competitiveness of manufacturing companies and is pervasive in modern industry. However, skilled manual labour is still used in a variety of complex tasks and is currently irreplaceable. A solution may lie in understanding the interactions between a human worker and the workpiece during a manufacturing task and digitising these interactions to potentially enable automation of the task. In this paper, a method to observe, record and digitise human-workpiece interactions using the Microsoft KinectTM is described. A manual threaded-fit assembly of a two-component pen housing is chosen. Essential information about the manual assembly is extracted from the recorded interaction data. The developed mechanism being markerless and unobtrusive is helpful in recording human-workpiece interactions in a factory without affecting normal operations.