Agent-based Web Supported Simulation of Human-robot Collaboration

In the production industry, in recent years more and more hybrid teams of workers and robots are being used to improve flexible processes. The production environment of the future will include hybrid teams in which workers cooperate more tightly together with robots and virtual agents. The virtual validation of such teams will require simulation environments in which various safety and productivity issues can be evaluated. In this paper, we present a framework for 3D simulation of hybrid teams in production scenarios based on an agent framework that can be used to evaluate critical properties of the planned production environment and the dynamic assignment of tasks to team members. The framework is embedded in a web-based distributed infrastructure that models and provides the involved components (digital human models, robots, visualization environment) as resources. We illustrate the approach with a use case in which a human-robot team works together in an aircraft manufacturing scenario.