Development and Evaluation of an Assistive Workstation for Cloud Manufacturing in an Aging Society

The elderly can be considered as an important labor force for future industrial development in Germany, in particular in the context of design and production of value-added personalized products/services that demand skilled and experienced labor. In this context, the project USA2 developed, classified, and evaluated scenarios for the utilization of cloud manufacturing technologies and developed and prototyped an exemplar future assistive workstation for the elderly allowing them to produce personalized products decentrally and close to the customer. This article outlines the methodological approach of the project and the prototyped key subsystems and discusses relevant aspects of development and evaluation.

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