Human-centered Design of an Interactive Industrial Robot System Through Participative Simulations: Application to a Pyrotechnic Tank Cleaning Workstation

— Industrials are starting to deploy collaborative robots as new solutions to improve workstations. In particular workstations where human operators may get injured because of repetitive tasks, bad postures or heavy loads are targeted. Collaborative robots can also be an alternative to robots which may take up too much floor space with their safeguards or are not flexible and smart enough to handle complex operations. The introduction of such interactive systems on industrial workstations must satisfy the following requirements: ergonomics and safety of the system, quality and performance of operations, and human well-being. We propose a human-centered approach to improve the introduction of collaborative robots in the industry. Several industrial applications are studied within Safran and Airbus Safran Launchers. In this paper, we present the first application of our work on a pyrotechnic tank cleaning workstation. Our approach is illustrated with the design of a solution through several simulation steps involving the workstation's operators. In particular, the current design of a prototype based on a teleoperated robot is introduced.