Simulation methodology for performance and safety evaluation of human–industrial robot collaboration workstation design

There is a strong interest in the scope of human–industrial robot collaboration (HIRC) in manufacturing industry for greater flexibility and productivity. However, HIRC in manufacturing is still in its infancy; industrial practitioners have many apprehensions and uncertainties concerning the system’s performance and human operators’ safety. Therefore, there is a need for investigations into design processes and methods to make sure the designed HIRC workstations successfully meet design guidelines on system performance, human safety and ergonomics for practical industrial applications. This research proposes a HIRC workstation design process. The novelty of this design process is the methodology to evaluate the HIRC workstation design alternatives by considering both performance and safety characteristics through computer-based simulations. As a proof of concept, the proposed HIRC design process is applied on an industrial manufacturing case from a heavy-vehicle manufacturing company.