User centered design of a cognitive control unit for a self-optimizing assembly system

• Benutzerzentriete Entwicklung eines Cognitive Control Unit für ein selbstoptimierendes Montagesystem

Susanto, Novie; Schlick, Christopher (Thesis advisor); Flemisch, Frank Ole (Thesis advisor)

Aachen : Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University (2015)
Dissertation / PhD Thesis

Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2014

Abstract

This dissertation presents the human-oriented design of a cognitive control unit (CCU) for self-optimizing robotic assembly cells. The CCU is designed to simulate human cognition, and on the base of prior knowledge, to adapt to the changing conditions in the product structure and material supply. To improve the conformity of the human operator expectations with the technical systems, two experiments focusing on the different models of robot behaviour levels based on the number of human-oriented production rules for assembly task are carried out. In the first experiment, an assembly task with LEGO bricks is conducted. The model of the robot behaviour in the LEGO bricks is transferred to a real technical product, a carburetor in the second experiment. The tasks of the participants are to recognize the robot’s work pattern regarding the LEGO brick or carburetor part assembly sequence and to predict the next brick or part position using the real object. An analysis of variance (alpha=0.05) of the first experiment shows that the robot behaviour model with the most-human oriented production rules leads to significantly shorter prediction times, lower task load and higher predictive accuracy. The second experiment highlights that the participants working with the most human-oriented production rules achieve shorter prediction times, shorter fixation duration and higher predictive. In addition, age and cultural background have a significant effect on the task load. Regarding the cultural background, the Indonesian participants perceive a higher task load and dissatisfaction grade than the German participants. With regard to age, the younger group perceived a lower task load and dissatisfaction grade than the older group. This study concludes that the design of CCU based on the most human-oriented production rules maximizes the conformity between the human operator’s expectation and the technical system in self-optimizing assembly cells.