Proactive assembly systems-realising the potential of human collaboration with automation

Manufacturing competitiveness frequently relies on company ability to rapidly reconfigure their assembly systems. This paper introduces assembly system proactivity, a concept based on interrelated levels of automation, human competence, and information handling. Increased and structured human involvement contributes to increased system ability to proactively address predicted and unpredicted events. Correct involvement of human operators will utilize the combined potential of human and technical capabilities, providing cost-efficient assembly system solutions. The ProAct project is developing proactive assembly system models and evaluates proactive, feature-based solutions. Focus is on realising the potential of cost-efficient and semi-automated systems with relevant human involvement, i.e. highly skilled operators who add flexibility and functionality © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.