IMeRo

Demographic change is also leading to a change in the age structure of the working population in Germany. The proportion of older workers is increasing, without the physical strain in the workplace decreasing. As a rule, physical performance decreases with increasing age, which requires a new organization of work and new forms of robot use.

The aim of the research project is to relieve people in physically demanding work processes through individual human-robot cooperation. In human-robot cooperation, humans work directly with robots without separating safety fences. The aim is to achieve an optimal division of tasks between humans and robots, with humans using their experience and their superior sensory and sensorimotor skills, while robots can perform physically demanding tasks with high repetition accuracy without fatigue. Two fields of application have so far received little attention in research: In the manufacturing industry, in addition to assembly, intralogistics and especially order picking are characterized by manual and physically demanding activities. In order picking as one of the central functions of intralogistics, parts from a range with a high variance in size, shape and weight and usually short lead times have to be assembled into customer orders. A second area of application is civil security and, in particular, the work of the fire department. The work of the fire department is characterized by heavy physical strain. It therefore offers great potential for human-robot cooperation. Together with four project partners, specific application scenarios and concrete solution concepts are being developed for both fields of application.

Individual physical limitations in particular are to be taken into account when developing the solution concepts. Ideally, the robot should adapt to the individual limitations. For the intralogistics application area, an assistance robot is also to be developed as a demonstrator for an exemplary application scenario and tested in an industrial environment. When designing the human-robot interface, not only the ability of the robot to control the production process is to be considered, but also the influence on the working conditions of humans is to be taken into account.

The research project is being carried out in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary manner with partners from science and practice:

Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML): Identification of application scenarios and definition of requirements for human-robot cooperation in the field of intralogistics and order picking

Institute for Fire and Rescue Technology of the City of Dortmund (IFR): Identification of application scenarios and definition of requirements for human-robot cooperation in the field of firefighting and civil security

Research Institute for Technology and Disability (FTB) of the Volmarstein Protestant Foundation: Requirements development from a human perspective, expertise in the development and evaluation of technical support systems for people with physical disabilities

J.D. Theile GmbH & Co KG (JDT) Schwerte: Both as a developer of robot systems (JDT robotics) and as a potential user of the developed human-robot cooperation in the intralogistics of chain production.