Robots and COVID-19: Challenges in integrating robots for collaborative automation

TL;DR

This paper reviews the challenges faced in integrating collaborative robots into manufacturing assembly lines during COVID-19, emphasizing the need for resilient, adaptable systems amidst social distancing and supply chain pressures.

Contribution

It identifies key challenges in deploying collaborative robots for assembly during the pandemic and outlines future research directions for human-robot interaction in industry.

Findings

Robots supported manufacturing during COVID-19 supply shortages

Challenges include safety, reconfiguration, and adaptability of robots

Future research needed for resilient human-robot collaboration

Abstract

Objective: The status of human-robot collaboration for assembly applications is reviewed and key current challenges for the research community and practitioners are presented. Background: As the pandemic of COVID-19 started to surface the manufacturers went under pressure to address demand challenges. Social distancing measures made fewer people available to work. In such situations, robots were pointed at to support humans to address a shortage in supply. An important activity where humans are needed in a manufacturing value chain is assembly. HRC assembly systems are supposed to safeguard coexisting humans, perform a range of actions, and often need to be reconfigured to handle product variety. This requires them to be resilient and adaptable to various configurations during their operational life. Besides the potential advantages of using robots the challenges of using them in an industrial assembly are enormous. Methods: This mini-review summarizes the challenges of industrial deployment of collaborative robots for assembly applications. Applications: The documented challenges highlight the future research directions in human-robot interaction for industrial applications.