EU manufacturers are increasingly adopting automation solutions that can improve productivity and reduce costs. Enterprises’ ability to utilize these technologies may be their single most important competitive advantage, and the specific skills, experiences, competences, and flexibility of workers are pivotal to and at the core of this ability. To create a healthy workplace and increase the competitiveness of the manufacturing firms, the creation of an optimal environment for human automation integration and cooperation that harnesses and supports the workers’ capabilities is needed.
The HUMAN project, with 12 partners from 6 European countries, aims to define and demonstrate workplaces where automation and human workers operate in harmony to improve the productivity, quality, performance of the factory as well as the worker satisfaction and safety.
Objectives to be met are:
- Improving the integration of humans with their workplace.
- Enhancing the monitoring and wellbeing of human automation co-operation.
- Stimulating and advancing human-automation interaction and co-operation for optimal performance and achievement of complex tasks.
- Establishing adaptable workplaces and tasks to human cognitive and physical.
These objectives will be achieved by developing and employing physical, conceptual, methodological, technological, and knowledge-based tools. 3 use case companies from the Furniture Manufacturing (ROYO Group), Automation Manufacturing (COMAU), & Defence & Aerospace (AIRBUS) sectors are involved.
Proposed advances offered by HUMAN solutions will remove the barriers for:
- Adaptability and flexibility of humans to continuously changing workplaces.
- Alignment of new and complex tasks with human cognitive and physical skills.
- And synchronization of enterprise goals with human.
These advancements will in turn have significant impacts on higher customization capability, productivity, quality, worker satisfaction, and empower competitive position of the EU manufacturers.
| Web resources: |
http://www.humanmanufacturing.eu/
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/723737 |
| Start date: | 01-10-2016 |
| End date: | 30-09-2019 |
| Total budget - Public funding: | 4 533 043,00 Euro - 3 991 355,00 Euro |
Original description
EU manufacturers are increasingly adopting automation solutions that can improve productivity and reduce costs.Enterprises’ ability to utilize these technologies may be their single most important competitive advantage, and the specific skills, experiences, competences,and flexibility of workers are pivotal to and at the core of this ability.To create a healthy workplace and increase the competitiveness of the manufacturing firms, the creation of an optimal environment for human automation integration and cooperation that harnesses and supports the workers’ capabilities is needed.The HUMAN project,with 12 partners from 6 European countries, aims to define and demonstrate workplaces where automation and human workers operate in harmony to improve the productivity,quality,performance of the factory as well as the worker satisfaction and safety.Objectives to be met are:Improving the integration of humans with their workplace;Enhancing the monitoring and wellbeing of human automation co-operation;Stimulating and advancing human-automation interaction and co-operation for optimal performance and achievement of complex tasks;Establishing adaptable workplaces and tasks to human cognitive and physical skills.These objectives will be achieved by developing and employing physical, conceptual, methodological, technological, and knowledge-based tools. 3 use case companies from the Furniture Manufacturing (ROYO Group), Automation Manufacturing (COMAU), & Defence & Aerospace (AIRBUS) sectors are involved. Proposed advances offered by HUMAN solutions will remove the barriers for:adaptability and flexibility of humans to continuously changing workplaces;alignment of new and complex tasks with human cognitive and physical skills;and synchronization of enterprise goals with human expectations.These advancements will in turn have significant impacts on higher customization capability,productivity,quality,worker satisfaction,and empower competitive position of the EU manufacturers.Status
CLOSEDCall topic
FOF-04-2016Update Date
27-10-2022
Evaluation studies carried out at the premises of Airbus showed positive results for both of the Exoskeleton and KIT services developed for this specific use case. Both physical and mental fatigue of workers were reduced, as an outcome of the Exoskeleton and KIT services respectively. Workers were keen enough to adopt the new technologies to their everyday working activities.
Both WOS and KIT services have been evaluated at COMAU in real life applications, showing that WOS has been well accepted by both operators and engineers as a valuable tool for eliminating motion waste and improve workplace ergonomics in production lines. The evaluation of KIT showed that the developed solution helps to reduce cognitive load of operators, reduce faults and improve efficiency.
KIT, Exoskeleton service and OAST have been evaluated at ROYO premises in real working conditions. KIT has been characterized as a valuable tool that reduces cognitive load and helps workers eliminate uncertainties at the assembly process. The combination of Exoskeleton service with OAST has helped to reduce the physical and mental stress of the operators at the palletization area of ROYO.
Project clusters are groups of projects that cooperate by organising events, generating joint papers, etc...
As a result of the project, Airbus DS will be able to reduce the time to market of new aircraft and aircraft systems significantly, due to the important improvements in ergonomic and interactive workplaces, helping to increase the flexibility and pliability of the different production lines.
Thanks to the use of HUMAN technology, COMAU assembly lines are more flexible to the anthropometric, physical and cognitive needs of the workers, and hence to the cognitive and physical requirements of variable operations of variable orders. This will reduce the setup and production times.
Through the solutions of HUMAN, it will be possible to process the production in smaller batches increasing the adaptability of each production line to all workers. Furthermore, HUMAN will enable ROYO to increase flexibility and adaptability in every production line at the shop floor, based on the ability to manage/predict their own effort during the shift avoiding pains beforehand, and moreover to eliminate waste and reduce errors and stress.
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| SINTEF AS (SINTEF) (Coördinator)
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| AIDIMME - Instituto Tecnológico Metalmecánico, Mueble, Madera, Embalaje y Afines
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| COMAU SPA
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| EADS - CONSTRUCCIONES AERONAUTICAS S.A.
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| HIGHSKILLZ LIMITED
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| HOLONIX SRL
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| IUVO SRL
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| KIT-AR LIMITED (KITAR)
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| Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation (LMS) - University of Patras - PANEPISTIMIO PATRON
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| MOBILIARIO ROYO SOCIEDAD ANONIMA
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| ROYO SPAIN SL
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| STIFTELSEN SINTEF
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| Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies - Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento...
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| UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
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| University of Patras - PANEPISTIMIO PATRON