Human-robot collaborative task planning for assembly system productivity enhancement

Abstract

Purpose In the current era of Industry 4.0, the manufacturing industries are striving toward mass production with mass customization by considering human–robot collaboration. This study aims to propose the reconfiguration of assembly systems by incorporating multiple humans with robots using a human–robot task allocation (HRTA) to enhance productivity. Design/methodology/approach A human–robot task scheduling approach has been developed by considering task suitability, resource availability and resource selection through multicriteria optimization using the Linear Regression with Optimal Point and Minimum Distance Calculation algorithm. Using line-balancing techniques, the approach estimates the optimum number of resources required for assembly tasks operating by minimum idle time. Findings The task allocation schedule for a case study involving a punching press was solved using human–robot collaboration, and the approach incorporated the optimum number of appropriate resources to handle different types of proportion of resources. Originality/value This proposed work integrates the task allocation by human–robot collaboration and decrease the idle time of resource by integrating optimum number of resources.