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Development of a Rapid Assessment Method of the Potentiality to Transform Manufacturing Workstations into an Assistive Collaborative System

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Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health V

Part of the book series: Studies in Systems, Decision and Control ((SSDC,volume 492))

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Abstract

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders, and the aging of the workforce are two of the major issues that the industry is facing nowadays. A possible solution to reverse this situation could be the implementation of an assistive flexible solution such as collaborative robots (cobots). Although, most of the implementation of these technologies in the industry is not taking advantage of the main strengths of cobots, such as their flexibility. This work aims at developing a methodology to evaluate the potentiality for the implementation of an assistive collaborative system in existing workstations. The selection of parameters for this methodology is presented, as well as an example of its application on a furniture assembly workstation. The method considers the following criteria: physical ergonomics, cognitive ergonomics, health and safety, product and process quality, collaboration, economics, and technical requirements. The results show the relevance of the developed assessment method, namely, its success in pointing out the main critical issues of the existing workstation. Further work will include the validation of the methodology throughout a focus group and the development of a digital tool to ease its application.

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Acknowledgements

Work supported by the PhD Grant SFRH/BD/151365/2021 financed by the Portuguese FCT, and with funds from state budgets, under MIT Portugal Program, FCT Project I-CATER (ref. PTDC/EEI-ROB/3488/2021), R&D Unit Project Scope UIDB/00319/2020, and DTx CoLAB under the Missão Interface of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, integrated in the notice 01/C05-i02/2022.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Algoritmi Research Centre/LASI, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    André Cardoso, Ana Colim, Ana Cristina Braga, Paula Carneiro, Nélson Costa, Pedro Arezes & Estela Bicho

  2. DTx-Colab, Guimarães, Portugal

    Ana Colim

Authors
  1. André Cardoso
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  2. Ana Colim
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  3. Ana Cristina Braga
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  4. Paula Carneiro
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  5. Nélson Costa
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  6. Pedro Arezes
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  7. Estela Bicho
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to André Cardoso .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Production and Systems, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    Pedro M. Arezes

  2. Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Rui B. Melo

  3. Department of Production and Systems, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    Paula Carneiro

  4. Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Jacqueline Castelo Branco

  5. School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    Ana Colim

  6. Department of Production and Systems School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    Nélson Costa

  7. School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    Susana Costa

  8. Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Joana Duarte

  9. Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Joana C. Guedes

  10. Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Gonçalo Perestrelo

  11. Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    J. Santos Baptista

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Cardoso, A. et al. (2024). Development of a Rapid Assessment Method of the Potentiality to Transform Manufacturing Workstations into an Assistive Collaborative System. In: Arezes, P.M., et al. Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health V. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 492. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38277-2_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38277-2_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-38276-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-38277-2

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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