Wire Harness Assembly Process Supported by a Collaborative Robot: A Case Study Focus on Ergonomics
Products and assets are becoming increasingly “smart”, e.g., mechatronic, electronic, or cyber-physical. In the lack of fully reliable wireless solutions, extensive wiring and wire bundling into wire harnesses are needed. This has manufacturing implications, leading to increasingly complex wire harn...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Robotics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2218-6581/11/6/131 |
| _version_ | 1797455405141458944 |
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| author | Gabriel E. Navas-Reascos David Romero Ciro A. Rodriguez Federico Guedea Johan Stahre |
| author_facet | Gabriel E. Navas-Reascos David Romero Ciro A. Rodriguez Federico Guedea Johan Stahre |
| author_sort | Gabriel E. Navas-Reascos |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Products and assets are becoming increasingly “smart”, e.g., mechatronic, electronic, or cyber-physical. In the lack of fully reliable wireless solutions, extensive wiring and wire bundling into wire harnesses are needed. This has manufacturing implications, leading to increasingly complex wire harness assembly processes, where numerous components, connectors, and cables are assembled, connecting critical and non-critical electric and electronic systems in smart products and assets. Thus, wire harnesses demand is rapidly rising in most industries, requiring human or robotic work. Often, required work tasks are repetitive and physically demanding, while still needing people for quality reasons. An attractive solution would therefore be humans collaborating with robots. Unfortunately, there are very few scientific studies on automation solutions using collaborative robots (cobots) for wire harness assembly process tasks to increase process productivity and improve work ergonomics. Furthermore, wire harness assembly process tasks are presently carried out 90% manually in this industry, causing serious ergonomic problems for assembly workers who perform such tasks daily. The challenge is reducing the ergonomic risks currently present in many established wire harness assembly processes while improving production time and quality. This paper presents an early prototype and simulation to integrate a cobot into a wire harness assembly process, primarily for work ergonomic improvements. The use of a cobot is specifically proposed to reduce ergonomic risks for wire harness assembly workers. Two methodologies: RULA and JSI were used to evaluate the ergonomics of the task of cable tie collocation. The real-world case study results illustrate the validation of a cobot which significantly reduced non-ergonomic postures in the task of placing cable ties in the wire harnesses assembly process studied. An ergonomic analysis without the cobot (the actual process) was conducted, based on RULA and JSI methodologies, presenting the highest possible scores in both evaluations, which calls for urgent changes in the current wire harness assembly process task studied. Then, the same analysis was performed with the cobot, obtaining significant reductions in the ergonomic risks of the task at hand to acceptable values. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T15:53:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d33b962e678d443192291ddbbb2ff1fb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2218-6581 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T15:53:57Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Robotics |
| spelling | doaj.art-d33b962e678d443192291ddbbb2ff1fb2023-11-24T17:50:24ZengMDPI AGRobotics2218-65812022-11-0111613110.3390/robotics11060131Wire Harness Assembly Process Supported by a Collaborative Robot: A Case Study Focus on ErgonomicsGabriel E. Navas-Reascos0David Romero1Ciro A. Rodriguez2Federico Guedea3Johan Stahre4School of Engineering and Science, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City 14380, MexicoSchool of Engineering and Science, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City 14380, MexicoSchool of Engineering and Science, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey 64849, MexicoSchool of Engineering and Science, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey 64849, MexicoDivision of Production Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, SwedenProducts and assets are becoming increasingly “smart”, e.g., mechatronic, electronic, or cyber-physical. In the lack of fully reliable wireless solutions, extensive wiring and wire bundling into wire harnesses are needed. This has manufacturing implications, leading to increasingly complex wire harness assembly processes, where numerous components, connectors, and cables are assembled, connecting critical and non-critical electric and electronic systems in smart products and assets. Thus, wire harnesses demand is rapidly rising in most industries, requiring human or robotic work. Often, required work tasks are repetitive and physically demanding, while still needing people for quality reasons. An attractive solution would therefore be humans collaborating with robots. Unfortunately, there are very few scientific studies on automation solutions using collaborative robots (cobots) for wire harness assembly process tasks to increase process productivity and improve work ergonomics. Furthermore, wire harness assembly process tasks are presently carried out 90% manually in this industry, causing serious ergonomic problems for assembly workers who perform such tasks daily. The challenge is reducing the ergonomic risks currently present in many established wire harness assembly processes while improving production time and quality. This paper presents an early prototype and simulation to integrate a cobot into a wire harness assembly process, primarily for work ergonomic improvements. The use of a cobot is specifically proposed to reduce ergonomic risks for wire harness assembly workers. Two methodologies: RULA and JSI were used to evaluate the ergonomics of the task of cable tie collocation. The real-world case study results illustrate the validation of a cobot which significantly reduced non-ergonomic postures in the task of placing cable ties in the wire harnesses assembly process studied. An ergonomic analysis without the cobot (the actual process) was conducted, based on RULA and JSI methodologies, presenting the highest possible scores in both evaluations, which calls for urgent changes in the current wire harness assembly process task studied. Then, the same analysis was performed with the cobot, obtaining significant reductions in the ergonomic risks of the task at hand to acceptable values.https://www.mdpi.com/2218-6581/11/6/131wire harnessassemblycollaborative robotsergonomicscomputer vision systems |
| spellingShingle | Gabriel E. Navas-Reascos David Romero Ciro A. Rodriguez Federico Guedea Johan Stahre Wire Harness Assembly Process Supported by a Collaborative Robot: A Case Study Focus on Ergonomics Robotics wire harness assembly collaborative robots ergonomics computer vision systems |
| title | Wire Harness Assembly Process Supported by a Collaborative Robot: A Case Study Focus on Ergonomics |
| title_full | Wire Harness Assembly Process Supported by a Collaborative Robot: A Case Study Focus on Ergonomics |
| title_fullStr | Wire Harness Assembly Process Supported by a Collaborative Robot: A Case Study Focus on Ergonomics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Wire Harness Assembly Process Supported by a Collaborative Robot: A Case Study Focus on Ergonomics |
| title_short | Wire Harness Assembly Process Supported by a Collaborative Robot: A Case Study Focus on Ergonomics |
| title_sort | wire harness assembly process supported by a collaborative robot a case study focus on ergonomics |
| topic | wire harness assembly collaborative robots ergonomics computer vision systems |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2218-6581/11/6/131 |
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