Robotizing of small lot production

Industrial robots bear significant potential for increasing productivity of manufacturing operations. However, producing increasingly individualized products with an enhanced number of variants, the flexibility of the production system poses substantial challenges in order to robotize manual tasks. Comprehensive scientific research is required to provide tailored solutions for these manufacturing processes. This is true especially for small and medium sized companies (SME).
The key note discusses the challenges of automating flexible manufacturing operations with examples from specific use cases with industrial background. We present automotive powertrain assembly, which requires agile robotic joining of rigid and complaint parts. However, as automation of many low volume processes is economically not advantageous, semi-automation and Human-Robot Collaboration are key enablers for robotizing small lot production. Human-Robot Collaboration requires novel technologies for dynamic workload distribution between worker and robot. Automating 3D surface grinding process is another example how scientific research contributes to increased manufacturing efficiency.