Event-discrete formal representation of a semi-automated manufacturing process as framework for human guidance and assistance concepts: analysis and application

This contribution focuses on the task of guiding and supervision processes realised by human operators. The trade-off between manual manufacturing and automation is addressed by semi-automation of a mould manufacturing process, traditionally handmade. Within this process, the human operator plays a central role (i.e. knowledge and expertise), whereas the (intelligent) automation is carrying out physical operation, which is guided and supervised by the human operator. Process guiding assistance is given based on the formalisation of the human-machine-interaction. By deducing information of interest with respect to the current process goal, the established process model can be easily used for supervision and assistance. The integrated human-automation-system is initially evaluated. The results are discussed for the future work with respect to the individual process understanding and process reproducibility.