An outlook on future assembly systems introducing robotic mobile dual arm workers

This paper investigates the effect of introducing mobile dual arm coworkers in manual assembly systems. These robot workers can navigate autonomously and in a safe way across the shopfloor to undertake multiple operations (handling, screwing etc.). In addition, they can work in collaboration with human operators acting as assistants to them. This hybrid production paradigm can increase the reconfigurability of the system while maintaining competitive production rates. The performance of the proposed system is analyzed and evaluated on a case study from the automotive industry. The findings show that a significant increase in the resource utilization can be achieved.