Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
The project DrapeBot – as part of the European funding program Horizon2020 - deals with manufacturing technologies for complex lightweight production processes in the fields of aerospace, automotive and boat building. The international consortium under the leadership of Profactor GmbH sited in Austria represents the important competences to develop agile and efficient processes around human-robot cooperation and to lead them to broad application within the industry. Partners from industry and science from Italy, Austria, Denmark and Germany are involved in the project.
Center for Lightweight Production Technology (ZLP) in Augsburg is involved in the development of a human-robot assistance cell that supports a highly skilled worker during the lamination of an large aircraft structure part made of lightweight materials throughout the entire process. This includes tasks that are autonomously performed by the robot or in collaboration with the worker on demand or based on the process status. This includes material delivery, assistance with draping the cut-pieces and vacuum buildup, performing quality assurance measures, and documenting the process. The cooperation is aimed to be industry-focused and considers the necessary safety-related issues. The investigation of the trust relationship between the worker and the robot will also be studied in detail.
This development is intended to advance human-machine cooperation in the industrial environment and to combine the advantages of both approaches: complex manual versus fast and accurate robot-assisted manufacturing.
For more information, visit www.drapebot.eu