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Enhancing Inclusivity in Manufacturing with Cobots: Overview and Conceptual Model

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This study addresses the high unemployment rates among people with disabilities by exploring task assignment and load balancing in manufacturing work systems to enhance accessibility, inclusivity, and productivity. With a particular focus on the decreasing availability of physically demanding manufacturing and blue-collar jobs, the paper addresses how emerging technologies, in particular collaborative robots (cobots), can reduce work demands and facilitate a balanced workload tailored to physical and cognitive parameters. It introduces a three-dimensional conceptual model that includes the human, the work system, and the assistant system, highlighting an assembly line scenario with a cobot as an assistant system. The model is optimized through task sharing, demonstrating a strategic approach to enhance inclusivity in work systems. Validation of the proposed model is achieved through a simulation that illustrates how cobot integration can balance workloads and maintain productivity while addressing barriers in work systems.

Source: IFAC-PapersOnLine

DOI: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2025.09.489

Authors: Atieh Karbasi, Zahra Safari Dehnavi, Sebastian Schlund, Tamás Ruppert

Institutions: TU Wien, University of Pannonia

Language: English

Topic: Robot Manipulation and Learning

Subfield: Control and Systems Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Reduced inequalities, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: European Institute of Innovation and Technology