The INCLUSIVE System: A General Framework for Adaptive Industrial Automation

While modern production systems are becoming increasingly technologically advanced, the presence of human operators remains fundamental in industrial workplaces. To complement and enhance the capabilities of human workers, approaches based on adaptive automation have been introduced. They consist of adapting the behavior of the system according to the user’s capabilities and effort. In this article, we present a general holistic framework for adaptive automation, called INCLUSIVE, that assists the operator during working tasks. The system consists of three modules. First, a thorough characterization of the operator’s constitutional and situational condition is provided; based on this, properly tailored adaptation is given, and if necessary, further training and support are provided. The framework has been implemented and tested considering three industrial use cases, selected as representative of a wide area of interest for the industry in Europe, in terms of both production requirements and involved operators. Tests have been carried out in real production environments, considering real production tasks carried out by 53 shop-floor workers. Results have shown that workers’ satisfaction when using the INCLUSIVE system and their performances was increased with respect to customary interaction systems currently used in industries. Moreover, the achieved results were used to formulate a set of recommendations for the design and implementation of an adaptive interaction system in relation to ensuring worker satisfaction and system usability in an industrial environment, as well as performance requirements.
Note to Practitioners
—This article was motivated by the fact that, despite modern advanced automation, human operators are still central in the manufacturing process. However, technological progress often causes challenging interaction with complex industrial systems. The goal of this article is to introduce a complete framework for adaptive automation, with the ultimate goal of facilitating the interaction of human operators with complex industrial systems. The framework relies on three modules: measurement of human capabilities, the adaption of the interaction system, and additional teaching and support. The three modules are discussed at a high level, independently of the target application. Moreover, to facilitate their application in specific working contexts, examples are provided with respect to three different industrial applications. Results of tests carried out with shop-floor operators show that implementing the proposed framework allows better working performance and increases worker satisfaction with the use of automation.