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Traditionally, the production system design and reconfiguration planning are manual processes, which rely heavily on the designers' expertise and tacit knowledge to find feasible system configuration solutions. Rapid responsiveness of future production systems calls for new computer-aided intelligent design and planning solutions, that would reduce the time and effort put into system design, both in brownfield and greenfield scenarios. This paper describes the implementation of a capability matchmaking software, which automatizes the matchmaking between product requirements and resource capabilities. The interaction of the matchmaking system with external design and planning tools is explained and illustrated with a case example. The matchmaking approach supports production system design and reconfiguration planning by providing automatic means for checking if the existing system already fulfills the new product requirements, and for finding alternative resources and resource combinations to specific product requirements from large search spaces, e.g. from global resource catalogues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decades, there has been wide interest towards creating more agile and reconfigurable automation systems. This includes the research interest towards human–robot collaboration (HRC) solutions, where semi or fully automated process could be combined with human dexterity and flexibility without complexity and inflexibility. However, the communication between the human and the robot is not intuitive, fast or flexible yet. The emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (XR) are seen as good solution candidates for increasing the communication between human and the machine during the design, commission and operation phases. The design of the HRC system includes layout design evaluation, task scenario analysis, robot programming, cycle time calculations, and safety analysis. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies provide immersive experiences to visualize and analyze these procedures. This paper aims to review the current status of virtual and augmented reality solutions in HRC with meta-analysis and highlight missing elements. Finally, future research directions and requirements are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robots are no longer stand-alone systems on the factory floor. The demand for industrial robots (market) is anticipated to be growing to 65 billion euros by the year 2023. Within all areas of robotics, the demand for collaborative and more flexible systems is rising as well. The level of desired collaboration and increased flexibility will only be reached if the systems are developed as a whole, e.g. perception, reasoning and physical manipulation. The rising need for collaborative robots in the automation industry is acting as a driver for this market and is expected to serve as a market opportunity for future growth. However, at the same time especially smaller companies have difficulties to formulate a concrete vision and strategies for the uptake of robotics, finding skilled workforce to develop and deploy the robot systems and/or work in the manufacturing industry. A number of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) have been developed to enhance the knowledge and technology transfer from laboratories to factory floors, mitigating the skills gap and supporting the formulation of innovation ecosystems with the specific focus on small and medium-sized companies around Europe. The main aim of this paper is to introduce the concept and approach taken in H2020 TRINITY-project that aims to develop a Robotics Innovation Hub focused on Agile Production. The paper will introduce the concept and technical approach of the project, and discusses the preliminary results, challenges and opportunities of these kind of DIHs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]