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International audience; Collaborative robots have open new ways of designing assembly processes, thanks to their ability to share work space with operators. not only may they support the economical performance, but they can also improve the overall ergonomics. Building on existing work on task allocation problems, the authors study further the collaboration opportunities between operator and robot, namely cooperation phases (type of collaboration where both operator and robot act on the same work piece). This work proposes anewformulation of the related problem, and solutions are sought through heuristics methods, to investigate whether concurrent usage of different collaboration modes delivers better performance. The results indicate that cooperation mode enables higher process performances while controlling ergonomic risks. With a concern for real-life application, it has been applied on a real case study to verify its applicability.

International audience; The collaborative robot (cobot) is a technology contributing to the industrial revolution Industry 4.0. Indeed, cobots’ flexibility and their easy-to-use solutions fill a gap with traditional robots to robotize manufacturing of products with low volume and high mix profiles. Parts needed to manufacture a product must first be presented to the cobot, so that afterwards it can perform operations such as assembly. The paper classifies the current part presenters. Then, a methodology is proposed to select the best presenter based on the characteristics of the parts and the workstation. To be aligned with markets requiring a high mix of products frequently renewed, the development times for part presenter design and for cobot programming are new data to select the best presenter. Indeed, at every part redesign, the part presenter changes and the cobot is reprogrammed. These two times are depreciated based on the lifespan quantity of the part. Lifespan quantity is the number of the same parts, which are dropped-off on the part presenter during the part’s lifespan, i.e. until its redesign. A concrete industrial use case is explained to test the methodology. Results conclude that a tray pattern is the best part presenter, except for parts with low lifespan quantity. Lifespan quantity of the part appears to be a significant parameter when deciding the best part presenter.

International audience; This paper aims at studying the combination of different collaboration modes between operator and collaborative robot in orderto optimize an assembly process for both economic and ergonomic objectives. Based on a real case study, and using a energy expenditure ergonomic model, the authors have determined by experiment the different ergonomic and economic variables under each possible collaboration mode. They propose a set of indicators to evaluate the quality of assignment solutions, as well as a multi-objective cost function to determine optimal trade-offs between the different collaboration modes. An initial set of trials has indicated that combining several modes of collaboration may deliver benefits for both economic and ergonomic performance.

International audience; Human Robot Collaboration is seen as a significant feature of Industry 4.0 implementation. Collaborative robots (cobots) are supposed to deliver superior process performance, which was so far achieved through the application of Lean Manufacturing techniques. The following case study built around the assembly process of a pneumatic cylinder, tends to analyse not only the actual benefits of cobot implementation, but also the success factors, in conjunction with Lean Manufacturing usage. Finally, this paper suggests a draft method towards the successful integration of cobot.