Classification of Collaboration Levels for Human-Robot Cooperation in Manufacturing

Industry 4.0 aims to support the factory of the future, which involves increased amounts of information systems and new ways of using automation. One new usage is collaboration between human and industrial robot in manufacturing, with both partners sharing work on a single task. Supporting human-robot collaboration (HRC) requires understanding the requirements of HRC as well as the differences to existing approaches where the goal is more automation, such as in the case of self-driving cars. We propose a framework that we call levels of collaboration to support this, and posit that this framework supports a mental model conducive to the design of lines incorporating HRC.