Section: Application Domains

Factory 4.0

The 4th industrial revolution (factory 4.0) is characterized by the integration of digital technologies into the production process, in order to meet the challenge of customizing services and products. This agility requires making manufacturing and maintenance lines flexible and versatile. This capacity for adaptation is the characteristic of the human being, which puts him at the center of the production apparatus. However, this can no longer be done at the expense of their health and well-being. How then can we reconcile the enhancement of our manual and analytical expertise, the ever desired increase in productivity and manufacturing quality, while reducing the hardship at work? Collaborative robotics, which we are seeking to build, is one of the central solutions to meet this societal challenge. By assisting humans in their most dangerous and painful tasks, it complements or replaces them in their phases of physical and cognitive fragility.

More generally, we are interested in workstation cobotization, in the manufacturing and assembly industry but also in the construction and craft industries. The application areas are related to regional needs in aeronautics, including maintenance, water and waste treatment. In most of these cases, it is possible to define the tasks, evaluate the stakes and added value of our work.