Advances in Ergonomic Design of Systems, Products and Processes

Future robots will process work tasks with a high degree of complexity even for small batch sizes in collaboration with the working person, simultaneously, and within a specified workplace. Due to the transformation from robots that are spatially and temporally separated from the working person and are programmed to execute tasks in a deterministic manner towards collaborative, adaptive lightweight robots, ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) should be considered. The purpose of this contribution is to determine how changing human-robot collaboration impacts technology. To this end potential ELSI problems and their possible causes and effects are identified and quantitatively analyzed based on the Aachen Model of Identification, Classification and Analysis of ethical, legal, and social Implications (AMICAI). Furthermore, the impacts of technology are identified and evaluated alongside potential risks, opportunities, and potentials of human-robot collaboration. This best-practice approach describes the results of applying AMICAI based on expert workshops focusing on the application example of a human-robot collaborative workplace in manufacturing.

The world of work and business is constantly changing. At the moment, the digitalisation megatrend is significantly changing framework conditions for companies with a range of new requirements. Within this context, a growing desire for more flexibility, which can be achieved thanks to new developments in information and communication technology, can be seen both at companies and among employees. To ensure the long-term success of digitalisation at companies, work must be organised with a human-oriented focus in all operating areas. Human orientation has both a direct as well as an indirect impact on productivity. For efficient human-oriented productivity management, new methods and tools in industrial engineering are required, which would allow the digitalised working world to be analysed and shaped.

The proceeding digitalization in industrial context is named as transformation to Industrie 4.0. This term has been presented to the public already 5 years ago and was chosen to point out the meaning of the corresponding changes for industrial production. Since then the term has become very present in media and is often discussed controversially. To identify its perception in small and medium enterprises—the main part of the German industry—a survey has been conducted. Queried were nearly 500 participants in management positions from the Metal and Electrical Industry. The survey’s results prove that the term is very well known while its meaning is often unclear. Furthermore, it was found that Industrie 4.0 is introduced preferentially in production, planning/control, logistics, supply chain management and storage. These fields of usage and the tasks characteristically performed within, indicate fields of action for work design. Structured by informational and energetic work forms as well as technical, organizational and personal aspects, many options for work design are described in detail.

We are currently experiencing a re-orientation towards industrial work under the keyword “Industry 4.0”. The structural change towards a service economy, proclaimed in the twentieth century, has been caught up by the industry. The share of the industry in terms of gross value added has been comparatively stable in Germany since the 1990s and today amounts to around 25 % (cf. Ahrens and Spöttl, Digitalisierung industrieller Arbeit, Edition Sigma, Baden-Baden, 2015; Bauernhansl, Industrie 4.0 in Produktion, Automatisierung und Logistik. Anwendungen—Technologien—Migration, Springer Vieweg, Wiesbaden, 2014, p. 7). “Industry 4.0” has become a new key term in the context of the “Future of the World of Work”. There are a number of considerations and activities and a stepwise increasing use of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) in order to accelerate the implementation of “Industry 4.0”. This has a considerable impact on the skilled employees, above all on skilled workers, master craftsmen and technicians. One of the central questions is whether this group of employees will still find its place in tomorrow’s “intelligent” and digitalized production. This question will be discussed in this article.

The independence of IT systems is further gathering speed along with the development towards “Industry 4.0” and will result in dramatic changes of the future role of skilled workers. The increasing automation and digitalization of the world of work is leading to changes with regard to work organization, work processes and thus work requirements and the interaction between man and machine. By the example of the field of application “Maintenance 4.0”, this article describes the potentials of the development step “Industry 4.0” as well as the challenges, the implications and consequences for all employees and their occupational initial and further training.

Learning retention is improved when in addition to the learning methods of “classical” instruction (auditory, visual), further learning channels (discussing, doing) are addressed (Gasser, Erfolgreich lernen—Praxis-Tipps für sofortigen und nachhaltigen Lernerfolg, Books on Demand, Norderstedt, 2014). In view of this, the coursework for the degree in Industrial Engineering has been designed to include teaching formats with a high level of interaction among students. In keeping with this teaching approach, an additional business game was developed for the Production Systems module. This game provides knowledge about the structure of the logistical workflow within production in general and the Kanban method in particular. The first step in designing the game was to define learning objectives. Based on these, a basic concept was derived. This basic concept applies the guideline for the introduction of Kanban by Geiger et al. (Kanban—Optimale Steuerung von Prozessen, Carl Hanser, Munich, 2011). The detailed concept was then worked out over the course of further development, leading to the design of an assembly line for Lego cars as well as the design of tasks on the subject of Kanban capability and for calculating the number of Kanban. The business game illustrates, inter alia, the difference between the Kanban method and a conventional production planning and control system. The simulation has been tested in a university course, evaluated and, in response to the positive feedback from students, integrated in the course instruction. The conclusion of the paper provides an outlook on the further development of instruction in the context of the digitization and networking of production.

In multiple first world countries, demographic change is expected to lead to an increase in retirement age and associated age-diversity in work-teams. Still, despite these changes, organizations must maintain and even enhance productivity and innovation. The present chapter introduces interventions at the individual and the management level to improve innovation and productivity in organizations with teams characterized by high age-diversity. These interventions were specifically developed, implemented and evaluated in two middle-sized organizations. On the individual level, employees received a training intervention to improve cognitive abilities and another training to enhance stress management abilities. On the management level, leaders were trained in how to mitigate the adverse effects of age diversity on team performance. Results indicate that the cognitive training intervention improved abilities such as updating and maintenance of working memory and that the stress management training reduced work overload and job-related effort. In addition the leadership training reduced age-stereotypes and associated conflicts in teams. To enhance the effects of the training interventions the introduction of follow-up booster sessions is recommended.

Night and shift work causes specific stress and strain. According to ergonomic recommendations the period of work and sleep which is against the circadian rhythm should be short. With the aim of taking preventive measures a company in the metal and electrical industry reduced the amount of night shifts for all workers concerned and changed the flexible shift system into a fast and forward rotating system; overtime is compensated by leisure time. Employees have influence on their working time. After implementation the employees, the works committee and management vote for the retention of the ergonomic shift system.

The port economy oscillates between tradition and modernity: On one hand, the port continues to provide unskilled and inappropriately qualified people an entrance to dock work. On the other, the maritime industry reports high levels of specialisation and automation. This as well as the demographic change mean that questions of competence development and operational skills management are very timely. The empirical results of the research project “Work process-oriented competence development for the port of the future” prompt discussions on the innovative forms of occupational competency management based on the use of Serious Games.

The lidA conceptual framework on work, age and employment is based on the observation that retirement is complex and therefore requires broad views and broad scientific approaches. Based on the framework, the JPI UEP project has identified three research gaps with respect to retirement research: a conceptual gap, a regional gap and a thematic gap. To understand the process of retirement in its complexity, and to provide organizational and national policies with valid evidence, research is needed that contributes to bridging these gaps. Ideally, such research should combine different methodological approaches, allow for a life course view and should make use of the potential of cross-cultural comparisons. Not least, it should be of interdisciplinary nature and bring different research communities together. Human Engineering as explicitly integrated science can not only contribute with own expertise in the field, but might adopt an integrating and moderating role here.

The contribution reflects a collaborative project between the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF Magdeburg and an industrial partner from the field of maintenance of electrical equipment. On the basis of the experiential knowledge of the companies’ experts, virtual interactive learning environments were developed and successfully proven. The development and the application of the technical system allowed the integration of individual and organizational learning by means of a systematic reflection and utilization of the expertise of the professionals in the companies.

The trend towards decentralized collaboration in companies leads to challenges for informal communication because spatial proximity is missing. This is a problem since informal communication is considered to be key for successful collaboration. Telepresence systems, which connect distant places, are potential solutions. However, little is known about which conditions are beneficial and which ones detrimental to informal communication. In this qualitative study, conditions which further informal communication, were examined in different virtual café settings. A method was developed which combined participatory design with a qualitative experiment. In the Usability Lab of the University of Arts and Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), 19 people (N = 19) tried out various virtual café settings, analyzed requirements for optimization and subsequently tested them. At the same time, 20 group interviews were conducted and analyzed according to the principles of heuristic-detecting social research. Three subcategories which influence each other were identified as key results (awareness, privacy and control). These three subcategories need to be balanced when a virtual café (room and technology) is designed. Furthermore, encouraging (reciprocal) awareness could also be a possible solution.

Short cyclical work tasks occur with associated risks such as: overload through repetition, movement frequencies being too high, handling excessive weights or excessive forces. Therefore, we will thoroughly examine the workplaces of a German industrial company where repetitive assembly tasks are carried out. This study, with 249 questionnaires, shows that the highest perceived stresses lie mostly with posture during work and work organization. Pain in the upper extremities, which are used all the time, is less frequent. Therefore, the focus of assessment for such working tasks must be shifted to assessment of the whole body.

Evaluation of physical workload such as the screening tool Ergonomic Assessment Worksheet (EAWS) were developed and validated for use in industrial manufacturing with short cycles (up to 3 min). If this tool is used for work stations that have significantly longer cycles or no cycle at all, its use is limited. On the one hand, measuring the workload intensity becomes increasingly expensive. On the other hand, the workload intensity for these scenarios has to be examined as well. The following contribution presents an instance of how the EAWS can be used for long-cycle tasks on the example of a maintenance workplace at Deutsche Bahn. This work is focused on methods for adapted data collection from which indicators for possible adjustments to the evaluation procedure can be concluded.

The muscular strain of the lower extremities when walking “normally” and “sideways” was analysed using the simple, simulated U-assembly line in the Laboratory of the Institute for Ergonomics and Human Factors in Darmstadt (IAD). Test subjects executed their assembly operations in different scenarios in two studies. The U-line in the first study consisted of three work stations and five work stations in the second one. Electrical activities (EA) in six leg muscles on each leg (left and right) were measured and analysed by using EMG method. Ten test subjects without experience in assembly work took part in both studies. The results in the first study show that walking “sideways” puts lower extremities under more stress than walking “normally” does. We were able to record higher electrical activities values (especially dynamic EA-shares) in four out of six analysed leg muscles. EMG-results in the second study show that when “walking sideways counter-clockwise”, three muscles on the right leg are under greater stress than the muscles on the left leg.

The trend away from highly automated processes using heavy industrial robots towards HRI-systems (human-robot-interaction) using light-weight robots, is leading to a strong increase concerning the technical complexity of future industrial work systems. This article reports the results of an experimental evaluation of a multimodal human-robot-interface. Two typical application scenarios from the robot programming were examined, each performed with three different modalities of control. The mental workload of the operators was operationalized by subjective, objective and physiological indicators. There were significant differences in mental workload between the different types of control in both application scenarios. The present results demonstrate the benefits of adaptive system design in human-robot-interaction.

The ongoing digitalization of work and working environments suggests that the application of smart devices as a work assistance will increase. In this context, particularly it is important to consider an ergonomic design, especially the usability of mobile interactive systems before using it in the working environment. Therefore, a specific significance will be attributed to the usability evaluation of smart device applications. Consequently the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) implemented a study by means of a systematic review, which examined how to evaluate the usability of smart devices. The aim of the review was to investigate, if there are specific methods to evaluate the usability of smart devices or how far consisting methods including their criteria from the area of conventional screen work can be adopted. Results indicate that the majority of existing studies used evaluation criteria from the area of conventional screen work or recently developed kits for mobile usability evaluation, which are built on similar criteria. Actually the established methods and criteria are still adequate, but they have to be adjusted to the rapid development of new technologies with respect to new influence factors like innovative interaction concepts, smaller displays or mobile operations.

Mobile IT-devices (Smartphones, Tablet-PCs, etc.) are often used while performing other tasks in parallel, e.g. while walking. However, mobile device and environment often compete for the users’ attention. Binding too much attention on the mobile device will reduce attention on the environment. Especially in risky environments like road traffic, this might trigger substantial danger for users and third parties. Therefore, graphic user interfaces (GUIs) have to be adapted to it. Yet, lightweight mobile devices have small displays and only a limited number of objects can be displayed. Content with multiple subunits has to be arranged, e.g. by forming subcategories. Hierarchical structured menus facilitate this. In our survey, we compared the effect of different menu concepts on gaze behavior while walking. Menus containing 4–8 icons per level required the lowest number of gazes. In single interactions, the shortest visual distraction was found for the least number of objects on the screen.

The digitalization of medical human-machine system equips data with an essential role during processes supported by digital information systems. Here, data and information visualizations are able to reduce complexity only if influencing variables on human understanding, insight, and decision-making can be controlled, quantified and ergonomically designed. Present chapter provides an review on previous work in computer sciences, engineering, psychology and medicine in order to descriptively summarize human aspects which are relevant for the design of data and information visualizations in healthcare settings. The second part of this chapter builds upon the outcome of this review by working out current challenges of information and data visualization for consumer healthcare systems and introducing three studies which serves to tackle those challenges.

The take-over of the driving task in highly automated vehicles at system limits is subject to latest research in ergonomics and human-machine-interaction. Most studies focus on driving simulator studies, examining the take-over performance mainly after short periods of automated driving, although take-over requests may not occur such frequently in future automated vehicles. This study tries to close this gap and compares driving performance and reaction times of a take-over after 5 and 20 min of automated driving. Further, the gaze behavior in the beginning and in the end of the 20 min period is compared. While the duration of automated driving did not show to influence the take-over performance, gaze behavior changed within the 20 min of automated driving. The SuRT and the 20 min automation period induced slower reactions, but no significant changes regarding accelerations and time to collision.

Progress in sensors, computer power and increasing connectivity allow to build and operate more and more powerful assistance and automation systems, e.g. in aviation, cars and manufacturing. Besides many benefits, new problems occur e.g. in human-machine-interaction. In the field of automation, e.g. vehicle automation, a comparable, metaphorical design correlation is implied, an unsafe valley e.g. between partially- and highly-automated automation levels, in which due to misperceptions a loss of safety could occur. This contribution sketches the concept of the (uncanny and) unsafe valley of automation, summarizes early affirmative studies, gives first hints towards an explanation of the valley, outlines the design space how to secure the borders of the valley, and how to bridge the valley.

Collaborative work of man and machine in close proximity is considered as an enabling feature of the Industry 4.0 concept. Acceptance and performance are crucial aspects for the success of such working environments. To enhance acceptance it is necessary to understand the effects of robot behavior on human’s behavior. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of robotic motion on human expressive behavior during the interaction in close distance. As a theoretical framework the concept of approach-avoidance behavior was adopted. For this reason we analyzed human motion trajectories during the interaction with an industrial robot in a real setup. Our findings suggest that an active robot affects the movement behavior of interacting participants considerably. Interestingly, an active robot seems to be more positively evaluated than a non-moving robot. In contrast to our expectations the approach-avoidance behavior of our participants suggest that human-like movement patterns of the industrial robot were evaluated less positively than robot-like mechanical behavior. In general assessing approach-avoidance behavior seems to be a promising method for an implicit measure of the affective quality of human-robot collaboration.

Joint angle-dependent calculations of human action forces constitute a significant advantage of digital human models, but further knowledge of maximum allowable joint torques has to be acquired. This paper describes a method to calculate polynomials (functions) for maximum torque of elbow flexion and extension that depend on various joints of elbow and shoulder to increase the quality of prediction.

First, the anatomical influences are described to explain which joint angles affect the determination of elbow flexion torques and elbow extension torques. Following, the used experimental design with 948 measurements and the procedure to conduct the polynomials is shown in detail. Here, different ways to determine polynomials are investigated. The results are polynomials for elbow flexion and extension torques which depend on the elbow-flexion angle (EF), the elbow-rotation angle (ER), the shoulder-flexion angle (SF), the shoulder-abduction angle (SA) and the shoulder-rotation angle (SR). The polynomials explain 81.5 % of the variance of the measured values for flexion and 76.5 % of the variance for extension, respectively. Overall, the developed model gives an accurate prediction for maximum flexion and extension torques in regard to the described joint angles. It can therefore help to improve the quality of ergonomic planning using digital human models.