An Adaptive Speech Interface for Assistance in Maintenance and Changeover Procedures

Machine operators remain important in future production environments and need intuitive and powerful interaction techniques. Many assistance and support applications for machine operators use speech-based interfaces since they are suitable during manual tasks and when visual attention cannot be occupied. Due to developments like the demographic change or the need for skilled personnel, the skills and capabilities of the workers will become increasingly diverse. Speech-based interfaces therefore need to be adaptable to the capabilities, limitations and preferences of individual operators. This paper addresses this requirement and proposes an adaptive speech interface that supports machine operators during maintenance and changeover procedures. All aspects of the proposed application can be adapted to the requirements of the user. The system uses a process model, instruction templates, a user model, and a model of the input vocabulary to describe the components of the application. This allows a flexible adaptation of the speech interface and the provided instructions to the requirements of individual users and to further use cases.