ASSIST 4.0 - Service Avatar: A new service era begins

An average day in automated manufacturing: the robot ballet dances, the components are transported along the assembly line to the next stage of production, special tools perform their tasks without complaint. The manufacturing industry in Europe is increasingly turning to automation and efficient human resource management to remain competitive. Servicing complex machines remains the domain of qualified personnel.

ASSIST 4.0 helps production and service technicians, in direct interaction with the machines, to make effective decisions based on visualized data, information and events. The assistance systems must be designed in such a way that they help people, providing them with the information they need for specific contexts, so they are able to perform their work efficiently.

Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality as Key Technologies

The ASSIST 4.0 project aims to develop and test assistance systems for Industry 4.0. The research team designs six use cases, realizes and evaluates them. The new technologies are tested on logistics equipment at KNAPP, semiconductor production in the cleanroom at Infineon, and by example of the automotive industry in connection with AVL.

The goal: In the smart factory, it should not be necessary anymore to stop production until the service technicians arrive. With mobile assistance systems, travel time is already service time. In future, experts will be able to provide instructions and assistance using the latest key technologies – regardless of where they are.

A central software system combined with tablets, smartphones or smart glasses will support service staff by delivering information and visualized data during man-machine interaction; for decisions, handling, fault prognosis, maintenance, training and data gathering.

With the head up display, personnel on site can have their hands free to implement assistance directly, ask questions and process more sensory information than over the telephone. Every aspect of ASSIST 4.0 puts human beings on center stage; in future, people and machines should communicate with each other as naturally as they do in social networks.

Consortium Manager

KNAPP AG

Other Consortium Partners

• Infineon Technologies Austria AG
• AVL List GmbH
• evolaris next level GmbH
• Research Studios Austria Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
• Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg
• XiTrust Secure Technologies GmbH

Project Coordinator

Peter Stelzer, MBA, Bakk.Techn.
E-mail: peter.stelzer@knapp.com