An intuitive framework to automate feature-rich manual tasks and manufacturing processes

The common image of manufacturing today is that of an industry dominated by automation. Yet manual labor is still used in a large variety of difficult tasks that combine precision and accuracy with sophisticated cognition. The market demands for higher production rates while maintaining quality levels, are forcing the conversion of the remaining manual tasks to automated ones. While this process is industry-specific, there is a need to convert the manual tasks into automatic ones in a systematic way. Based on a spray-enameling example from the sanitary ware industry, we develop an intuitive framework that can assist production engineers in automating feature-rich tasks and processes.