On February 5 and 6, the final visit of the partners of the European project SOPHIA took place in the premises of Hidria's competence center Industrial Automation. In a four-year project, the Hidria team solved the ergonomic challenges of modern production by implementing collaborative methods of human and robot cooperation in production.

Due to the complex topic, as many as three development departments participated in the project: the business unit Hidria Lamtec, the competence center Industrial Automation and Hidria's SHE team, the area of health and safety at work. Hidria's practical industrial challenges for development partners originate from Hidria Lamtec's production challenges at the Jesenice location.

As part of the project, Hidria critically evaluated the workplace of loosening laminated packages on an annealing furnace, which is particularly ergonomically demanding for employees. As a possible solution, within the scope of research, the KC Industrial Automation team from Koper designed a collaborative test cell with one of the first collaborative robots in Hidria. In a simulated environment, a collaborative robot and a worker work side by side, and at the same time, the design allows measurements of the impact of such a work environment on the worker's physical and social well-being, the emergence of new challenges regarding work safety, and the efficiency of the work itself.

During the development and testing of new solutions, Hidria was constantly supported by members of the Italian robotics institute Instituto Italiano di Technologia from Genoa and colleagues from the German Federal Institute for Safety and Health at Work - BaUA, who also visited Hidria with the aim of final inspection and validation of the solution. The test cell was also tested by employees from the Hidria Lamtec location in Jesenice, who participated in the practical test and provided important findings about the reliability and possible applications of the developed solution in production.

The SOPHIA project is the first research project in the field of robotic systems. Through the project, we have acquired many new development contacts, with whom we will undoubtedly look for new opportunities for cooperation in upcoming tenders in the following years. Both Hidria's SHE department and KC Industrial Automation will use the direct results of the project in the design of new ergonomic robotic solutions in the workplaces of the future in all of Hidria's business units.

Text: Rok Podobnik