Cognitive Control Units in Smart Manufacturing: Insights From a Soar-Based Assistance System

Abstract

The growing complexity of industrial assembly processes calls for innovative, user-centered solutions, and in recent years, the adoption of assistive systems to support manual assembly tasks has attracted increasing attention. This work investigates the use of Cognitive Control Units, powered by the Soar cognitive architecture, as assistive systems in smart manufacturing. The Cognitive Control Unit has been integrated into an assembly station that can adapt itself and its processes to the user currently utilizing the station. An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the station’s effectiveness by comparing it with a previous experiment in which no guidance was provided. The findings reveal both shorter mean completion times and higher-quality assembly performance. Furthermore, participants indicated that the use of the station had a positive influence on their emotional state.