Worker assistance systems in manufacturing: A review of the state of the art and future directions

In the course of the fourth industrial revolution (also known as Industry 4.0 or I4.0) the operator itself comes to the fore. The technological and computational developments of recent years since the beginning of Industry 4.0 have led to a rapid progress in the development of technical worker assistance systems to support the worker in his daily work. So far, however, there are hardly any sufficient studies or a comprehensive overview of worker assistance systems. Therefore, in this paper, a systematic literature review of worker assistance systems in manufacturing is presented. A detailed descriptive and content analysis provide an extensive overview of the state of the art of worker assistance systems used in industrial settings. A particular focus is given to the analysis of potentials and future directions for these technical worker assistance systems. Additionally, gaps in research and in the transfer from research to industry are revealed. This information is then used to derive strategic measures addressed to stakeholders for either exploiting the benefits of such systems, for conducting further basic and applied research or for improving the applicability and potential for industry.