Development of an intuitive, visual packaging assistant

High volume of information and rising dynamics require a flexible interaction of humans with systems in their work environment. To fulfill this and with regard to logistics demands, new solutions for human-machine-interaction are being developed at Fraunhofer IML. Packaging in e-commerce is characterized by heterogeneous products. Therefore, a solution is required that guides staff efficiently through the packaging process based on optimizing algorithms in the backend. The developed packaging assistant guides the staff through the process with the help of hardware and concurrently considers the characteristics of human cognition. The packaging information is provided through traditional user interfaces like displays or textual-based information as well as visual signals given through LEDs. Using visual signals, the positioning of goods inside a package is visualized and verified by a camera-based system. The purpose of this kind of system is to reduce the amount of information as well as the susceptibility to errors within the process.