Human-Centered Zero-Defect Manufacturing

Stepping into the advent of Industry 5.0, the manufacturing industry has been enhanced by the proliferation of advanced digital technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and Extended Reality (XR). This precedent has laid the foundation for achieving a new era of Zero-Defect Manufacturing (ZDM), where production quality is highly optimized by eliminating production problems. Despite the developments of the above-mentioned technologies, significant concerns have been raised regarding the role of humans, not only in operational tasks but mainly in the design and implementation. In this respect, there is an urgent need for a human-centered approach that will actively include humans in the loop, rather than only considering human needs and requirements. This need has been identified by recent research efforts to improve explainability, trustworthiness, and transparency as a requirement for a sustainable relationship between humans and autonomous systems. In addition, new paradigms have emerged regarding the interaction of the operators with the manufacturing line to be aware of its progress, immediately intervene, and (re)configure the overall system. More specifically, the introduction of visualization and interaction techniques through XR approaches enables the potential for harmonious symbiosis with the autonomous agents used in the manufacturing industry, resulting in a decision-making scheme that combines the best features of AI and humans.

This topic's objective is to compile the most recent research in the field and to offer insights into the difficulties and possibilities faced, focusing on the advancements of XR and AI under a human-centered design approach, and bringing together researchers and industry practitioners to present their latest research and developments in the field of ZDM. The following study topics relating to human-centered zero-defect manufacturing are invited for contributions as original research articles, case studies, and review papers:

• AI-empowered defect detection and improvement of manufacturing processes' quality
• Methods and tools for designing human-centered AI manufacturing systems
• Manufacturing predictive maintenance using ML techniques
• Application of XR to worker support and training in zero defect manufacturing
• The impact of collaborative robots on zero defect manufacturing
• AI-based quality assurance and decision making in modern manufacturing
• Case studies of effective zero-defect manufacturing deployments across several industries
• The role of data analytics in zero defect manufacturing
• XR’s contribution to enhancing quality assurance and lowering manufacturing mistakes
• How human-centered design can leverage human-agent symbiosis towards producing products with zero defects
• Process control and optimization with AI and ML in zero defect manufacturing
• Explainable AI's role in promoting accountability and transparency in zero-defect manufacturing
• The potential for self-optimizing manufacturing systems enabled by AI and ML.
• Active Learning and human-in-the-loop AI methodologies to model worker's expert knowledge

Keywords: Human-Centered AI, Zero Defect Manufacturing, Extended Reality, Human-Agent Symbiosis, Machine Learning

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.