The Relationship Between Crafting "Fingers" and Automobile Manufacturing Unveiled
Toyota Motor Corporation, renowned for its commitment to safety and manufacturing excellence, is taking a significant step forward in workplace safety with the development of artificial fingers. This innovative project, a collaboration with Nagoya University and Panasonic, aims to improve the accuracy and thoroughness of safety evaluations in hazardous environments.
The artificial fingers, with a metal "bone" at their core, serve as a physical proxy to identify hazards, verify safety mechanisms, and optimise plant ergonomics. They can be used to test pinch points, pressure areas, or moving parts without putting actual workers at risk.
The development of these artificial fingers began with Panasonic's intention to provide data for analysis. Toyota collaborated with Panasonic's Product Analysis Center to develop a dummy finger for assessing safety. Among Toyota's employees in Japan, Tatsuro Mori from the Elemental Technology Development Dept., Production Engineering Div., leads this project.
The goal is twofold: to reduce the time and effort involved in evaluating safety for faster implementation of productive robots, and to keep frontline workers safe as the workforce shrinks due to falling birthrates and an aging population.
ISO standards don't account for the possibility of fingers being caught in narrow spaces under 10 mm, and there are limits to detecting dangers with sensors. The artificial fingers allow for visual adjustment of mechanical forces to safe levels, filling this gap in safety evaluations.
A particular animal skin was used to achieve the squishy elasticity of a real finger in the development process. The artificial fingers are developed to be practical and functional, easy to use onsite without a computer. They are increasingly being used at Toyota's plants in Japan.
While the use of advanced technology such as AR for remote safety monitoring and problem-solving in Toyota's plants is documented, the artificial finger development is not explicitly mentioned in the provided search results. However, this suggests Toyota's ongoing commitment to leveraging innovative technology for workplace safety and efficiency.
Despite meticulous safety measures in place at each facility, many injuries in the manufacturing sector involve hands and fingers getting caught in machinery. The development of artificial fingers is a proactive step towards preventing such accidents and ensuring a safer work environment for all. No major accidents involving people working alongside robots have occurred to date.
[1] Source: Toyota's use of AR for remote safety monitoring and problem-solving can be found in various news articles and reports.
- The development of the artificial fingers, a collaboration between Toyota Motor Corporation, Nagoya University, and Panasonic, is aimed at improving safety evaluations in risky environments, such as manufacturing, by physical proxy assessment of hazards, safety mechanisms, and plant ergonomics.
- In the manufacturing industry, Toyota's artificial fingers are being used to identify and test pinch points, pressure areas, or moving parts, reducing human risks in dangerous situations while ensuring faster implementation of productive robots.
- To bridge the gap in safety evaluations where ISO standards fall short, such as in spaces under 10mm, Toyota has developed artificial fingers with a meticulous compromise between elasticity and functionality, using a specific animal skin in the development process.
- While Advanced Realty (AR) technology for remote problem-solving and safety monitoring has been documented in Toyota's operations, the company's artificial finger development, focusing on improved workplace safety and efficiency, seems not to have been explicitly mentioned in the available search results, suggesting an ongoing commitment to innovative technology adoption.
