Shopfloor-Integrated Manufacturing Operation Planning through Agents

Industrial manufacturing of machine parts typically relies on executing operations planned by Computer-Aided-Manufacturing (CAM). Sometimes, there is no CAM program to the factory worker on the shopfloor available or an existing program must be altered. Integrating path planning capabilities into the machine can empower the factory worker to generate and adapt machine programs directly on the shop floor. In this paper, we sketched a novel approach. The human-centric machine uses large language model-powered agentic frameworks to generate and adapt manufacturing programs and their execution. We explored the capabilities and limitations of this approach using the case study of object reconstruction via laser scanning. Our findings demonstrated that agent-based interactions can effectively bridge the gap between high-level user intentions and precise machine operations. Furthermore, we have distilled our learnings into a general concept for a human-centric machine to seamlessly integrate operation planning into industrial robots and machines, aiming to further empower factory workers and enhance adaptability in manufacturing environments.