Cooperation Systems

How can artificial intelligence upgrade the tasks in tomorrow’s workplaces – while actively involving workers instead of replacing them? As part of the WIRKsam Competence Center project, Fraunhofer FIT is demonstrating how humans and AI can work together effectively. 

For many companies, artificial intelligence (AI) sounds exciting but abstract. Staff often wonder why AI should be used in their work environment at all – and whether this technology will actually help them or replace them in the long term.

This is exactly where the WIRKsam demonstrators come in. They were designed and built in a user-centered and participatory process in close cooperation with workers and researchers studying the future of work, and are tested in realistic work scenarios.

In the first demonstrator, users perform a hypothetical AI-supported quality control in a recycling plant. They first check metal objects manually on a virtual conveyor belt and then again with AI support. In the process, they learn first-hand how AI makes monotonous tasks easier, reduces errors, and at the same time supports the workers in their tasks instead of replacing them.

In the second demonstrator, built in cooperation with AIRCONCEPT GmbH, carbon fiber parts of vehicle wings are inspected for defects – again, first without and then with AI support. This shows that human expertise remains indispensable, as certain defects can only be detected by well trained staff. AI takes over routine checks, while the workers always retain control.

Both demonstrators use leading-edge virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR) technologies to make abstract AI processes tangible and comprehensible. The demonstrators make it easy to understand how AI creates added value, and they show that AI does not replace workers, but rather supports and relieves them. Being based on open standards, the demonstrators remain flexible and adaptable in the long term.

The WIRKsam R&D effort is currently focusing on modeling real work environments in detail in XR, using state-of-the-art scanning technologies such as Gaussian splatting. This will allow us to create authentic and convincing demonstrators of AI support directly in virtual images of real workplaces.

The WIRKsam competence center is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.