Planning: SCC-CIVIC-PG Track B: Manufacturing Automation Toolkit (MAT): Enhancing Equity through Collaborative Visioning in Manufacturing Future

Robotics and AI technologies have rapidly reconfigured workplaces. The manufacturing industry is at the forefront of these changes. Although these technologies have the potential to significantly reduce labor intensity and improve work efficiency, workers often lack the resources to learn about, envision, and prepare for their integration into daily work, leading to concerns and missed opportunities for process innovation and empowerment. This project offers a novel approach to engage the workforce through technology innovations, learn about these technologies, and simulate workplace change. This stage 1 planning grant is conducted in cooperation with United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 602, the State of Michigan, Rockwell Automation, manufacturing industry partners, and manufacturing community. The stage 1 planning grant focuses on understanding production workers’ concerns through interviews, observation, and building multidisciplinary teams as the project stakeholders develop the technical requirements for (1) a “digital twin” model for visualizing how new automation technologies would change the workflow and that allows workers to experience the change in a virtual environment, (2) a generative AI that answers workers’ questions about automation technologies, and (3) a catalog of emerging automation technologies in manufacturing, made accessible to workers for exploring and learning about new technologies. The stage 2 project would build a prototype system and pilot it at automative manufacturing facility. This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program’s Track B. Bridging the gap between essential resources and services & community needs and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.