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"Productive Teaming" is a joint research initiative of the Chemnitz University of Technology, the Technische Universität Ilmenau and the OVGU Magdeburg, which emerged from the Chemnitz-Ilmenau-Magdeburg Research and Innovation Network ("CHIM"). In the face of rapid technological advances, the forward-looking vision of the research initiative is to raise the collaboration of humans and machines in the industrial production environment to a new level. The aim is to enable a new generation of dynamic human-machine teams in production systems that can cope with complex and adaptive challenges.
The increasing degree of complexity in the demands on product and process in a human-centered partially automated production requires a completely rethought approach to interdisciplinary basic research in the field of human-machine collaboration. While the last industrial revolutions focused on machines, their automation and networking, the joint research initiative aims at a reversal towards more freedom and natural support for humans in increasingly complex production environments and manufacturing processes. Humans are to be assisted by an intelligent, artificial team partner that can respond to human needs and, where necessary, independently anticipate requirements of the human team partner and support it with its specific technical characteristics (strength, speed, sensors, computing power). The goal is human-machine collaboration in which the machine becomes a trusted, accepted team partner for the human in industrial production and frees the human from the constraints of past industrial revolutions. The final decision is always made by the human. The universities involved are aware that this is a topic with the greatest ethical and social implications and that the highest standards of scientific ethics must be applied.
The chosen, highly interdisciplinary approach combines the technical, cognitive and social aspects of the research topic. The cooperation of the three universities makes it possible to contribute the scientific expertise available at each location. The TU Ilmenau contributes with technical competences from subject areas that are assigned to the two profile lines "Intelligent Sensors and Precision Measurement Technology" and "Complex Systems and Data-Intensive Engineering". The Ilmenau Interactive Immersive Technology Center (I3TC), one of the four cross-faculty technology centers at TU Ilmenau, provides the structural basis for the joint research initiative. The scientists at TU Ilmenau involved in "Productive Teaming" network through the center and have access to excellent laboratory equipment.