Augmenting the Human in Industry 4.0 to Add Value: A Taxonomy of Human Augmentation Approach

There is a lack of clarity about how to augment the human in manufacturing. For practitioners, this creates challenges in understanding which technologies to invest in for specific automation goals, and where the value-add exists. A narrative review of the literature is conducted through which the relationship between augmentation and automation is clarified. Definitions for Augmentation, and the Augmented Human, and a new Taxonomy of Human Augmentation are proposed. Five classes of augmentation are identified: Physical, Collaborative Physical, Sensory, Embedded Intelligence, and Collaborative Social Intelligence. How the Taxonomy is applied to each goal of automation is illustrated. Finally the value-add of the classes is explored through industrial use cases, and the potential impact on manufacturing key performance indicators is summarised. This novel Taxonomy of Human Augmentation unifies the existing research, and provides a common description of each class of augmentation, which can assist practitioners in seeking and exploring augmentation solutions.