Project Challenge
Automation has impacted all industries, with manufacturing accounting for 74.4% of newly added automation technologies in the US in 2021. This shift particularly burdens Michigan, where manufacturing represents nearly 1 in 7 jobs. Despite this, worker communities lack access to resources and services related to automation, missing opportunities to contribute by leveraging their experiential knowledge. To address this, we propose the Manufacturing Automation Toolkit (MAT), which includes a Digital Twin (DT), a generative AI (genAI), and a manual, all aimed at enhancing workers’ automation literacy.
Manufacturing Automation Toolkit (MAT): Enhancing Equity through Collaborative Visioning
in Manufacturing Future
Lansing, Michigan
NSF Award ID: 2431223
PI: Hee Rin Lee,
Michigan State University
Co-PI: Wenlong Zhang,
Arizona State University
2024 Civic Innovation Challenge
Pilot Vision
- The Need for the Workers Lab: Interviews and co-design activities with stakeholders, including UAW Local 602 members and government officials, revealed that workers' lack of access to automation resources is more severe than expected. They are often uninformed about automation adoption, lack training, and face management’s reluctance to collaborate. As a result, a toolkit alone is insufficient, leading us to revise our plan and create an easily accessible lab space for workers.
- Workers lab with Digital Twin (DT) and collaborative robots: This lab will offer a training program for Digital Twin (DT) and collaborative robots. DT enables the continued testing and operation of automation technologies beyond the physical lab. Collaborative robots were selected due to workers' primary concerns, which revolve around two types: Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) and collaborative robotic arms.
- Three Cases of Challenges: The pilot project addresses three challenges identified during the pilot phase: 1) unpaid labor managing robot errors, 2) inefficiency from poor collaboration between robots and workers, and 3) safety issues (see Fig 1). These will be explored from educational, technological, and organizational perspectives.
Civic Partners:
- UAW Local 620
- Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Opportunity (LEO)
- Lansing Community College (LCC)
- Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC)
- Manufacturing Growth Alliance (MGA)
- AFL-CIO
Research Questions
- What assets does the worker community possess that can be leveraged to enhance their automation literacy?
- Considering the workers’ assets, how can we co-create the Manufacturing Automation Toolkit to effectively serve as a community resource?
- How can we ensure the toolkit's sustainable ownership and maintenance?
Publications created from the planning phase:
[1] Minding the Stop-gap: Attending to the “Temporary,” Unplanned, and Added Labor of Human-Robot Collaboration in Context., Lee et al., HRI 2025 (BEST PAPER AWARD)
[2] Empowering Adults with AI Literacy, Cao et al., CHI 2025
[3] AI Literacy for Underserved Students, Cao et al., CHI 2025