Research On EEG-based Mental Workload And Performance Problems In Assembly Operations

With the development of information technology and technology,productivity has been greatly released,and industrial production has gradually turned to automation and electronic information.Multi-varieties,small batches and short product life cycle have gradually become the main characteristics of consumer demand market.Unit assembly line has replaced other production modes and become one of the most effective assembly production lines in the contemporary era.At the same time,in the process of scientific allocation of production systems to improve production efficiency,the human nature of the unit assembly line makes manufacturing enterprises gradually realize that "human factors" has become the bottleneck factor which restricts the further optimization of production management.If we pay too much attention to the design of production equipment and neglect the limitation of operator's mental workload or information processing ability,the results will inevitably affect the performance of operator's external behavior,not conducive to the improvement of production efficiency and the optimization of production management,thus greatly affecting the process of industrial engineering systematization.It also violates the concept of ergonomic engineering design in industrial engineering: "minimum human energy consumption,maximum efficiency".Therefore,the optimization of production management needs to consider the operator's "human factors" and production performance information comprehensively,that is,in the process of improving production efficiency,it has important research value to consider the operator's mental load and behavioral performance factors.This paper focuses on the mental workload and performance of assembly operators.Based on the research results of enterprises and predecessors,the problems faced by enterprises are concretized and typified.The assembly process of unit assembly line is simulated by using Lego car as assembly material in the laboratory.According to the production characteristics of manufacturing enterprises at this stage,two experimental schemes of single product assembly and product switching assembly are designed respectively.Firstly,real-time EEG(electroencephalogram)data were collected by B-Alert X10 device,and EEG-workload index and EEG-engagement index were selected to describe the operator's mental workload in assembly operation.Secondly,the differences between single product and product switching assembly,and the relationship between mental load and performance are analyzed by combining the performance indexes of unit assembly time and error rate with mental workload evaluation indicators.Then,in order to further quantify the relationship between mental workload and job performance,based on the results of data analysis,the BP neural network algorithm is used to establish the performance evaluation model of assembly operation,which realizes the accurate evaluation of assembly performance by mental load data.Finally,based on the results of this study,the corresponding management strategies are put forward in two aspects: production planning management and production operation management.The results showed that the performance will be at a good level when the operator's mental workload is stable in a certain range,and if it is beyond that range,the performance will decline or continue to be at a poor level.The combined analysis of EEG-workload index and EEG-engagement index can accurately describe the performance state of the assembly operator and distinguish between good and poor performance.There is no significant difference between product switching assembly and single product assembly in unit assembly time,but switching assembly can relieve operator's mental workload and may improve assembly quality.And,BP neural network performance evaluation model of assembly operation with dual input of mental load and participation index can accurately judge operator's performance status.This paper makes up for the existing research methods,chooses advanced EEG indexes to describe the operator's mental workload state when operator working with task,explores the relationship between mental load and performance of assembly operations,establishes performance evaluation model of assembly operations,and advances the research progress of brain load evaluation and its relationship with performance in manufacturing field.Based on the development status of manufacturing enterprises,the application of the research results of this paper to improve the production management proposals,has important practical guiding significance.