HAMBURG, Germany—Automated assembly operations of the future will increasingly rely on close collaboration between humans and machines. Engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF) are working with Airbus to learn how to detect and predict disruptions in aircraft production. They are focusing on the installation of jetliner cabin doors.

“We want to find out how we can automate and make our assembly process more streamlined,” says Eugen Gorr, an engineer in charge of the development of innovative assembly operations at Airbus’ Hamburg operations. “The operations surrounding the installation of a cabin door are particularly well suited for ascertaining which data we collect how and where, how we process them, and how we can feed them back into the assembly process in real time.