The demand for flexible automation in manufacturing has increased, incorporating vision-guided systems for object grasping. However, a key challenge is in-hand error, where discrepancies between the actual and estimated positions of an object in the robot’s gripper impact not only the grasp but also subsequent assembly stages. Corrective strategies used to compensate for misalignment can increase cycle times or rely on pre-labeled datasets, offline training, and validation processes, delaying deployment and limiting adaptability in dynamic industrial environments. Our main contribution is an online self-supervised learning method that automates data collection, training, and evaluation in real time, eliminating the need for offline processes. Building on this, our system collects real-time data during each assembly cycle, using corrective strategies to adjust the data and autonomously labeling them via a self-supervised approach. It then builds and evaluates multiple regression models through an auto machine learning implementation. The system selects the best-performing model to correct the misalignment and dynamically chooses between corrective strategies and the learned model, optimizing the cycle times and improving the performance during the cycle, without halting the production process. Our experiments show a significant reduction in the cycle time while maintaining the performance.

This paper introduces the Operator as a Service (OaaS) concept, a novel paradigm for human labour in the era of Industry 4.0. OaaS empowers skilled operators to remotely oversee and control multiple flexible smart manufacturing lines through advanced technologies such as digital twins and remote collaboration. By transitioning from on-site, full-time operators to specialized remote operators available on demand, OaaS optimizes human resource utilization and facilitates the transition towards more flexible and responsive manufacturing systems. This paper presents the OaaS architecture, discusses its potential benefits for enhancing operational efficiency and adaptability in semi-controlled manufacturing environments, and validates its feasibility through a real-world testbed involving a fully automated assembly line. The results demonstrate the potential of OaaS to address the challenges of maintaining human oversight and ensuring operational flexibility in increasingly complex and interconnected manufacturing systems.