# Automation and Robotics Pilot Lines in the Context of Industry 5.0
## 2 Pilot Lines in the Literature
### Industrial Pilot Lines
The article highlights complexity, investments for machine acquisition and operation, product variety, and short product life cycles as some of the challenges faced by the sector, and where pilot lines can be particularly useful. Their publication also conveys an interesting message that emphasizes the importance of pilot lines: \"Due to the capital-intensive equipment required for semiconductor production, companies often use low-volume manufacturing to validate market demand, optimize production processes, and mitigate risks before scaling up to full production\". These small-scale activities where technology validation, process optimization, and uncertainty reduction can occur are precisely where pilot lines prove valuable. The idea of using small-scale and pilot lines for \"what-if\" analyses while avoiding disruptions on main production lines is discussed in [16]. These \"what-if\" scenarios also use pilot lines as a tool for generating information to support decision-making and serve as a data source for Digital Twins and dashboards. Another pilot line, which focuses more on evaluating workstation setups rather than technologies, is presented in [23]. This pilot line facilitates tests aimed at reducing dead times, unnecessary inventories, and bottlenecks in production processes within the clothing industry. In their work, the authors analyzed variations in efficiency when switching from a conventional production system to one that is modular and aligned with lean manufacturing principles. They suggest using mobile workstations in a modular system, allowing operators to perform multiple tasks, and present positive indicators related to improved production efficiency. The intersection of lean manufacturing and pilot lines is also explored in the works presented in [24]. The authors adopted an automation and robotics approach in a pilot line for battery module production, specifically focusing on modules that use cylindrical cells. This pilot line incorporates the use of a cell testing system along with a pick-and-place robot, referred to as a \"cell loading system\" and a pulse-arc welding robot. These elements are used to validate a Six Sigma-based sustainable manufacturing approach. The sustainability in production is associated with the concept of the 6 Rs: Rationalize, Reduce, Redesign, Reuse, Repair, and Recycle. A relevant pilot line in this context is one of those used within the same research project to calculate station processes, supporting the transition from pilot line to production and reducing time-to-market [25]. The authors aimed to address the lack of a well-defined methodology for scaling up pilot lines and present an eight-workstation pilot line designed to demonstrate a virtual modeling tool integrated with an ontology model for calculating station process times. Following the topic of battery production, an article that covers this subject along with pilot lines and sustainability is presented by [PERSON] et al. [26]. The article is based on the idea that it is complex to scale environmental impact data measured in pilot lines to full-scale production environments. Specifically, they suggest that while pilot lines are common for increasing understanding of environmental impacts when producing battery cells, scaling these data to large-scale production systems is challenging. This situation becomes even more complicated with emerging technologies, due to which the data at the pilot line level needed for a life cycle assessment (LCA) are scarce. The authors highlight pilot lines as a key element in improving awareness of the environmental impact of various technologies. They conclude by suggesting that, to some extent, pilot lines can be used to estimate production environmental impacts but emphasize the importance of recognizing that certain variables will require specific methodologies. The environmental impact, along with challenges in profitability and motivating new young employees is addressed in [27].