Development of a Human Factors Roadmap for the Successful Implementation of Industrial Human-Robot Collaboration

Abstract

The concept of industrial human-robot collaboration (HRC) is becoming increasingly integrated into manufacturing production lines as a means for enhancing productivity and product quality. However, developments have focused primarily on the technology and, until recently, little research has been geared to understand the key human factors (HF) that need to be considered to enable successful implementation of industrial HRC. Recent work by the authors has led to the identification of key organisational and individual level HF. The purpose of this paper is to draw together the evidence from their studies and propose a HF roadmap for the successful implementation of industrial HRC. The roadmap will have profound implications as it enables automation specialists and manufacturing system engineers to understand the key HF that need to be considered optimise the efficiency and productivity of the collaboration between humans and industrial robots.

Friend or Foe? Understanding Assembly Workers’ Acceptance of Human-robot Collaboration

“…This investigation encourages this postulation, as participants experienced in working with a robot expressed different beliefs of what a robot could or should do than inexperienced participants. Charalambous et al [ 14 ] also indicate that trust is formed by the operator's mental model of the robot. To foster initial trust, they propose that operators should not only be trained in how to use the robot, but also provided with knowledge about the robot's abilities.…”

Industrial Robot Ethics: The Challenges of Closer Human Collaboration in Future Manufacturing Systems

“…Robot ethics in relation to the impacts of forthcoming 'Industrie 4' manufacturing systems is a relatively new area for research and development. Ongoing research at Cranfield University has begun to explore the psychological impacts of industrial human-robot collaboration, including human trust, and the key organisational factors that are likely to influence implementation of collaborative systems [19,20]. However, with the development of this body of knowledge still in its infancy the issues presented here are intended to raise awareness for future development and debate, alongside the progress of technological developments.…”

The development of a Human Factors Readiness Level tool for implementing industrial human-robot collaboration

“…To address this problem, Charalambous, Fletcher and Webb [17] made the first attempt to identify the key organisational human factors for the successful implementation of industrial HRC by studying previous work in comparable contexts and also by conducting a case study of comparable live industrial automation implementation. The results of this work enabled (i) development of an initial theoretical framework which proposes the key organisational human factors relevant to industrial HRC and (ii) identification of whether these factors are enablers or barriers [18]. A brief summary of these findings is listed below:…”