The use of collaborative robots in the manufacturing industry has widely spread in the last decade. In order to be efficient, the human-robot collaboration needs to be properly designed by also taking into account the operator's psychophysiological reactions. Virtual Reality can be used as a tool to simulate human-robot collaboration in a safe and cheap way. Here, we present a virtual collaborative platform in which the human operator and a simulated robot coordinate their actions to accomplish a simple assembly task. In this study,.the robot moved slowly or more quickly in order to assess the effect of its velocity on the human's responses. Ten participants tested this application by using an Oculus Rift head-mounted display; ARTracking cameras and a Kinect system were used to track the operator's right arm movements and hand gestures respectively. Performance, user experience, andphysiological responses were recorded. The results showed that while humans' performances and evaluations varied as a function of the robot's velocity, no differences were found in the physiological responses. Taken together, these data highlight the relevance of the kinematic aspects of robot's motion within a human-robot collaboration and provide valuable insights to further develop our virtual human -machine interactive platform.

Etzi, R., Huang, S., Scurati, G., Lyu, S., Ferrise, F., Gallace, A., et al. (2019). Using virtual reality to test human-robot interaction during a collaborative task. In Proceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference. THREE PARK AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10016-5990 USA : American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) [10.1115/DETC2019-97415].

Using virtual reality to test human-robot interaction during a collaborative task

Etzi, R
Primo
;
Gallace, A;
2019

Abstract

The use of collaborative robots in the manufacturing industry has widely spread in the last decade. In order to be efficient, the human-robot collaboration needs to be properly designed by also taking into account the operator's psychophysiological reactions. Virtual Reality can be used as a tool to simulate human-robot collaboration in a safe and cheap way. Here, we present a virtual collaborative platform in which the human operator and a simulated robot coordinate their actions to accomplish a simple assembly task. In this study,.the robot moved slowly or more quickly in order to assess the effect of its velocity on the human's responses. Ten participants tested this application by using an Oculus Rift head-mounted display; ARTracking cameras and a Kinect system were used to track the operator's right arm movements and hand gestures respectively. Performance, user experience, andphysiological responses were recorded. The results showed that while humans' performances and evaluations varied as a function of the robot's velocity, no differences were found in the physiological responses. Taken together, these data highlight the relevance of the kinematic aspects of robot's motion within a human-robot collaboration and provide valuable insights to further develop our virtual human -machine interactive platform.
slide + paper
Human-robot collaboration; Virtual Reality; Workload; Stress;
English
Conference: IDETC-CIE International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference 18-21 August
2019
Proceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference
978-079185917-9
2019
1
none
Etzi, R., Huang, S., Scurati, G., Lyu, S., Ferrise, F., Gallace, A., et al. (2019). Using virtual reality to test human-robot interaction during a collaborative task. In Proceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference. THREE PARK AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10016-5990 USA : American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) [10.1115/DETC2019-97415].
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/279329
Citazioni
  • Scopus 24
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 11
Social impact