Effects of robot arm design and movement speed during human-robot interaction

Area of Science:

• Human-Robot Interaction
• Robotics
• Virtual Reality

Background:

• Collaborative robots are increasingly used in workplaces, necessitating an understanding of human factors.
• Assessing the impact of robot physical characteristics on human perception and performance is crucial for safe integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how robot arm size, movement speed, and degrees of freedom affect perceived safety, trust, mental workload, human behaviors, and task performance.
• To determine which robot characteristics have the most significant influence on different outcome measures in a collaborative pick-and-place task.

Main Methods:

• Fifty-six participants interacted with a robot manipulator in a virtual reality environment.
• The experiment involved a collaborative pick-and-place task, manipulating robot arm size, speed, and degrees of freedom.
• Data collected included self-reported measures (safety, trust, workload), human behaviors, and task performance.

Main Results:

• Robot arm speed significantly increased self-reported surprise and fear across tested levels (60, 120, 180 deg/s).
• Robot arm size and degrees of freedom had a more pronounced effect on task performance and human behavior than on self-reported outcomes.
• Self-reported measures were more sensitive to changes in robot arm speed than to its size or degrees of freedom.

Conclusions:

• Robot arm speed is a critical factor influencing human perception of safety and emotional responses.
• Robot size and degrees of freedom are more influential on the objective aspects of human-robot collaboration, such as task efficiency and observable behaviors.
• Findings offer valuable insights for designing safer collaborative robot systems and informing industry standards.