Multisensory Evaluation of Human-Robot Interaction in Retail Stores - The Effect of Mobile Cobots on Individuals' Physical and Neurophysiological Responses

Abstract

As more mobile collaborative robots (cobots) are being deployed in domestic environments, it is necessary to ensure safety while interacting with humans. To this end, a better understanding of individuals' physical and neurophysiological responses (i.e., short term adaptation) during those interactions becomes crucial to frame the cobot's behavioral and control algorithms. The primary objective of this study was to assess individuals' physical and neurophysiological responses to the mobile cobot in a retail environment. Eight participants were recruited to complete typical grocery shopping tasks (i.e., cart pushing, item picking, and item sorting) with and without a mobile robot running in the same space. Results showed the co-existence of mobile cobot in the retail environment stimulated individuals' physical responses, by significantly changing their upper-limb kinematics, i.e., reducing the average flexion angles of L5/S1, T12/L1, and right shoulder in the sagittal plane. However, no significant differences were observed in the neurophysiological adaptation based on the measures of muscle activity of the latissimus dorsi, anterior deltoid, and bicep brachii, nor the pupil diameter.