Designing Symbiotic Human–Robot Collaboration in assembly tasks

Abstract

Abstract The advancement of Human–Robot Collaboration (HRC) in industrial environments has underscored the importance of establishing harmonious and symbiotic relationships between human operators and robots. This study, in line with the principles of Industry 5.0, proposes an approach to support the integration of human operators’ capabilities with advanced robotics, enhancing collaborative productivity and fostering a paradigm shift towards a more interactive and beneficial human–robot symbiosis. Prior research has established the basic principles of Symbiotic Human–Robot Collaboration (SHRC) but has often neglected the critical problem of how to conduct collaborative tasks to exploit the potential of these symbiotic interactions. This paper presents a novel methodology to support the design of protocols for collaborative tasks, with the aim of promoting positive symbiotic interactions between human operators and collaborative robots. The focus is on developing tasks that integrate positive symbiotic interactions, determining task performers and optimizing the mutual benefits derived from task execution. A case study is presented to illustrate the practical application of this methodology in a real-world context.