Psychosocial Impact of Collaborating with an Autonomous Mobile Robot: Results of an Exploratory Case Study

Abstract

The study was part of a confidential pilot project concerning the introduction of Autonomous Mobile Robots in an order picking process. The study assesses the impact of working with an AMR on logistics workers (hereinafter referred to as 'operators'). Two research questions were investigated. First, does working with an AMR lead to increased psychosocial workload? And second, what is the perception of the operators working with an AMR? Very little research, outside a lab context, has been done so far on the impact of working with an AMR. This study contributes to the understanding of the impact of working with robots, outside the lab in an industrial setting. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: 1) working with an AMR does not lead to extra psychosocial workload and 2) there is a positive perception and attitude versus working with an AMR.