Human-Humanoid Collaboration and Ergonomic Risk: An Anthropometric Perspective

Abstract

Humanoid robots are increasingly deployed in industrial environments where close physical interaction with human workers is expected. Although these systems are often designed at a human scale, their embodiment is shaped by mechanical, control, and task-oriented constraints rather than biological anatomy. This study examines ergonomic risk in human-humanoid collaboration from an anthropometric perspective using ISO 7250 as a reference framework. Six contemporary humanoid robots are benchmarked based on externally observable geometry to evaluate landmark identifiability, measurement feasibility, and cross-platform patterns of anthropometric deviation. Results show that several ISO-defined landmarks and measurements tied to biological anatomy are consistently inapplicable to humanoid robots, while many geometric and joint-level dimensions remain measurable. Four recurring patterns of anthropometric deviation are observed across platforms: additive, subtractive, exaggerative, and speculative. These findings indicate that ergonomic risk arises not from scale alone, but from how humanoid bodies diverge from human anthropometric assumptions. ISO 7250 remains a useful reference framework, but its direct transfer to humanoid robots is limited, underscoring the need for anthropometry-aware evaluation approaches in collaborative system design.