Modelling Human-robot Interaction to Optimize their Safety, Sustainability and Efficiency: Identifying Relevant Characteristics

摘要

Recent developments have introduced so-called cobots or cooperative robots, which place the machines on the work floor next to employees. A new challenge arises to keep these human robot interactions, safe and healthy, while also maintaining the sustainability and efficiency of the interaction. Here, we present a model, which can be a valuable tool to assist in future studies to systematically increase our understanding of Human-robot interaction (HRI). The model is based on the input-mediation-output (IMOI) model, which is often used in teamwork studies. Furthermore, it distinguishes between hardware, software, and mindware characteristics, to help researchers formulate more specific hypotheses for data collection in use cases. The purpose of this model is to help categorize various characteristics of humans, robots and the environment that can affect the outcome of the HRI. Ultimately, data gathered with the help of this model could help formulate design requirements for the development of future cobot applications and their implementation on the workfloor. This way we work towards inherently safe, healthy, sustainable and efficient HRI.