Robotic Workmates: Hybrid Human-Robot-Teams In The Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is expanding and comprehensively modernizing along with it most of the classical production lines and their corresponding work methodologies. Smart robots, will redefine the meaning of teamwork and will aim towards a more interactive hybrid human-robot-team concept. Hybrid teams will exponentially support demographic and diverse team structures. The state of the art in human-computer-interactions is therefore merging with the current teamwork models. Robots are already physically supporting the humans within many processes, but as a step further, the robots will be able to identify and adapt to any individual strengths and weaknesses and become the flawless co-workers needed. One of the questions is whether in other fields of social robotics e.g. in ergonomics, existing knowledge about human teams can be transferred into the design of hybrid teams and the shaping of human-computer-interactions. The hybrid human-machine teams developing according to the human physical and psychological needs such as safety, comfort, easiness. Hence, a virtual experiment setting establishes in this study. An assignment is stimulated that can be only carried out as an outcome of the cooperation and coordination between a robot and a human. Moreover, anthropomorphic traits are attributed to the robot to examine the human's corresponding behaviour. Human reactions will be closely observed as the robot's actions are programmed to trigger sensitive aspects in the humans, subjecting them to different environments where regular motions and irregularities are performed on purpose. In detail, it will be investigated whether the appearance of the robot and its accuracy while fulfilling the task influence the reactions of the human, his cooperation behaviour towards the robot, and the performance of the cooperative work. In other words, not only how to enhance the safety and efficiency of hybrid teams is inspected, but also how to support that cooperation and comfort the human.