Human-robot collaboration in a repetitive assembly process: a preliminary investigation on operator’s experience and product quality outputs.

Purpose – Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) aims to combine the skills of humans with those of robots, representing a solution to increase the quality and reconfigurability of manufacturing processes. However, to fully exploit the benefits of HRC, human factors, including the operator's psychological well-being, must be considered. To this end, this paper proposes an experimental setting aimed at exploring human-related aspects during HRC. Design/methodology/approach – In order to explore the effects of prolonged HRC in a repetitive assembly process, a novel experimental setup concerning the production process of a tile cutter is proposed. Each participant is asked to perform three assembly shifts: two in collaborative mode with cobot support and one in manual mode. The response variables collected in the study include the quality of the interaction performed, workload, affective state of the operator and physiological indicators of stress (heart rate variability and electrodermal activity). Process defectiveness is also tracked. Findings – Preliminary results show that HRC sessions tend to generate more stress than manual assembly sessions. However, increasing familiarity with the collaborative task tends to reduce this effect. These results are confirmed by both subjective and physiological responses. Research limitations/implications – The evidence for the results found is limited by the number of participants involved. An experimental campaign with a larger number of participants is needed to confirm the preliminary findings. Originality/value – This paper proposes a novel experimental study aimed at recreating a work shift in a collaborative assembly workstation of a production process. This experimental setting draws attention to the need to investigate the implications of prolonged HRC. In addition, a non-invasive biosensor is implemented to investigate the state of humans during HRC.