A human-centered perspective in repetitive assembly processes: preliminary investigation of cognitive support of collaborative robots

Human-robot collaboration (HRC) is one of the paradigms of the emerging Industry 5.0, aimed at supporting humans in production processes. However, the introduction of an industrial robotic system in close contact with a human opens new challenges not only for safety but also for ergonomics. This paper aims to study whether the introduction of a collaborative robot into an assembly process can support the human operator not only physically but also cognitively. To address this research question, shifts of a repetitive assembly process were implemented in both manual and HRC settings. The two settings were compared over time by analyzing the evolution of generated process failures and physiological response, revealing potential differences in process quality and operator stress.