Affiliations: Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Sinem Kuz, Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany. E-mail:s.kuz@iaw.rwth-aachen.de
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Anthropomorphism is attribution of human form or
behavior to non-human agents. Its application in a robot increases
occupational safety and user acceptance and reduces the mental effort needed
to anticipate robot behavior. OBJECTIVE: The research question focuses on how the anthropomorphic
trajectory and velocity profile of a virtual gantry robot affects the
predictability of its behavior in a placement task. METHODS: To investigate the research question, we developed a
virtual environment consisting of a robotized assembly cell. The robot was
given human movements, acquired through the use of an infrared based motion
capture system. The experiment compared anthropomorphic and constant
velocity profiles. The trajectories were based on human movements of the
hand-arm system. The task of the participants was to predict the target
position of the placing movement as accurately and quickly as possible. RESULTS: Results show that the anthropomorphic velocity profile
leads to a significantly shorter prediction time (α = 0.05). Moreover,
the error rate and the mental effort were significantly less for the
anthropomorphic velocity profile. Based on these findings, a speed-accuracy
trade-off can be excluded. CONCLUSIONS: Participants were able to estimate and predict the
target position of the presented movement significantly faster and more
accurately when the robot was controlled by the human-like velocity profile.
Keywords: Self-optimizing production systems, anthropomorphism, direct human-robot interaction
