Effect of Close-Distance Human Robot Collaboration

The future industrial workplace will consist of robots and humans collaborating to achieve tasks in a more efficient, safe, and productive manner. As robots are being removed from enclosed, isolated zones and placed in close proximity to humans, it is important to understand the social implications and how these affect productivity. In a Human-Robot Interaction course, my partner and I conducted two studies that investigated the social effects that arise from close collaboration with a robot. First, we determined the ideal social zone in which a robot should handover an object to a human. In the second study, we analyzed handovers that either respected or violated preferred interpersonal distance and their impact on a human participant's assembly task completion time. Both studies employed the Wizard of Oz method for robot manipulation as well as a RoSAS scale to obtain subjective measurements. We utilized a Baxter Robot--developed by Rethink Robotics--due to its common use in industrial workspaces.