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Distribution of gaze under different stress conditions (NC, SC) measured during the eye-hand coordination task, the 'pick & place' task. (a,b) participant 4. It is obvious that the stress impact (SC) leads to a larger distribution of gaze hits on the frontal box plane, most probably due to the impact on the executive functions for the coordination of the multi-task study.
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The presented work aimed to investigate how the impact of cognitive stress would affect the attentional processes, in particular, the performance of the executive functions that are involved in the coordination of multi-tasking processes. The study setup for the proof-of-concept involved a cognitive task as well as a visuomotor task, concretely, an...
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Context 1
... raw data underlying the research and the descriptive as well as inferential statistics were collected from the EDA/SGR channel of the BIOPAC measuring unit, and from the gaze intersection with the front plane of the target box. From Fig. 4 it becomes obvious that the EDA activity in the SC sessions is of a higher level of arousal measured than during the NC sessions. ...
Context 2
... on gaze distribution. Fig. 4 depicts the precision in the eye-hand coordination tasks from the distribution of gaze intersecting with the frontal plane of the target boxes. Table 2 gives an overview about how the change in the electro-dermal activity due to stress conditions (NC, SC) is reflected in the precision of the eye-hand coordination in terms of the ...
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Citations
... Joanneum Research has developed a "Human Factors Toolbox" that uses AI-based analytics to measure various psychologically relevant constructs, such as concentration (Paletta et al., 2019a), situational awareness (Dini et al., 2017), stress (Paletta et al., 2019b), executive functions (Paletta et al., 2020), or mindfulness (Paletta et al., 2021b). These technologies are suitable for investigating the feasibility of recognizing motivational aspects in the project and that have not yet been adequately studied in the context of SAR-based gender sensitivity. ...
Approximately 280 million people in the world suffer from depression, which often leads to cognitive deficits. This paper describes fundamental aspects of the work plan of the Austrian project AMIGA that aims at developing and evaluating a gender-sensitive and customizable Social Assisting Robotic Technology (SAR) including a cognitive training. We intend with the AMIGA-type SAR to significantly increase motivation for cognitive training during the hospital stay, which is hypothesised to improve cognitive functioning. In the first step of the project plan, the requirements of the target group would be estimated using qualitative and quantitative methods (e.g., survey, interviews). Based on the results of the requirement study we plan to develop the interactive SAR prototype that would use human-robot interactions to motivate users to perform cognitive training. We consider to apply adaptive pause management with sensor-based detection of mental fatigue. Target group-specific as well as gender-sensitive content for holistic stimulation with visual, auditory, and interactive elements will be included. The work plan foresees to conduct a field study including persons with symptoms of depression and to evaluate the results in terms of the effects on the persons´ motivation through the application of the AMIGA robotic system platform.
... Methods for sensor data fusion and coding will be developed and iteratively streamlined for individual use cases. Converting the acquired sensory data into actionable information to enhance first responders' situational awareness and safety [5]. Here, multimodal models for integrated physiological strain assessment will be devised and combined with models for assessment of first responders' psychophysiological state to feed into predictive behavioural model that includes physiological and mental strain, situational awareness and decision-making processes. ...
... An effective design of the layout can improve the working conditions of the human operator and, at the same time, making the production process more efficient [17,18]. However, when designing a HRC workplace layout, it is necessary to consider physical and mental wellness of the human since the coexistence with a robot can make some tasks less tiring but, at the same time, it could produce stress for the operator [19]. Both physical [20] and cognitive ergonomics [21] need to be assessed. ...
The innovation-driven Industry 5.0 leads us to consider humanity in a prominent position as the center of the manufacturing field even more than Industry 4.0. This pushes us towards the hybridization of manufacturing plants promoting a full collaboration between humans and robots. However, there are currently very few workplaces where effective Human–Robot Collaboration takes place. Layout designing plays a key role in assuring safe and efficient Human–Robot Collaboration. The layout design, especially in the context of collaborative robotics, is a complex problem to face, since it is related to safety, ergonomics, and productivity aspects. In the current work, a Knowledge-Based Approach (KBA) is adopted to face the complexity of the layout design problem. The framework resulting from the KBA allows for developing a modeling paradigm that enables us to define a streamlined approach for the layout design. The proposed approach allows for placing resource within the workplace according to a defined optimization criterion, and also ensures compliance with various standards. This approach is applied to an industrial case study in order to prove its feasibility. A what-if analysis is performed by applying the proposed approach. Changing three control factors (i.e., minimum distance, robot speed, logistic space configuration) on three levels, in a Design of Experiments, 27 layout configurations of the same workplace are generated. Consequently, the inputs that most affect the layout design are identified by means of an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results show that only one layout is eligible to be the best configuration, and only two out of three control factors are very significant for the designing of the HRC workplace layout. Hence, the proposed approach enables the designing of standard compliant and optimized HRC workplace layouts. Therefore, several alternatives of the layout for the same workplace can be easily generated and investigated in a systematic manner.
... Collaborative 139 robotics can be seen as a means of improving the working conditions of the human 140 operator and, at the same time, making the production process more efficient [16,17]. 141 However, it is necessary to consider physical and mental wellness of the human since 142 the coexistence with a robot can make less tiring some task but, at the same time, it 143 could produce stress for the operator [18]. Both physical and cognitive ergonomics 144 need to be assessed. ...
The innovation driven Industry 5.0, in agreement with Industry 4.0, leads to consider human in a prominence position as the center of manufacturing field. This pushes towards the hybridization of manufacturing plants promoting a fully collaboration between human and robot. Furthermore, the new paradigm of "human centred design" and "anthropocentric design" allows enabling a synergistic combination of human and robot skills. However, properly collaborative workplaces are currently very few. Industry is still not confident, and systems integrators hesitate to venture into Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC). Despite the effort in collaborative robotics, a general solution to overcome the current limitations in designing of collaborative workplaces still misses. In the current work, a Knowledge-Based Approach (KBA) is adopted to face collaborative workplace designing problem. The framework resulting from the KBA allows developing a modelling paradigm that enable to define a streamlined approach for the layout designing of a collaborative workplace. Finally, a what-if analysis and a ANOVA analysis are performed to generate and evaluate a set of scenarios related to a collaborative workplace for quality inspection of welded parts. Facing the high complexity and multidisciplinary of HRC can be conveyed to develop a general design approach aimed at overcoming the difficulties that limit the spread of HRC in the manufacturing field.
... In the context of eye movement analysis, arousal is defined by a specific parametrization of fixations and saccadic events within a time window of five seconds so that there is good correlation (r = .493) between the mean level of electro-dermal activity (EDA) and the outcome of the stress level estimator [15] (Fig. 2). For the estimation of concentration or sustained attention, we refer to the areas of interaction (AOI) in the environment as representing the spatial reference for the task under investigation. ...
Human attention processes play a major role in the optimization of human-machine interaction (HMI) systems. This work describes a suite of innovative components within a novel framework in order to assess the human factors state of the human operator primarily by gaze and in real-time. The objective is to derive parameters that determine information about situation awareness of the human collaborator that represents a central concept in the evaluation of interaction strategies in collaboration. The human control of attention provides measures of executive functions that enable to characterize key features in the domain of human-machine collaboration. This work presents a suite of human factors analysis components (the Human Factors Toolbox) and its application in the assembly processes of a future production line. Comprehensive experiments on HMI are described which were conducted with typical tasks including collaborative pick-and-place in a lab based prototypical manufacturing environment.
... The tracking of the human body is performed with ASUS Xtion and the results showed that the strategy optimizes ergonomic posture when executing tasks. (Paletta et al. 2020) investigated how cognitive stress affects eye-hand coordination in multitasking processes. Measures were made by EDA biosensors (arousal) and eyetracking glasses. ...
... NASA-RTLX that was proposed in (Ustunel andGunduz 2017, Rahman and indicates that a specific questionnaire for cognitive workload could be developed to be a new standard in HRC. There are also studies proposing a computational model for real-time trust measurement (Rahman and Wang 2018) and an electrodermal sensor for stress measurement (Paletta et al. 2020). ...
Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) systems are often chosen to improve ergonomics in manual tasks. There are many metrics available to quantify the ergonomic benefits when implementing a HRC. It is important to understand which metrics (ergonomic methods, tests, questionnaires) are being used by researchers in terms of physical and mental workloads assessment. Therefore, the aim of this work was to review the literature on the subject and to provide key information for further investigations. A literature review was carried out in four databases and the findings were categorized into theoretical surveys and empirical studies from the last five years. Results show the emerging research fields that were identified and analyzed. The metrics used to assess physical and mental workloads were discussed and a new meaning for these results is proposed in the sense of using a global ergonomic risk assessment as input in simulation models.
... Several studies focused on defining human factors that need to be considered during design phase. "Situation awareness" [14], "stress quantification" [15], "concentration or sustained attention" [16] and "task switching" [17] have been classified as important factors [18]. Towards expediting human acceptance and trust to the system, academia and businesses emphasize on the development of advanced Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs). ...
Human Robot Collaboration assembly cells benefit the capabilities and skills of both industrial robots and humans, although fenceless coexistence leads to issues related to safety and human-system interaction. A series of methods for hybrid workstation design focusing on safe yet efficient Human Robot Collaboration is presented, where various layout configurations are illustrated and evaluated aiming industrial implementation. Two distinct automotive use cases, with different requirements and challenges, are used as reference for highlighting particularities on lightweight and high-payload robots, in addition to small and large size product assemblies.
... For stress quantification we used cognitive arousal estimation based on biosensor data. In the context of eye movement analysis, arousal is defined by a specific parametrization of fixations and saccadic events within a time window of five seconds so that there is good correlation (r=.493) between the mean level of electro-dermal activity (EDA) and the outcome of the stress level estimator [13]. ...
In human-robot interaction frameworks maximizing the team efficiency is crucial. However, it is also essential to mitigate the physical and cognitive workload experienced by the shop-floor worker during the collaborative task. In this chapter we first investigate the impact of the robot interaction role (whether being leader or follower during cooperation) on both the human physiological stress and production rate. Based on that, a game-theoretic approach is proposed to model the trade-off between the maximization of the human performance and the minimization of the human cognitive stress. Then, we describe a closed-loop robot control strategy that, based on the proposed game-theoretic model, enables the robot to simultaneously minimize the human cognitive stress and maximize his/her performance during cooperation, by adjusting its role. Eventually, a real-time task allocation strategy is proposed to both ensure the minimization of the human physical fatigue and the effectiveness of the production process. This method relies on a new sophisticated musculoskeletal model of the human upper-body. All these methodologies have been experimentally tested in realistic human-robot collaborative scenarios involving several volunteers and the ABB IRB 14000 dual-arm “YuMi" collaborative robot.
In human-robot collaborative frameworks, the maximization of productivity is of paramount importance. However, it is also crucial to mitigate the cognitive workload induced on the operator during cooperation. Indeed, a high level of stress can negatively affect the human capabilities, thus compromising the performance of the working dyad. In this work, we propose a novel paradigm where the robot is enabled to adapt online its behavior to simultaneously optimize in real-time the human physiological stress and productivity. The proposed control strategy exploits a game theoretic approach to model and locally estimate the state of collaboration in terms of human productivity and stress. Based on this estimate, a learning automaton suitably adjusts the production pace of the robot, thus influencing the dynamics of the cooperation. The proposed method was tested on a realistic collaborative assembly task. The results demonstrated that the novel control strategy effectively enhances the productivity of the human-robot team, while significantly mitigating the stress induced in the operator.
