OSH related risks and opportunities for industrial human-robot interaction: results from literature and practice

Eva Heinold; Miriam Funk; Susanne Niehaus; Patricia H Rosen; Sascha Wischniewski

doi:10.3389/frobt.2023.1277360

OSH related risks and opportunities for industrial human-robot interaction: results from literature and practice

Front Robot AI. 2023 Oct 30:10:1277360. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2023.1277360. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Eva Heinold¹, Miriam Funk¹, Susanne Niehaus¹, Patricia H Rosen¹, Sascha Wischniewski¹

Affiliation

¹ Unit Human Factors and Ergonomics, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Dortmund, Germany.

Abstract

Robotic systems are an integral component of today's work place automation, especially in industrial settings. Due to technological advancements, we see new forms of human-robot interaction emerge which are related to different OSH risks and benefits. We present a multifaceted analysis of risks and opportunities regarding robotic systems in the context of task automation in the industrial sector. This includes the scientific perspective through literature review as well as the workers' expectations in form of use case evaluations. Based on the results, with regards to human-centred workplace design and occupational safety and health (OSH), implications for the practical application are derived and presented. For the literature review a selected subset of papers from a systematic review was extracted. Five systematic reviews and meta-analysis (492 primary studies) focused on the topic of task automation via robotic systems and OSH. These were extracted and categorised into physical, psychosocial and organisational factors based on an OSH-factors framework for advanced robotics developed for the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). To assess the workers' perspective, 27 workers from three European manufacturing companies were asked about their expectations regarding benefits and challenges of robotic systems at their workplace. The answers were translated and categorised in accordance with the framework as well. The statements, both from literature and the survey were then analysed according to the qualitative content analysis, to gain additional insight into the underlying structure and trends in them. As a result, new categories were formed deductively. The analysis showed that the framework is capable to help categorise both findings from literature and worker survey into basic categories with good interrater reliability. Regarding the proposed subcategories however, it failed to reflect the complexity of the workers' expectations. The results of the worker evaluation as well as literature findings both predominantly highlight the psychosocial impact these systems may have on workers. Organisational risks or changes are underrepresented in both groups. Workers' initial expectations lean towards a positive impact.

Keywords: OSH risks and benefits; cognitive ergonomics; human-robot interaction; robotic systems; user expectations; workplace automation.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This article uses results from the SOPHIA project (which is covered by Funding Agreement No. 871237). The project “Socio-Physical Interaction Skills for Cooperative Human-Robot Systems in Agile Production” (SOPHIA) is funded by the European Union’s research and innovation program “Horizon 2020” (H2020-ICT-2019- 2/2019-2023). Part of this research was also performed in a project that received funding through the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).