Human-Robot Collaboration During Assembly Tasks: The Cognitive Effects of Collaborative Assembly Workstation Features

This experimental study is set out to explore the effects of collaborative robotic system features on Workers’ perceived cognitive workload, usability and visual attention. This work’s primary objective is to identify strategies for lowering workers’ cognitive workload and increase usability when collaborating with robots in assembly tasks, ultimately fostering safety and performance. Perceived cognitive workload significantly decreased, and usability increased with the manipulation of workstation elements as well as the conditions of human interaction. Individual differences across participants suggest that robots should be capable of adjusting their behaviour according to the specific user.