Understanding Human Behaviour in Industrial Human-Robot Interaction by Means of Virtual Reality

As industry automation is evolving, the barriers between humans and machines are slowly disappearing. With humans and intelligent robots working closer together it is imperative to ensure not only physical safety but also the mental and emotional well-being of the workers. This paper uses the HTC Vive Virtual Reality headset to simulate different Human-Robot Interaction situations in which humans and robots constantly operate in a common workspace. It analyses the influence of an industrial robot's actions on human behaviour. The results show that the robot's behaviour does not influence the performance of human in a significant way, however, it has a large impact on their posture, focus and trust. It is shown that the human tends to naturally regain trust over time, however, the rate at which this takes place is variable and dependent on the robot's behaviour.