Making Informed Decisions: Supporting Cobot Integration Considering Business and Worker Preferences
Published in HRI 24: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, 2024
Recommended citation: Sullivan, D., White, N.T., Schoen, A., & Mutlu, B. 2024. "Making Informed Decisions: Supporting Cobot Integration Considering Business and Worker Preferences." In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 706–714.
Abstract: Robots are ubiquitous in small-to-large-scale manufacturers. While collaborative robots (cobots) have signifcant potential in these settings due to their fexibility and ease of use, proper integration is critical to realize their full potential. Specifcally, cobots need to be integrated in ways that utilize their strengths, improve manufacturing performance, and facilitate use in concert with human workers. Efective integration requires careful consideration and the knowledge of roboticists, manufacturing engineers, and business administrators. We propose an approach involving the stages of planning, analysis, development, and presentation, to inform manufacturers about cobot integration within their facilities prior to the integration process. We contextualize our approach in a case study with an SME collaborator and discuss insights learned.