Ender, J (2021) Design of Industrial Workplaces to relieve Workers when Interacting with Joint-Arm-Robots. Doctoral thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.

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Abstract

A comprehensive understanding of the needs of the user is required to design adequate workplace systems in general, but especially in the highly digitised area of industry where operators are interacting with autonomously operating machines. There is little knowledge in design criteria for professionals to enable adequate developments of system design for Human-Machine Interaction, e.g. Human-Robot Collaboration regarding the effects of design decisions to all three levels of Human Factors, i.e. physiological, cognitive and organisational limitations. Moreover, there is little known about objective measurement procedures that evaluate whether the operator subjectively perceives the workplace system design as assistance and improvement. The research presented in the following is affiliated with the scientific discipline of Human Factors Engineering and focuses on the evaluation of Human Factor issues within the digitised industry. Based on broad theoretical and empirical investigations, the results of this research extend our knowledge of adequate Human-Centred Design by providing reliable, powerful design criteria for workplaces where operators interact with machines/collaborate with robots, but also an overall technique, the Objective Workload Detection Method, for evaluation of the effectiveness of design investigation focusing on cognitive stress relief. Through the application of this method within a controlled experiment, the validation of the derived design criteria was confirmed. The study significantly shows how the cognitive workload can be relieved by an assisting environment. This work also gives one best-practice design example of a self-adapting workplace system for hybrid Human-Robot Teams. Following the Human-Centred Design method, the concept of Assisting Industrial Workplace System for Human-Robot Collaboration has been successfully developed as a flexible hybrid unit design. The prototype is related to a real-world scenario from the aerospace industry and the demonstrator was implemented within a laboratory set-up. This work seamlessly applies techniques from interdisciplinary science fields, e.g. Engineering, Neuroscience, Gestalt theory, and Design. Equally, the design criteria and the evaluation method will support professionals from varied disciplines to succeed in the creation process of future system-designs by giving a clear indication of future Human-Centred Design research.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Human-Centred Design; Human-Machine Interaction; Human-Robot Collaboration; Human Factors; Interaction Design; EEG; Neuronal Networks
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science T Technology > T Technology (General) T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) T Technology > TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering
Divisions:	Engineering
Date Deposited:	08 Mar 2021 09:13
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2022 10:29
DOI or ID number:	10.24377/LJMU.t.00014557
Supervisors:	Guo, FB, Jenkinson, I and Larek, R
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/14557

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