An innovative algorithm is set to increase the safety of robots working alongside humans by making the machines more cognizant of human inattentiveness. This pioneering approach was put to the test on simulated assembly and packaging lines where robots collaborated with humans. The results were impressive: safety increased by up to 80% and efficiency rose by approximately 38%, outstripping existing methodologies.
The research, extensively reported in the IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Systems, is seen as a significant step in addressing the high number of accidents — mostly due to human error — that occur when people and robots work in the same environment. Robots follow planned paths and observe rules, but human behavior is much more unpredictable, making it a challenging variable to account for.
Industries, where tedious and repetitive work can lead to humans losing focus and making mistakes, may benefit greatly from this technology. Current programing assists robots in reacting to occurrences of mistakes. However, these algorithms typically focus on either improving efficiency or safety, neglecting the humans' changeable behavior.
This project's initiative is in using robots to identify and adapt to human inattentiveness. The team quantified human carelessness with factors such as the frequency with which a human overlooks or bypasses a safety alert. By constantly updating this 'carelessness level', a robot would be able to modify its interaction with any humans displaying inattentiveness, thereby reducing the likelihood of workplace errors or self-harm.
A packaging line was mimicked in a computer simulation featuring a robot and four people. Their results revealed a significant improvement in both safety and efficiency in presence of the proposed scheme. The plan was also tested on a hypothetical assembly line where two humans collaborated with a robot.
Hosseinzadeh, the research's lead author, maintained that "the core idea is to make the algorithm less sensitive to the behavior of careless humans". The researchers are optimistic that their work has paved the way for future improvements in the symbiotic environment sharing between humans and robots at workplaces. Their next step is to have the algorithm tested with actual robots and humans in a lab setting, and eventually, in different industries that employ such technology.
Additionally, their future work is aimed at quantifying and incorporating other human characteristics that affect productivity at workplaces, such as rationality or risk awareness. Furthermore, they aspire to extend their understanding of carelessness to make the co-working of humans and robots even more seamless.
Disclaimer: The above article was written with the assistance of AI. The original sources can be found on ScienceDaily.
