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Does the introduction of a cobot change the productivity and posture of the operators in a collaborative task?

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the main occupational diseases and are pathologies of multifactorial origin, with posture being one of them. This creates new human-robot collaboration situations that can modify operator behaviors and performance in their task. These changes raise questions abou...

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Autores principales: Bouillet, Kévin, Lemonnier, Sophie, Clanche, Fabien, Gauchard, Gérome
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10411803/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37556492
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289787
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author Bouillet, Kévin
Lemonnier, Sophie
Clanche, Fabien
Gauchard, Gérome
author_facet Bouillet, Kévin
Lemonnier, Sophie
Clanche, Fabien
Gauchard, Gérome
author_sort Bouillet, Kévin
collection PubMed
description Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the main occupational diseases and are pathologies of multifactorial origin, with posture being one of them. This creates new human-robot collaboration situations that can modify operator behaviors and performance in their task. These changes raise questions about human-robot team performance and operator health. This study aims to understand the consequences of introducing a cobot on work performance, operator posture, and the quality of interactions. It also aims to evaluate the impact of two levels of difficulty in a dual task on these measures. For this purpose, thirty-four participants performed an assembly task in collaboration with a co-worker, either a human or a cobot with two articulated arms. In addition to this motor task, the participants had to perform an auditory task with two levels of difficulty (dual task). They were equipped with seventeen motion capture sensors. The collaborative work was filmed with a camera, and the actions of the participants and co-worker were coded based on the dichotomy of idle and activity. Interactions were coded based on time out, cooperation, and collaboration. The results showed that performance (number of products manufactured) was lower when the participant collaborated with a cobot rather than a human, with also less collaboration and activity time. However, RULA scores were lower—indicating a reduced risk of musculoskeletal disorders—during collaboration with a cobot compared to a human. Despite a decrease in production and a loss of fluidity, likely due to the characteristics of the cobot, working in collaboration with a cobot makes the task safer in terms of the risk of musculoskeletal disorders.
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spelling pubmed-104118032023-08-10 Does the introduction of a cobot change the productivity and posture of the operators in a collaborative task? Bouillet, Kévin Lemonnier, Sophie Clanche, Fabien Gauchard, Gérome PLoS One Research Article Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the main occupational diseases and are pathologies of multifactorial origin, with posture being one of them. This creates new human-robot collaboration situations that can modify operator behaviors and performance in their task. These changes raise questions about human-robot team performance and operator health. This study aims to understand the consequences of introducing a cobot on work performance, operator posture, and the quality of interactions. It also aims to evaluate the impact of two levels of difficulty in a dual task on these measures. For this purpose, thirty-four participants performed an assembly task in collaboration with a co-worker, either a human or a cobot with two articulated arms. In addition to this motor task, the participants had to perform an auditory task with two levels of difficulty (dual task). They were equipped with seventeen motion capture sensors. The collaborative work was filmed with a camera, and the actions of the participants and co-worker were coded based on the dichotomy of idle and activity. Interactions were coded based on time out, cooperation, and collaboration. The results showed that performance (number of products manufactured) was lower when the participant collaborated with a cobot rather than a human, with also less collaboration and activity time. However, RULA scores were lower—indicating a reduced risk of musculoskeletal disorders—during collaboration with a cobot compared to a human. Despite a decrease in production and a loss of fluidity, likely due to the characteristics of the cobot, working in collaboration with a cobot makes the task safer in terms of the risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Public Library of Science 2023-08-09 /pmc/articles/PMC10411803/ /pubmed/37556492 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289787 Text en © 2023 Bouillet et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bouillet, Kévin
Lemonnier, Sophie
Clanche, Fabien
Gauchard, Gérome
Does the introduction of a cobot change the productivity and posture of the operators in a collaborative task?
title Does the introduction of a cobot change the productivity and posture of the operators in a collaborative task?
title_full Does the introduction of a cobot change the productivity and posture of the operators in a collaborative task?
title_fullStr Does the introduction of a cobot change the productivity and posture of the operators in a collaborative task?
title_full_unstemmed Does the introduction of a cobot change the productivity and posture of the operators in a collaborative task?
title_short Does the introduction of a cobot change the productivity and posture of the operators in a collaborative task?
title_sort does the introduction of a cobot change the productivity and posture of the operators in a collaborative task?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10411803/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37556492
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289787
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