New robots in Europe might be employees’ finest mates

Researchers are ushering in a brand new mind-set about robots within the office primarily based on the thought of robots and employees as teammates somewhat than rivals. © BigBlueStudio, Shutterstock

For many years, the arrival of robots within the office has been a supply of public nervousness over fears that they may exchange employees and create unemployment.

Now that extra refined and humanoid robots are literally rising, the image is altering, with some seeing robots as promising teammates somewhat than unwelcome rivals.

‘Cobot’ colleagues

Take Italian industrial-automation firm Comau. It has developed a robotic that may collaborate with – and improve the protection of – employees in strict cleanroom settings within the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, electronics, meals and beverage industries. The innovation is called a “collaborative robot”, or “cobot”.

Comau’s arm-like cobot, which is designed for dealing with and meeting duties, can mechanically change from an industrial to a slower velocity when an individual enters the work space. This new characteristic permits one robotic for use as a substitute of two, maximising productiveness and defending employees.

‘It has advanced things by allowing a dual mode of operation,’ mentioned Dr Sotiris Makris, a roboticist on the University of Patras in Greece. ‘You can either use it as a conventional robot or, when it is in collaborative mode, the worker can grab it and move it around as an assisting device.’

Makris was coordinator of the just-completed EU-funded SHERLOCK challenge, which explored new strategies for safely combining human and robotic capabilities from what it thought to be an typically missed analysis angle: psychological and social well-being.

Creative and inclusive

Robotics may also help society by finishing up repetitive, tedious duties, releasing up employees to interact in additional inventive actions. And robotic applied sciences that may collaborate successfully with employees may make workplaces extra inclusive, corresponding to by aiding individuals with disabilities.

“There is increasing competition around the globe, with new advances in robotics.”

– Dr Sotiris Makris, SHERLOCK

These alternatives are essential to grab because the construction and the age profile of the European workforce modifications. For instance, the proportion of 55-to-64-year-olds elevated from 12.5% of the EU’s staff in 2009 to 19% in 2021.

Alongside the social dimension, there may be additionally financial profit from larger industrial effectivity, exhibiting that neither essentially wants to come back on the expense of the opposite.

‘There is increasing competition around the globe, with new advances in robotics,’ mentioned Makris. ‘That is calling for actions and continuous improvement in Europe.’

Makris cites the humanoid robots being developed by Elon Musk-led automobile producer Tesla. Wearable robotics, bionic limbs and exoskeleton fits are additionally being developed that promise to boost individuals’s capabilities within the office.

Still, the quickly advancing wave of robotics poses massive challenges in the case of guaranteeing they’re successfully built-in into the office and that folks’s particular person wants are met when working with them. 

Case for SHERLOCK

SHERLOCK additionally examined the potential for sensible exoskeletons to help employees in carrying and dealing with heavy elements at locations corresponding to workshops, warehouses or meeting websites. Wearable sensors and AI have been used to watch and observe human actions.

With this suggestions, the thought is that the exoskeleton can then adapt to the wants of the precise process whereas serving to employees retain an ergonomic posture to keep away from damage.

‘Using sensors to collect data from how the exoskeleton performs allowed us to see and better understand the human condition,’ mentioned Dr Makris. ‘This allowed us to have prototypes on how exoskeletons need to be further redesigned and developed in the future, depending on different user profiles and different countries.’

SHERLOCK, which has simply ended after 4 years, introduced collectively 18 European organisations in a number of nations from Greece to Italy and the UK engaged on completely different areas of robotics.

The vary of contributors enabled the challenge to harness all kinds of views, which Dr Makris mentioned was additionally useful within the mild of differing nationwide guidelines on integrating robotics know-how.

As a results of the interplay of those robotic techniques with individuals, the software program is superior sufficient to offer route to ‘future developments on the types of features to have and how the workplace should be designed,’ mentioned Dr Makris.

Old fingers, new instruments

Another EU-funded challenge that ended this yr, CO-ADAPT, used cobots to assist older individuals navigate the digitalised office.

“You find interesting differences in how much the machine and how much the person should do.”

– Prof Giulio Jacucci, CO-ADAPT

The challenge crew developed a cobot-equipped adaptive workstation to assist individuals in meeting duties, corresponding to making a telephone, automobile or toy – or, certainly, combining any set of particular person parts right into a completed product throughout manufacturing. The station can adapt workbench top and lighting to an individual’s bodily traits and visible skills. It additionally contains options like eye-tracking glasses to collect info on psychological workload.

That brings extra perception into what every kind of individuals want, mentioned Professor Giulio Jacucci, coordinator of CO-ADAPT and a pc scientist on the University of Helsinki in Finland.

‘You find interesting differences in how much the machine and how much the person should do, as well as how much the machine should try to give guidance and how,’ Jacucci mentioned. ‘This is important work that goes down to the nuts and bolts of making this work.’

Still, cobot-equipped workplaces that may totally faucet into and reply to individuals’s psychological states in real-life settings may nonetheless be quite a few years away, he mentioned.

‘It’s so complicated as a result of there’s the entire mechanical half, plus making an attempt to grasp individuals’s standing from their psychophysiological states,’ mentioned Prof Jacucci.

Meanwhile, as a result of new applied sciences can be utilized in a lot less complicated methods to enhance the office, CO-ADAPT additionally explored digitalisation extra broadly.

Smart shifts

One space was software program that permits ‘smart-shift scheduling’, which arranges obligation durations for employees primarily based on their private circumstances. The method has been proven to cut back sick go away, stress and sleep issues amongst social welfare and well being care employees.

‘It’s a unbelievable instance of how workability improves as a result of we use evidence-based information of tips on how to have well-being-informed schedules,’ mentioned Prof Jacucci.

Focusing on the person is essential to the way forward for well-integrated digital instruments and robotics, he mentioned.

‘Let’s say you must collaborate with some robotic in an meeting process,’ he mentioned. ‘The question is: should the robot be aware of my cognitive and other abilities? And how should we divide the task between the two?’

The fundamental message from the challenge is that loads of room exists to enhance and broaden working environments.

‘It shows how much untapped potential there is,’ mentioned Prof Jacucci.

This article was initially printed in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation journal.

Research on this article was funded by the EU. If you preferred this text, please think about sharing it on social media.