Collaborative Robotics: Application of Delphi Method

Abstract

In the domain of collaborative robotics, it is often needed to make complex multiparametric choices or assessments that combine heterogeneous criteria, such as task performance, reliability, safety, and ergonomics. The Delphi method, a process of arriving at group consensus by providing experts with rounds of questionnaires, as well as the group response before each subsequent round, can be applied to solve this type of problems. The following Delphi method efforts are addressed in our analysis with application to finding appropriate criteria and their relative weights for the evaluation of the teleoperation task of a robotic platform: (1) Contribution of experts; (2) estimates using student's distribution; and (3) decision making support using Fischer criterion. A consensus emerged among eight experts, who selected the criteria of duration, number of trajectory corrections, and feeling of the operator. Weights have been proposed for each criterion and statistical tools have been used to evaluate the consensus.