Assessment and design of employees-cobot-interaction

Abstract

Prima facie employees-cobot-interaction has the potential to minimize or even eliminate occupational physical and mental health risks. For example when the redesign results in the situation where tasks with high intensity, duration and frequency of physical exposure or monotonous activities are performed by the cobot. But even setting up a modern and inherently safe cobot-workplace does not necessarily mean a prevention of physical and mental health risks and is not automatically ensuring decent working conditions and, at worst, can result in downgraded working conditions. The article - see below - demonstrates this paradoxical situation by a comparison of an employees-cobot-interaction in the sense of industry 4.0 and digitization with its initial situation. For a standardized quantification, the procedural economic, holistic and ergonomic instrument of the BDS-System has been applied practically.