Subjective Stress in Hybrid Collaboration

Abstract

Hybrid collaboration between human and machine antagonists is currently discussed as the most likely scenario of future manufacturing within the next 10 years because it considers technological developments and preserves human workplaces at the same time. However, not only technical feasibility plays a role in the design of these future collaborations, but also the psychological and social effects must be considered. This paper analyzes the subjective stress level of humans in dependence of the characteristics of robots (2 × 2 design with either an industrial or a humanoid robot that was performing either reliable or faulty). A virtual experiment has been conducted to simulate a collaborative hybrid task, including a pre- and post-survey to test. Results do not show any effect of condition, but significant effects of time. The results suggest that the experiment has generally been perceived as slightly stressful, but the appearance and behavior of the robot has no effect on the subjective stress level.