FORSocialRobots

Bavarian Research Association FORSocialRobots - Social skills for automated systems and robots

Human-Robot Interaction in the Work Context

Sub-project 5 "Human-robot interaction in the work context" aims to assess the consequences of the use of social robots in the work context for employees in five exemplary fields of application (therapy/nursing, industrial robots, mobile robots and service robots). The aim is to improve employee-robot interaction by gaining a deeper understanding of how employees react and adapt to interactions with robots that have different (social) skills. This enables companies to assess the advantages and disadvantages of interaction with differently equipped robots for employees and to train and support employees accordingly.

The interest of researchers and practitioners in the development of robots in the work context is constantly increasing. Studies show that collaboration with robots has positive effects on work performance and can reduce employees' stress reactions. However, studies also show that the actual and imagined interaction between employees and robots in the workplace is not always perceived positively. Examples include the loss of trust following incorrect behavior by robots, employees' fear of robots that work autonomously and can move freely on their own, and job insecurity when employees see their jobs threatened by robots.

In view of the expected future increase in the use of social robots in various areas of work, it is important to research the psychological impact of social robots on humans. So far, however, little is known about which factors are responsible for the different affective, cognitive and behavioral effects of social robots on human interaction partners. This is where sub-project 5 comes in by investigating (1) what the consequences of different social abilities of robots on the perception and behavior of people interacting with these robots are, (2) what the role of anthropomorphization of robots is in this context and (3) how employees adapt to social robots in the work context in the short and long term. The investigation of these questions is intended to systematically identify starting points that can improve human-robot interaction.

Project partners:

Information

Launching date

01.2024

End

12.2026

Funded by

Bavarian Research Foundation