Title: Virtual reality platform for design and evaluation of human-robot collaboration in assembly manufacturing

Authors: Patrik Gustavsson; Anna Syberfeldt; Magnus Holm

Addresses: Production and Automation Engineering, University of Skövde, Högskolevägen 1 – 541 40, Skövde, Sweden ' Production and Automation Engineering, University of Skövde, Högskolevägen 1 – 541 40, Skövde, Sweden ' Production and Automation Engineering, University of Skövde, Högskolevägen 1 – 541 40, Skövde, Sweden

Abstract: This paper presents 'virtual collaborative robot', a virtual reality platform for designing and evaluating collaboration between operators and industrial robots. Within the platform, human-robot collaboration scenarios can be created and a user can interact with a robot without the safety risks that might arise with physical industrial robots. In an initial evaluation of the platform a scenario was implemented combining speech recognition, haptic control, and augmented reality to assemble a car model. The results from this evaluation indicate that the suggested platform can be used to successfully test new applications with the standard equipment of virtual reality headsets. [Submitted 9 June 2020; Accepted 10 February 2021]

Keywords: human-robot collaboration; HRC; human-robot interaction; HRI; virtual reality; augmented reality; speech recognition.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2023.129303

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2023 Vol.18 No.1, pp.28 - 49

Received: 09 Jun 2020
Accepted: 10 Feb 2021
Published online: 06 Mar 2023 *