Anthropomorphic motion control of a gantry robot in assembly cells.

The demand for flexible production systems in which the flexibility at assembly processes is increased by new forms of human-robot collaboration rises. Besides occupational safety the transparency of the robot's actions and the mental effort are of special importance. Based on the fact that anthropomorphic features of a robotic system can improve its acceptance, anthropomorphic movements of a gantry robot in an assembly cell are compared to conventional point-to-point movements. Results of a study with 20 male participants, in which the influence of these movements of the gantry robot on mental effort, prediction time and prediction accuracy was investigated, are presented in this paper. Results show that the participants could predict the target position of the presented movement significantly faster and more accurately when the gantry robot was controlled by the anthropomorphic motion primitives (α = 0.05). The mental effort ratings show in general reduced values for the anthropomorphic movement, but this effect is statistically not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]