The contribution of neuroscience in evaluating human-robot collaboration: a multidimensional approach

Abstract

Collaborative robots (cobots) are a recent introduction in the industrial sector and are designed to work on shared tasks with humans with the aim to provide physical and cognitive support. This has led to a growing interest in the study of factors affecting human-robot collaboration (HRC) with the idea of making cobots more responsive to the human psychophysiological state. Several studies have begun to investigate dimensions such as mental workload and stress of the individual interacting with a cobot using behavioural and neurophysiological metrics, leading to a fruitful convergence between the worlds of neuroscience and robotics. It is therefore discussed the utility of a multidisciplinary and multidimensional approach in the study of HRC. Relevant physiological, neurophysiological, behavioural, and subjective measures are presented, as well as the necessity of their integration in HRC research. It is also introduced the importance of considering in HRC individual differences in terms of cognitive and emotional functioning, and factors related to individual representations and interpersonal environment.