Fast or Accurate? – Performance Measurements for Physical Human-robot Collaborations

This study is concerned with performance parameters while pushing and pulling a trolley to evaluate the characteristics of human-robot collaborations. To rescind the linkage between estimated weight and exerted force the trolley is laden with three different weights and three different object sizes. The participants had to maneuver the trolley on a given path, similar to a real production scenario in automotive assembly lines. Twenty-two subjects participated (13 men, 9 women) and were recorded by a VICON motion tracking system. The applied forces were measured independently on each handle in three coordinates via a Kistler hand force measuring system. The subjective impressions were acquired through surveys. The acquired results in this study are divided in maximum thrust force and applied force in the first 150ms, 300ms, and 1000ms. The first refers to different handle angles. The last relate to the mentioned size-weight illusion.