User-Specific Interfaces of Teaching Devices for Manipulation of Collaborative Robot

Abstract

As the use of robotics in manufacturing and industrial settings continues to advance, expand, and evolve at a speedy pace, efficient collaboration between robots and workers becomes increasingly important. Known as cobots, collaborative robots are highly designed so they can perform tasks continuously and accurately alongside human workers in a safe mode. However, it is not easy to control cobots proficiently and directly in case of scaling of industrial robots for the beginners and skilled engineers. Thus, research for human-robot interaction (HRI) still remains to be challenged. Particularly, users who work with collaborative robot currently need robust and facile methodologies for human-robot collaboration to enhance user experience (UX) and to use direct teaching affordably. Up to date, teaching devices considering more intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) have been intensively exploited, thereby eliminating the need for safety barriers. However, it is still inevitable to consider safety issues that may arise when users work with cobots. Therefore, it is important to properly assign well-adapted functions to each user. There is still a big challenge to develop a more efficient way to authorization of suitable functions to different users.

This paper deals with the user-specific interface considering the user’s role for improving the usability and convenience. It provides multiple functions of teaching devices simply used by not only the robot engineers but also developers and operators. We applied the method of user experience such as user journey map and persona to develop the interfaces of teaching device that can operate appropriate tasks with ease by users. In the present study, we introduce the user-specific interfaces for developers, operators, and robot engineers including beginner and experts.