Communications in a Trust-Triggered Cyber-Physical-Human System for Human-Robot Collaborative Manufacturing

We proposed a human-robot bidirectional trust-triggered cyber-physical-human (CPH) system framework for human-robot collaborative assembly in flexible manufacturing. For this purpose, we developed a one human-one robot hybrid cell where a human and a robot collaborated with each other to perform the assembly operation of different manufacturing components in a flexible manufacturing setup. We configured the human-robot collaborative system in three interconnected components of a CPH system: (i) cyber system (software system), (ii) physical system (the robot, sensors, hardware accessories, and the work environment), and (iii) human system (the human co-worker and the supervisor). We divided the functions of the CPH system into three modules: (i) computing, (ii) communication, and (iii) control. We used a model to compute the human and robot's bidirectional trust in each other in real-time. We implemented the proposed trust-triggered CPH framework in the human-robot collaborative assembly setup and conducted an experiment to modulate the communication methods and strategies among the cyber, physical and human components of the CPH system. The results showed that variations in communication methods significantly impacted the performance and interactions of the CPH system in terms of human-robot interaction (HRI), and task performance (efficiency and quality). The results can transform the design, development, analysis and control of human-robot collaborative systems configuring them in the form of a CPH system and thus enhance the scope, ease and effectiveness of human-robot collaborative systems for various applications such as manufacturing, construction, etc.