Physical, Cognitive, and Emotional Responses and Their Interrelated Effects on Human–Robot Team Performance in Construction

Although human–robot collaboration (HRC) is anticipated to improve construction productivity, the physical, cognitive, and emotional responses of collaborating human workers (i.e., coworkers) can be crucial to the productivity of HRC, because they can influence both human performance and human–robot team cohesion. However, the potential changes in coworkers’ physical, cognitive, and emotional responses during HRC still remain unknown in construction. This paper examines the impacts of robots’ parameters, such as movement speed, on physical, cognitive, and emotional responses during HRC for a construction task. Twenty participants collaborated with a robot in a simulated bricklaying task in a lab setting. Their responses were measured by analyzing electrodermal activity (EDA) and electroencephalogram (EEG) signals collected from wearable biosensors. Results demonstrated significant (p<0.05) variations in physical, cognitive, and emotional responses across all participants, which also changed over time and differed among individuals. Additionally, potential trade-offs were identified between fostering desired coworkers’ responses and maximizing team productivity, which presents the need for further analysis to achieve the balance. The findings indicate the need for a comprehensive understanding of coworkers’ responses as potentially crucial determinants that can influence coworkers’ performance, cohesion with robots, and productivity in human–robot teams.