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Investigating Joint-Action in Short-Cycle Repetitive Handover Tasks: The Role of Giver Versus Receiver and its Implications for Human-Robot Collaborative System Design

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Abstract

Human–human joint-action in short-cycle repetitive handover tasks was investigated for a bottle handover task using a three-fold approach: work-methods field studies in multiple supermarkets, simulation analysis using an ergonomics software package and by conducting an in-house lab experiment on human–human collaboration by re-creating the environment and conditions of a supermarket. Evaluation included both objective and subjective measures. Subjective evaluation was done taking a psychological perspective and showcases among other things, the differences in the way a common joint-action is being perceived by individual team partners depending upon their role (giver or receiver). The proposed approach can provide a systematic method to analyze similar tasks. Combining the results of all the three analyses, this research gives insight into the science of joint-action for short-cycle repetitive tasks and its implications for human–robot collaborative system design.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the EU funded Initial Training Network (ITN) in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) People Programme (FP7): INTRO (INTeractive RObotics research network), Grant agreement Number: 238486 research project and partially supported by the Helmsley Charitable Trust through the Agricultural, Biological and Cognitive Robotics Initiative, the Marcus Endowment Fund and the Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut Chair in Manufacturing Engineering, all at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). The authors acknowledge their thanks to the contributions of Netta Ben Zeev, Michael Kozak, Polina Kurtser from BGU and especially to Prof. Guy Madison from Umea University, Sweden who introduced the authors to the research in rhythmic joint-action in human which led to this study. Sincere thanks also go to the anonymous reviewers who have given immensely valuable feedback.

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  1. Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 84105, Beer Sheva, Israel

    Someshwar Roy & Yael Edan

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  1. Someshwar Roy
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Correspondence to Someshwar Roy.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Table 4.

Table 4 Some of the questions with subjects’ responses from the questionnaire used in the experiment
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Roy, S., Edan, Y. Investigating Joint-Action in Short-Cycle Repetitive Handover Tasks: The Role of Giver Versus Receiver and its Implications for Human-Robot Collaborative System Design. Int J of Soc Robotics 12, 973–988 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-017-0424-9

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