FW-HTF-P: Investigating Acceptability in the Workforce of Collaborative Robots that Provide and Request Assistance on an As-Needed Basis

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The goal of this project is to investigate the social acceptability of collaborative robotic assistants, as-needed, amongst human workers in manufacturing and warehousing to address fear of workplace robots. The project investigates the perception of robotic assistants that attempt to preserve independence, recognition of worker contribution, and emotional well-being, while ensuring safety. This is done by contributing artificial intelligence (AI) that enables robots to intervene for assistance in simultaneous physical interactions such as object lifting only when necessary, i.e., on an as-needed basis. The work has the potential to revitalize manufacturing in rural North America, where fear of robots taking over human jobs is prevalent. The research team will be extensively involved in developing connections with the St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency, targeted toward supporting small businesses in the North Country Area. Through these connections, the research team will collaborate with local workers and managers to understand perceptions of robotics in the workplace. They will also provide demonstrations of proposed AI technology that provides assistance only when necessary, in order to preserve worker independence and job security while ensuring safety. The project will involve researchers at the confluence of robotics, organizational psychology, and physical therapy, and provide multi-disciplinary research and curricular opportunities to students from 2-year and 4-year colleges with limited technological opportunities in the North Country region.As part of this planning grant, two objectives will be accomplished. First, the researchers will engage in strengthening collaborations in the area of socially acceptable robotics by forging partnerships with companies contributing and using work-place AI, and by organizing a workshop on large-scale concerns for socially acceptable workplace robotics. Second, a novel prototype AI system will be created that automatically predicts need for assistance from multi-viewpoint, multi-modal sensor captures of subjects participating in attempts to lift cartons of varying sizes, masses, and mass distributions. The research team will conduct studies on the effectiveness of the AI system in predicting assistance need by recruiting human participants from the workforce. The planning phase will advance knowledge in future technology and future workers through the contribution of the intelligent need for assistance algorithms, and the assessment of social acceptability of assistance predictors for workplace robotics. Discussions through the workshop are expected to contribute novel lines of thought on multiple fronts: (a) design of AI algorithms for workplace robots that are mindful of large-scale concerns such as assurance of emotional well-being and job-security of large employee groups across several levels; (b) balancing perceptions of safety versus independence from viewpoints of multiple stakeholders, e.g., workers, managers, business owners, and end-users; (c) effect of demographic, geographic, and socioeconomic factors; and (d) long-term economic impact of varying levels of robot autonomy. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop the necessary research personnel, research infrastructure, and foundational work to expand the opportunities for studying future technology, future workers, and future work at the level of a FW-HTF full research proposal.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.