FW-HTF-RL: Co-worker Robots to Impact Seafood Processing (CRISP): Designs, Tools and Methods for Enhanced Worker Experience

人类-技术前沿的未来工作(FW-HTF)项目将研究协作机器人的适当开发和部署，以改变海产品加工行业的盈利能力、生产率、安全性、可持续性和工人的生活质量，在该行业，恶劣的条件和苛刻的危险任务挑战着人类和机器人的能力。其结果将是促进无缝人类-机器人协作的设计、工具、方法和数据集。软机器人操作器将增强对光滑、鳞片和柔性物体的安全可靠处理。人工智能领域新出现的能力将有助于识别和检查各种鱼类和贝类。该项目的关键是了解如何最好地在机器人和人类工人之间分配特定任务，整合一套复杂的预期结果，跨越个体工人、独立企业、国内和移民劳动力市场、国民经济部门和全球贸易的规模，同时尊重环境和道德限制。相关的教育和推广计划将使工程师、设计专家和社会科学家能够应对机器人与操纵、人工智能、人类-机器人协作、伦理学和劳动经济学相结合的挑战。培训计划将培养一批新的数据、技术和人文素养方面的学习者和研究人员。2017年，美国进口了创纪录的海产品，贸易逆差超过170亿美元。由于国内失业率较低，以及雇用移民劳动力的障碍，美国海产品加工业一直无法满足美国的消费需求。该项目将促进美国在一个全球竞争和国内服务不足的行业中的领导地位，同时促进对关键科学、工程和社会挑战的理解。该项目的研究目标将影响五个相互关联和融合的领域，即(I)协作机器人和共享自主性，(Ii)与数据可视化的交互设计，(Iii)海鲜行业的劳动经济学，(Iv)工作场所自治的伦理，(V)劳动力培训和新技能学习。为了解决当今S人机合作者团队的不足，该研究计划旨在大幅提高复杂环境下的工作效率，同时特别关注影响用户可接受性的因素。该小组将强调将机器人系统纳入现有的社会技术背景-现有的机械和工具以及现有的人类工作做法，包括正式和非正式模式？开发一种环境和分布式机器人的方法，而不是单独的机器人干预。该研究计划通过以用户为中心的设计和思维活动，反复推进基于模型和数据驱动的方法，通过可用性研究验证设计，并评估影响未来工作的技术的社会和经济影响，为系统制定了一系列设计要求。该项目结合并建立在日常海鲜加工厂工作场所的即兴创作，以设计和验证机器人同事的能力。作为对技术目标的补充，该项目包括以人为对象的研究，以解决因在工作场所采用机器人而引起的伦理问题。解决这些问题--包括特定于移民劳动力、低工资和恶劣工作条件的劳工环境的挑战--是成功整合和采用机器人技术的关键。最后，该项目将评估自动化对这一新兴社会技术格局中工人和公司的经济影响，以了解采用将塑造未来工作场所的新技术的成本和收益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) project will investigate the appropriate development and deployment of collaborative robots to transform profitability, productivity, safety, sustainability, and worker quality of life in the seafood processing industry, where harsh conditions and demanding and dangerous tasks challenge the capabilities of humans and robots alike. The result will be designs, tools, methods, and datasets to facilitate seamless human-robot collaboration. Soft robot manipulators will augment the safe and reliable handling of slippery, scaly, and flexible objects. Emerging capabilities in artificial intelligence will assist in identifying and inspecting varieties of fish and shellfish. Critical to the project is understanding how best to allocate specific tasks among robot and human workers, integrating a complex set of desired outcomes, across scales of individual workers, independent businesses, domestic and migrant labor markets, national economic sectors, and global trade, while respecting environmental and ethical constraints. Associated educational and outreach programs will empower engineers, design experts, and social scientists how to address challenges at the convergence of robotics and manipulation, artificial intelligence, human-robot collaboration, ethics, and labor economics. Training programs will develop a new cadre of learners and researchers in data, technology and human literacies. In 2017, the US imported record amounts of seafood, corresponding to a trade deficit of more than $17 billion. Due to low domestic unemployment and obstacles to employing migrant labor, the US seafood processing industry has been unable to meet US consumer demand. This project will advance US leadership in a globally competitive and domestically underserved industry, while simultaneously advancing understanding of key scientific, engineering, and societal challenges.The research goals of the project will impact five interconnected and convergent areas, namely (i) collaborative robotics and shared autonomy, (ii) interaction design with data visualizations, (iii) labor economics in seafood industry, (iv) ethics of autonomy in the workplace, (v) workforce training and new skills learning. To address shortcomings of today?s human-robot co-worker teams, the research plan aims to dramatically enhance productivity in complex environments, while paying specific attention to factors affecting user acceptability. The team will emphasize the integration of robotic systems in the existing socio-technical context -- existing machinery and tools and existing human work practices, including formal and informal modalities ? to develop an approach of ambient and distributed robotics, rather than individual robot interventions. The research plan develops a constellation of design requirements for systems through user-centered design and ideation activities, iteratively advancing model-based and data-driven methods, validating designs through usability studies, and assessing the societal and economic impact of technologies to impact the future of work. The project incorporates and builds upon improvisation in the everyday seafood processing plant workplace, to design and validate robot co-worker competencies. Complementing the technological objectives, the project includes human-subject studies to address ethical issues raised by the adoption of robotics in the workplace. Addressing these issues -- which include challenges specific to a labor context with immigrant labor, low wages, and harsh working conditions -- is essential to successful robotics integration and adoption. Finally, the project will evaluate the economic impact of automation on both workers and companies in this emerging socio-technological landscape to understand both the costs and the benefits of adopting new technologies that will shape the future workplace.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.