Design and evaluation of visual cues for human-robot collaboration in carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) manufacturing
department or school: Applied Science, Faculty of
department or school: Mechanical Engineering, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Chen, Delun
issued: 2023-09-08T20:38:11Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Master of Applied Science - MASc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been widely used in the automotive and aerospace industries. The current manufacturing process associated with vacuum bagging requires at least two trained technicians with expertise to manually manipulate the materials. To alleviate the physical demands on technicians, a robot arm with end-of-arm tooling (EOAT) was developed to collaborate with them and assist with pleat formation and migration tasks. However, encountering this robot without prior understanding of its behaviour can lead to frustration, confusion, or a high learning curve. This thesis evaluates robot visual cues designed for human-robot collaboration in the context of a simulated CFRP manufacturing vacuum bagging process. By communicating gripper force information to technicians, these cues aim to enhance the interpretability of the robot's behaviour and reduce the workload experienced during the human-robot interaction. This study first implemented the mechatronic system to control the robot's gripper force under both semi-automatic and automatic pleating modes, and then developed four visual cues based on light brightness, colour gradient, loading progress bar, and flashing light to convey system status to the operator under both modes. The results indicate that the colour gradient and loading progress bar are significantly more suitable for indicating gripper force compared to the other patterns. These patterns exhibit significantly higher legibility, intuitiveness and interactivity, leading to reduced human perceived mental load, effort, and frustration. Participants prefer operating the robot using the automatic mode, which improves the overall performance of the robot. Additionally, all designed cues outperform the no cue condition, highlighting the importance of visual feedback for users to understand the robot’s behaviour during human-robot collaboration.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/85882
note: Design and Evaluation of Visual Cues for Human-Robot Collaboration in Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) Manufacturing by Delun Chen B.A.Sc., The University of British Columbia Okanagan, 2019 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF APPLIED SCIENCE in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Mechanical Engineering) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) September 2023 © Delun Chen, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Design and Evaluation of Visual Cues for Human-Robot Collaboration in Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) Manufacturing submitted by Delun Chen in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering Examining Committee: Dr. H.F. Machiel Van der Loos, Mechanical Engineering, University of British Columbia Supervisor Dr. Kefei Wen, Mechanical Engineering, University of British Columbia Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Ahmad Mohammadpanah, Mechanical Engineering, University of British Columbia Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been widely used in the automotive and aerospace industries. The current manufacturing process associated with vacuum bagging requires at least two trained technicians with expertise to manually manipulate the materials. To alleviate the physical demands on technicians, a robot arm with end-of-arm tooling (EOAT) was developed to collaborate with them and assist with pleat formation and migration tasks. However, encountering this robot without prior understanding of its behaviour can lead to frustration, confusion, or a high learning curve. This thesis evaluates robot visual cues designed for human-robot collaboration in the context of a simulated CFRP manufacturing vacuum bagging process. By communicating gripper force informati…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0435838
language: eng
degree discipline: Mechanical Engineering
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Van der Loos, Hendrik F. Machiel
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85882