Effects of pace on productivity and physical and mental workloads in a human-cobot collaboration.

. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) represent a prevalent global occupational health concern, primarily associated with high biomechanical solicitations, mental workload and work pace. Although cobots have shown promise in reducing risks of MSDs, a question of interest still persists as to how the pace in hybrid human-machine collaboration will affect the operator, in terms of both physical and cognitive health and the production.

Does the introduction of a cobot change the productivity and posture of the operators in a collaborative task?

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the main occupational diseases and are pathologies of multifactorial origin, with posture being one of them. This creates new human-robot collaboration situations that can modify operator behaviors and performance in their task. These changes raise questions about human-robot team performance and operator health.