Publication
16TH INTERNATIONAL (Hybrid) CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION
NA (Hrsg.)
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION (IHCI-2024), INTERNATIONAL (Hybrid) CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION, located at 16TH INTERNATIONAL (Hybrid) CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION, November 13-15, Enschede, Netherlands, Lecture Notes on Computer Science (LNCS), Springer, 2024.
Abstract
In modern smart factories, context-aware assistance systems are becoming essential for aiding decision-making and task management for the workers. However, integrating these systems with various other entities such that they interact seamlessly, poses a challenge. This paper proposes a solution that leverages advanced interaction protocols and context-aware robotic assistance to ensure smooth and effective collaboration in the factory environment by three pillars: 1) an ontology-based digital twin representing the semantic dimension and providing object-specific information, 2) an egocentric perception system using HoloLens2 to observe the worker with individually tailored dataset for context recognition, and 3) a robotic assistant guided by an intention-recognition module that responds to emerging worker needs, based on behavioral and environmental observations. In a manual assembly scenario, our framework provides useful contextual information as well as automated and adaptive robotic assistance. We present the results from a user experiment which was conducted to compare the stress level of participants with and without the use of the assistance system in a manual assembly scenario. Physiological sensors from the Empatic E4 wrist-watch were used to collect physiological data on which the stress levels were detected using a deep learning model. Additionally, the user ratings on the System Usability Scale (SUS) were used to assess the usability and acceptance of robotic-assistance technology.