What makes Human-Robot-Interaction effective and fulfilling? A diary study of people working with industrial robots
Retzer L, Niessen C (2025)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Conference contribution, Conference Contribution
Publication year: 2025
Event location: Prague
Abstract
While industrial robots have traditionally been operating almost exclusively behind security glass and fences, minimizing human contact, modern robots are increasingly used in cooperative settings, where workers must interact with them directly. One issue with current generations of robots is that they can often be unreliable, causing problems in the interaction with the workers. This negatively impacts workers’ well-being, motivation, performance and satisfaction with the robot. Building on relational cohesion theory and previous work with service robots we aim to identify robot and worker characteristics that mitigate these negative reactions. Specifically, we expect the worker’s amount of experience with robots and the degree of anthropomorphism to buffer negative consequences of problems and augment positive effects of interaction success. This diary study with 49 people working with industrial robots consists of a general survey, followed by sixteen daily questionnaires: one noon and one afternoon measurement each on eight workdays across two weeks. Results from 151 complete days reveal complex direct and indirect associations. On days with high interaction success, only experienced workers report increased performance. However, experienced workers are also the only ones to report a decrease in performance on days with higher problem frequency. Also, while those working with more human-like robots seem to be protected from negative relationships between problem frequency and robot satisfaction, they also generally report lower emotional well-being. While there is potential in worker experience and anthropomorphic robot design as protective mechanisms, neither seems to be a one-size-fits-all solution when dealing with unreliable industrial robots.
Authors with CRIS profile
Lukas Retzer
Lehrstuhl für Psychologie im Arbeitsleben
Cornelia Niessen
Lehrstuhl für Psychologie im Arbeitsleben
Related research project(s)
How to cite
APA:
Retzer, L., & Niessen, C. (2025). What makes Human-Robot-Interaction effective and fulfilling? A diary study of people working with industrial robots. In Proceedings of the 22nd European Congress of Work and Organizational Psychology. Prague, CZ.
MLA:
Retzer, Lukas, and Cornelia Niessen. "What makes Human-Robot-Interaction effective and fulfilling? A diary study of people working with industrial robots." Proceedings of the 22nd European Congress of Work and Organizational Psychology, Prague 2025.
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