Leveraging VR and Force-Haptic Feedback for an Effective Training with Robots

Abstract

The utilization of robots for numerous tasks is what defines automation in the industrial sector in the era we are going through for multiple fields, including insect farming. As an outcome of this progression, human-robot collaboration is becoming increasingly prevalent. Industrial workers must receive adequate training in order to guarantee optimal operational efficiency and reduce potential risks connected with the use of high-value machinery like robots given the precise and delicate handling requirements of these machines. Accordingly, we propose a framework that integrates Virtual Reality (VR) technologies with force and haptic feedback equipment. This framework aims to simulate real-world scenarios and human-robot collaboration tasks, with the goal of familiarizing users with the aforementioned technologies, overcoming risks that may arise, and enhancing the effectiveness of their training. The proposed framework was designed in regard to insect farming automation domain with the objective of facilitating human-robot collaboration for workers in this field. An experiment was designed and conducted to measure the efficiency and the impact of the proposed framework by analyzing the questionnaires given to participants to extract valuable insights.