On the role of human operators in the design process of cobotic systems

Industrial cobotics is presented as a way of business competitiveness by combining human skills and decision making with robotic advantages. The place and safety of humans in cobotic (collaborative robotic) systems are the subjects of much discussion. This article provides a qualitative overview of the main multidisciplinary fields related to the place of human operators during the design process of humans–robots’ systems and discusses paths for effective consideration of the human challenge during this kind of design projects. The added value of this article is its multidisciplinary aspect. Readers will find in this article a technological overview of cobotics, different methodologies and design models focused on final users, interesting examples of evaluation indicators potentially adapted to an effective consideration of humans during the design process of cobotic systems (economic, technical, and human) and guidelines seeking to support cobotic system designers to succeed considering final users during the design process.This work has been supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the research project HECTTOR: Humans Committed to Organisations and Work Transformations in the « Factories of the Future » through cobotisation—(ANR-17-CE10-0011