IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2020 - 172

breakthrough of ROS and ROS-Industrial as open source platforms may substantially contribute to the flexibility of
future cobots worldwide.

(a)

(b)

Figure 3. (a) The top view of BAZAR and (b) the side view of MOCA robots. Their
locomanipulation capacities can add a certain level of flexibility in manufacturing
scenarios.

Agile Zany Anthorpomorphic Robot
(BAZAR) [38] [see Figure 3(a)]. Despite
its open intuitive programming software
OpenPHRI [39], BAZAR is still mainly
a research prototype. BAZAR integrates a variety
of h a r d w a r e
devices, an inROS is a
tegration that
today is eased by
middleware that
the diffusion of
provides services
the Robot Operating System
designed for a
(ROS) (https://
heterogeneous
www.ros.org).
Another examcomputer cluster,
ple is the mobile
similar to those
collaborative
generally present in robot assistant
(MOCA) platrobot applications.
form [40], whose
advanced flexibility has been
demonstrated in manufacturing [41], teleoperation [40], and so forth [Figure 3(b)].
Indeed, in our view, ROS has been
disruptive in robotics, making modular
programming available to everyone and
facilitating the integration of software
and hardware likewise. In this sense, ROS
contributes to paving the way toward the
sought-after "graal" of HRC flexibility.
ROS is a middleware that provides services designed for a heterogeneous computer cluster, similar to those generally
present in robot applications. These services include the following:
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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

JUNE 2020

hardware device abstraction and
control
● the implementation of common robotics algorithms (i.e., for mapping and
navigation, perception, localization,
and so on) in C++, Python, and Lisp
● a graph representation of the architecture of running processes
● communication between the aforementioned processes (both synchronous and asynchronous)
● package management.
The ROS language-independent tools
and most of its C++, Python, and Lisp
libraries are open source software, free
for both commercial and research use.
Because of these open source software
dependencies, the main ROS libraries are
supported only on Unix-like systems-
typically Ubuntu Linux. The fact that
ROS was designed with open source in
mind has spread it quickly throughout
the robotics research community. More
recently, ROS-Industrial (https://ros
industrial.org/) has succeeded in attracting the attention of the industrials sector
toward the features of ROS. ROS-Industrial, which is also open source, extends
the capabilities of ROS to manufacturing
automation and robotics by including
libraries, tools, and drivers for industrial
hardware. Its focus is more on striving
toward software robustness and reliability that meet the needs of industrial
applications. Although open source robotic hardware seems still utopic, particularly in the industrial context, the
●

HRC Interaction Quality
and Acceptance
When designing and introducing human-
robot interaction (HRI) to workplaces
in a human-centered way, interaction
quality plays a key role. Within dyads of
humans interacting closely with robots,
there are several aspects that contribute
to the quality of the specific interaction.
One group of characteristics can be
summarized under the concept of user
acceptance. The concept of technology
user acceptance comprises a rich research history. A number of theories
and models bring forward different factors influencing the overall user acceptance of a specific technology. These
factors, for example, include aspects
like the "subjective norms" one feels
are associated with the use of a specific technology. However, as shown in
the literature, the factors' "perceived
usefulness" and "perceived ease of
use" have the strongest effect on
users' attitudes toward a technology
and should therefore be considered
carefully [42], [43].
Different robotic design aspects may
weaken or enhance overall technology
acceptance. There is a limited but growing amount of research focusing on the
experiences of factory workers who collaborate with cobots outside the lab
(e.g., in [44]). In a field study, a cobot
named Walt was integrated on the manufacturing floor of Audi for a glue operation; due to noise in the factory, Walt
was equipped with nonverbal communication cues to express its emotions
and understand gestures [45]. In terms
of social acceptance of the robot, the
interviews performed at the end of the
study with the operators who used
Walt demonstrated that the robot had
been accepted as part of the team. Furthermore, they mentioned that working
with the latest technology actually gave
them a sense of pride.
An additional fundamental aspect
contributing to the overall interaction
quality refers to the system's usability. ISO

https://www.ros.org https://www.ros.org https://rosindustrial.org/ https://rosindustrial.org/

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2020

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