Abstract
The integration of people with disabilities into the working world is an important, yet challenging field of research. While different inclusion efforts exist, people with disabilities are still under-represented in the open labor market. This paper investigates the approach of using a collaborative robot arm to support people with disabilities with their reintegration into the workplace. However, there is currently little literature about the acceptance of an industrial robot by people with disabilities and in cases where a robot leads to stress, fear, or any other form of discomfort, this approach is not feasible. For this reason, a first user study was performed in a sheltered workshop to investigate the acceptance of a robot arm by workers with disabilities. As a first step in this underdeveloped field, two main aspects were covered. Firstly, the reaction and familiarization to the robot arm within a study situation was closely examined in order to separate any effects that were not caused by the moving robot. Secondly, the reaction toward the robot arm during collaboration was investigated. In doing so, five different distances between the robot arm and the participants were considered to make collaboration in the workplace as pleasant as possible. The results revealed that it took the participants about 20 min to get used to the situation, while the robot was immediately accepted very well and did not cause fear or discomfort at any time. Surprisingly, in some cases, short distances were accepted even better than the larger distances. For these reasons, the presented approach showed to promise for future investigations.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that ∼15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability
The results are presented in two separate sections; the first will cover the process of becoming familiar with the study situation and the robot arm itself, while the second section will cover the actual interaction with the robot arm at different distances
No significant changes in this variable were noticed during the second day for any of the participants
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that ∼15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability. This equates to more than a billion people, with an estimation, that more than 650 million of these are of working age. Analysis conducted by the WHO of 51 countries showed that only 52.8% of men and 19.6% of women with disabilities have employment. This is a significant difference compared to the employment rates of non-disabled people. The underrepresentation of employees with disabilities in the working world, exists for many reasons, including productivity differentials, discrimination, and prejudice on part of both employers and employees. Finding employment is an important aspect for integration of people with disabilities into society and thereby increasing their quality of life (World Health Organization, 2011)
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