Human-Robot Collaboration: Technical Issues from a Viewpoint of Human-Centered Automation

Abstract

In this article, after surveying the problems incurred by the conventional technology-centered automation in a variety of fields, we put an emphasis on the fact that a concept of sociality is really needed to form the ideal human-automation and/or human-robot relations emerging out of active Then, some key technical issues are to be presented for realizing such socially-centered automation and establishing the human-automation and/or human-robot collaboration. Brief introductions of the ongoing works by the author's group are also presented. In contrast to the conventional technology-centered design of artifacts (e.g., automation systems), now we should consider ideal human-computer relationships with respect to their interactions. This means that the human and technological subsystems like automations should be structured and designed to work in mutually cooperating ways guaranteeing a user's usability. For this purpose, progressive system redesigns are needed with respect to human machine interactions architecting to increase system reliability and transparency by allowing a human user's proactive participation, rather than by eliminating