Research on the acceptance of collaborative robots for the industry 5.0 era -- The mediating effect of perceived competence and the moderating effect of robot use self-efficacy

Abstract

Collaborative robots (Cobots), an important component of the Industry 5.0 era, have been rapidly entering a variety of industrial application scenarios. However, employees working with them are reluctant to accept cobots into the workplace. Therefore, the traditional technology acceptance model (TAM) is unsuitable for research on the acceptance of cobots with artificial intelligence and the human-robot interaction process. In addition, anthropomorphism cannot explain the lower employee acceptance with the increase of cobots anthropomorphic from the mechanistic level. Therefore, based on the human-robot interaction phenomenon in the emerging industrial field, combined with the Uncanny Valley effect and intergroup threat theory, 300 subjects were invited to conduct an empirical study using experimental vignette methodology (EVM). The findings are as follows: 1) Perceived competence plays a mediating role in the relationship between cobots anthropomorphic and acceptance of cobots; 2) Perceived competence and perceived threat serially mediates the relationship between cobots anthropomorphic and acceptance of cobots; 3) The cobot use self-efficacy plays a moderating role in the relationship between perceived competence and perceived threat. The research results provide a mechanistic explanation for alleviating the low acceptance of cobots, give measures and methods to improve acceptance of cobots and provide solutions for the promotion and application of cobots in the industrial field.