Designing Socio-technical Robotic Systems

This program is headquartered at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) with three projects that are based at both QUT and UTS.

Program Co-Leads

• Muge Belek Fialho Teixeira (QUT)
• Matthias Guertler (UTS)

Program Postdoctoral Research Fellow

• Alan Burden (QUT)

Human Robot Collaboration is part of a surrounding socio-technical factory system. For successful utilisation of collaborative robots, including their autonomy and flexibility, it is important to consider their relationship to humans in work practices, places, and systems.

In addition to human factors, key design factors include the products to be manufactured by the collaborative robot, the overarching manufacturing process, and the space requirements that support human-robot interaction and collaboration. On the one hand, these aspects influence the suitability and position of a collaborative robot within the manufacturing process. On the other hand, they themselves are also affected by the collaborative robot, or need to be adapted to increase the performance of a collaborative robot working with humans.

The aim of this Program and its included projects is to embed holistic design as a critical factor in creating seamless integration of humans and machines working together to improve human work conditions and environments, and increase effectiveness and efficiencies in production, as well as workforce acceptance.

Learn more about the researchers participating in this program.

Learn more about the researchers participating in this program.