Wearable Sensors Assess the Effects of Human–Robot Collaboration in Simulated Pollination
Pollination for indoor agriculture is hampered by environmental conditions, requiring farmers to pollinate manually. This increases the musculoskeletal illness risk of workers. A potential solution involves Human–Robot Collaboration (HRC) using wearable sensor-based human motion tracking. However, t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/2/577 |
| _version_ | 1797339336684863488 |
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| author | Mustafa Ozkan Yerebakan Boyi Hu |
| author_facet | Mustafa Ozkan Yerebakan Boyi Hu |
| author_sort | Mustafa Ozkan Yerebakan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Pollination for indoor agriculture is hampered by environmental conditions, requiring farmers to pollinate manually. This increases the musculoskeletal illness risk of workers. A potential solution involves Human–Robot Collaboration (HRC) using wearable sensor-based human motion tracking. However, the physical and biomechanical aspects of human interaction with an advanced and intelligent collaborative robot (cobot) during pollination remain unknown. This study explores the impact of HRC on upper body joint angles during pollination tasks and plant height. HRC generally resulted in a significant reduction in joint angles with flexion decreasing by an average of 32.6 degrees (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.001) for both shoulders and 30.5 degrees (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.001) for the elbows. In addition, shoulder rotation decreased by an average of 19.1 (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.001) degrees. However, HRC increased the left elbow supination by 28.3 degrees (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.001). The positive effects of HRC were reversed when the robot was unreliable (i.e., missed its target), but this effect was not applicable for the left elbow. The effect of plant height was limited with higher plant height increasing right shoulder rotation but decreasing right elbow pronation. These findings aim to shed light on both the benefits and challenges of HRC in agriculture, providing valuable insights before deploying cobots in indoor agricultural settings. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T09:46:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-54a8c17d4d664ed5acc02a11cc1ae9bd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T09:46:31Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-54a8c17d4d664ed5acc02a11cc1ae9bd2024-01-29T14:16:35ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202024-01-0124257710.3390/s24020577Wearable Sensors Assess the Effects of Human–Robot Collaboration in Simulated PollinationMustafa Ozkan Yerebakan0Boyi Hu1Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USADepartment of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USAPollination for indoor agriculture is hampered by environmental conditions, requiring farmers to pollinate manually. This increases the musculoskeletal illness risk of workers. A potential solution involves Human–Robot Collaboration (HRC) using wearable sensor-based human motion tracking. However, the physical and biomechanical aspects of human interaction with an advanced and intelligent collaborative robot (cobot) during pollination remain unknown. This study explores the impact of HRC on upper body joint angles during pollination tasks and plant height. HRC generally resulted in a significant reduction in joint angles with flexion decreasing by an average of 32.6 degrees (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.001) for both shoulders and 30.5 degrees (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.001) for the elbows. In addition, shoulder rotation decreased by an average of 19.1 (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.001) degrees. However, HRC increased the left elbow supination by 28.3 degrees (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.001). The positive effects of HRC were reversed when the robot was unreliable (i.e., missed its target), but this effect was not applicable for the left elbow. The effect of plant height was limited with higher plant height increasing right shoulder rotation but decreasing right elbow pronation. These findings aim to shed light on both the benefits and challenges of HRC in agriculture, providing valuable insights before deploying cobots in indoor agricultural settings.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/2/577human robot collaborationposturepollinationagriculture |
| spellingShingle | Mustafa Ozkan Yerebakan Boyi Hu Wearable Sensors Assess the Effects of Human–Robot Collaboration in Simulated Pollination Sensors human robot collaboration posture pollination agriculture |
| title | Wearable Sensors Assess the Effects of Human–Robot Collaboration in Simulated Pollination |
| title_full | Wearable Sensors Assess the Effects of Human–Robot Collaboration in Simulated Pollination |
| title_fullStr | Wearable Sensors Assess the Effects of Human–Robot Collaboration in Simulated Pollination |
| title_full_unstemmed | Wearable Sensors Assess the Effects of Human–Robot Collaboration in Simulated Pollination |
| title_short | Wearable Sensors Assess the Effects of Human–Robot Collaboration in Simulated Pollination |
| title_sort | wearable sensors assess the effects of human robot collaboration in simulated pollination |
| topic | human robot collaboration posture pollination agriculture |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/2/577 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mustafaozkanyerebakan wearablesensorsassesstheeffectsofhumanrobotcollaborationinsimulatedpollination AT boyihu wearablesensorsassesstheeffectsofhumanrobotcollaborationinsimulatedpollination |