Date of Award

10-11-2024

Publication Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.Sc.

Department

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Keywords

Adoption;Cobots;Manufacturing;Robtotics;Safety

Supervisor

Waguih ElMaraghy

Abstract

Collaborative robots (cobots) have shown great promise for enhancing productivity and safety in manufacturing, yet their adoption has been slower than anticipated. Research has shown that several common barriers exist to the large scale adoption of this technology. This thesis investigates these barriers to cobot adoption in terms of both volume and human-robot collaboration (HRC) levels. A comprehensive literature review was conducted, focusing on six key survey-based studies from Western Europe and the USA. The research analyzed common threads in the data to identify and validate commonly proposed adoption barriers. Using Pugh analysis, this research also evaluates four potential paths to follow and potential solutions to overcome these barriers, including scientific methods for evaluating projects to automate with cobots, improved safety standards, hybrid solutions, and better integration of cobots with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). The findings suggest that addressing these barriers could significantly enhance the adoption and effectiveness of cobots in manufacturing environments. Future work should focus on further empirical studies and the development of targeted training programs to bridge the knowledge gap and improve user acceptance. Suggestions on how to improve upon the existing surveys that have been done in the past as are provided to eliminate selection bias, provide a larger sample size of more knowledgeable respondents and focus on demographic differences between respondents.

Download

Share

COinS