User Study for Hand-Guided Robots with Assisting Force Fields

In this paper we present an approach for improving the hand-guiding of robotic arms which is called assisting force field (AFF). The AFF guides the user to certain reference paths enabling the user to keep the desired position and orientation of the end effector. The reference paths are computed using learning data of experienced users. The AFF is realized by an impedance control of the robot. The main focus of this paper is to investigate how the AFF improves the handling of the robot. For this a user study has been performed with 42 participants. The experiments were complemented by questionnaires regarding user comfort and task workload. The results of the study show an obvious improvement on the performance and the ergonomic quantities applying the AFF.