Robot – a colleague at work

Robotic arms for work

Robotisation is a fact. Automation and artificial intelligence are increasingly entering various areas of human activity (e.g. agriculture). Companies are implementing the results of the work of robotics and automation specialists. Should we fear the reduction of the human factor, or, on the contrary, treat this trend as a remedy for the contemporary problems of employers in finding workers and low work efficiency? The process of robotisation certainly opens up new areas of research. One of them is Human-Robot Interaction.

Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is a growing field of research and application. This interdisciplinary field is still developing in Poland. There is not much domestic research in this area, especially research conducted in a natural work environment rather than in a laboratory.

In 2019, ASM – Market Research and Analysis Centre conducted a study on robotisation plans in small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in Poland (300 respondents). The analysis resulted in a report entitled ‘SME Robotisation Barometer’. Its findings indicate that robotisation is an important factor in business development planning – according to company size, 21.9% of small companies and 46.2% of medium-sized companies declare that they will robotise their workplaces within the next three years.

Regardless of the size of the enterprise, the most important factor motivating the robotisation of production workstations is the reduction of production costs while increasing its efficiency.

ANDRZEJ SOLDATY – President of the Board of the Future Industry Platform Foundation:
“The growing interest in robotisation stems primarily from the fact that companies are beginning to see robots as an opportunity to make production processes more flexible, standardise quality and fill staff shortages. Attitudes towards robots are changing, both from the perspective of entrepreneurs and employees. Robots are no longer a technical novelty, but a production tool that can help solve specific problems. ”

Human Robot Interaction Teams

The debate over whether robots take away or create jobs is endless, with no clear winner. The area of new types of teams remains, for now, on the margins of the discourse. Research into the cooperation between humans and robots/cobots, in the context of the emergence of new types of teams and the creation of a new management model, is the subject of analysis by MAGDALENA MORZE from the Łukasiewicz – Poznań Institute of Technology.

The research will be conducted in the field of ‘management’ and will therefore address issues related to human perception of the robotisation process. “I want to find out how human employees feel in a robotised environment. Does the implementation of robots already create a different, new type of work team? How do such teams work, do managers feel that such teams are managed differently than typical human teams, in terms of, for example, people’s trust in machines, responsibility for tasks, motivation to work, etc.” – MAGDALENA MORZE is looking for answers to these questions in her implementation doctoral thesis.