Abstract
Human-robot collaboration (HRC) is at the heart of intelligent automation and is essential for increasing efficiencies in industrial systems by combining the strength, dexterity and precision of robots with the intelligence and adaptation skills of humans. HRC is enabled by Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) in which humans and robots co-work on a task communicating and physically interacting with each other. However, the principles of HRI are neither well understood nor well established and detailed investigation is difficult because real-life experimentation involving human and industrial robot interactions carry the risk of detrimental encounters. This paper presents an opportunity to investigate and assess human-robot interactions for collaboration efficacy and safety within a realistic Virtual Reality (VR) environment A simple maintenance activity involving the assembly of two blocks was designed with two scenarios: manual assembly; robot assisted assembly.