Eleonora Zodo
Date:
Speaker
Eleonora Zodo is completing an Engineering Doctorate in Designing for Human-System Interaction at the Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), supervised by Prof. Emilia Barakova. Previously, she worked as a UX Designer and as researcher at the Center for Technology Experience, Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), in Vienna, where she specialized in designing user interfaces for Human-Robot Collaboration in custom manufacturing. Her research sits at the intersection of robotics, human factors engineering, and UX design, aiming to enable effective and interaction between human operators and robots. Her latest work contributes to the EU Horizon-funded COROB project, addressing the human-centered design of a digital platform for configuring, monitoring, and inspecting the operations of multi-robotic cells for arc metal welding.
Speaker Links: Google Scholar
Abstract
As AI-powered robotic systems enter custom manufacturing, operators will transition from skilled craftsmen to supervisors of semi-automated processes. In the talk, I will discuss how the future deployment of AI-powered multi-robot welding cells may affect workers’ practices and their perceived autonomy and competence, as basic psychological needs that determine wellbeing in the workplace. I will present the results of a mixed-method design case study: starting from the analysis of relevant scientific literature, technical documentation and field research at the R&D center where robots are developed, we proposed a task allocation model and designed an interface to enable the configuration, monitoring and inspection of the automated assembly. In parallel, a survey and scenario-based focus groups with experts in manufacturing automation and researchers in human-robot interaction were conducted to assess the proposed human-robot interaction system via a human-centered lens. The collected data was analysed via the lens of the METUX framework, revealing latent tensions between the enhancement of human operators’ sense of autonomy and competence and the adoption of advanced robots. In conclusion, I will present design guidelines for human-machine interfaces that support human workers’ productivity and psychophysical wellbeing at the same time.