Stakeholders’ perspectives on safety-related human–robot collaborative scenarios

Safety plays a key role when implementing collaborative robots (cobots) in human-shared workspace scenarios. Nevertheless, the significance and understanding of safety-related aspects may significantly vary with different stakeholders’ perspectives. In particular, there is often a misconception that cobots are inherently safe with the result of significantly underestimating the need of adopting adequate safety measures and features for the deployment of collaborative robots in industrial and non-industrial frames. Accordingly, this article develops an in-depth analysis of the stakeholders and their stakes in human–robot collaboration in the manufacturing industry with particular attention to the safety aspects. The proposed approach consists of a field study, with an online questionnaire and structured interviews, directed at the main stakeholders. The field study results are presented and compared with insights from two recent explorative studies. Finally, careful analysis and discussion is provided. This research focuses on three topics: (i) the specific phases in the collaborative robot application cycle, (ii) the stakeholders that are involved in each phase, and (iii) the stakes that affect the stakeholders in general, and specifically the role of safety within these stakes. The findings show that awareness of safety issues is still jeopardized between stakeholders. In addition, key stakeholders still significantly underestimate safety-related issues when implementing cobots in new production lines. This implies the need for objective assessment tools that can systematically address and assess all safety-related aspects. This study provides industry practitioners with a broader view of how different stakeholders regard safety-related aspects in the cobot life cycle. This will enable more informed decision-making when implementing cobot solutions and potentially avoid unconsidered safety risks later on. This article also adds to the scant research on the role of each stakeholder in human–robot collaboration.