Perceived Safety of Workers in Encounters with Large Industrial AGVs

TL;DR

This study investigates industrial workers' perceived safety when interacting with large AGVs, comparing real-world and virtual reality environments, and identifies preferred passing distances and collision avoidance behaviors.

Contribution

It provides novel insights into perceived safety with large payload AGVs in real and virtual settings, addressing gaps in prior research involving professionals and larger machines.

Findings

Perceived threat levels are slightly higher in VR.

A passing distance of 1.5 to 2 meters is preferred.

Participants set their own collision avoidance parameters.

Abstract

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) in factory automation are increasingly capable of moving autonomously in close proximity to human workers. While their physical safety is regulated by standards and directives, perceived safety and workers comfort in close-proximity interactions are being actively investigated in studies. There are three limitations in the prior art research to that end. Firstly, AGVs with larger payloads are understudied. Secondly, the test participants are usually students and not working professionals. Thirdly, while conducting in-person experiments with heavy machinery can be dangerous, the transfer of safety perception results from simulated experiments remains open. In this paper, we investigate industrial workers perceived safety in shared spaces with large AGVs in a real-world encounter and in virtual reality. We vary the passing distance and the shape of the collision avoidance maneuver, and evaluate perceived threat level using a handheld pressure-sensitive trigger interface and a post-experiment questionnaire. Additionally, we ask participants to set their own collision avoidance parameters based on their experience with the demonstrated trajectory profiles. In a within-subject study, we found that, while the threat levels are perceived overall slightly higher in VR, the passing distance of 1.5 to 2 meters is preferred among the demonstrated profiles, as well as in the self-defined trajectories.