Working together with industrial robots: Experiencing robots in a production environment

This paper illustrates how workers in a semiconductor factory experience working together with industrial robots. Applying a narrative interview approach, we evoked reports on workers´ personal experiences of working together with these robots. This specific approach enabled us to gain knowledge of how daily work with these robots is experienced, including workers´ attitudes and inherent meanings regarding the robots. Following a thematic analysis approach, we analyzed the collected interview data and identified rivalry with the robots, adaption towards the robot´s behavior, perceived reasonability and knowledge acquisition as salient aspects regarding human-robot interaction in the factory. Our findings indicate how human-robot cooperation can be improved in terms of enhancing workers´ everyday experiences with robots, for example, by providing a feeling of control or emphasizing human competences.