A Methodology for Early User Experience Evaluation of Large-Scale Collaborative Robot Applications

When implementing collaborative robot applications, it is paramount to use a human-centered development approach to ensure a positive user experience and increase acceptance. User Experience (UX) design methods involve validating user experience through evaluations as a basic principle. The earlier UX evaluations are carried out, the greater the added value that can be achieved. For collaborative robot applications, especially those involving large robot systems, these early evaluations are challenging since the entire application will not be available until the final stages of development. The proposed methodological approach to this problem utilizes a rudimentary, scaled test setup for early UX evaluations of the entire robot application, enabling user feedback to be incorporated into the development process early on. The method was applied in a project that developed a collaborative robot application for semi-automated liquid cargo handling in inland navigation. UX assessments were carried out using both the rudimentary test setup and a full-scale prototype in a later development phase. The comparison of both assessments proves the applicability of the proposed methodology. Serving as an overarching framework, this methodology encourages developers to test the entire collaborative robot application in user studies at an early stage, thereby gathering valuable user feedback.