Human Factors and Robot Design in Industry 5.0: A Multidimensional Investigation of Human-Robot Collaboration

This dissertation investigates human-robot collaboration (HRC) within the Industry 5.0 paradigm, conceptualizing collaborative robots (cobots) as cognitive, emotional, and social partners rather than mere tools. The research adopts a multidimensional approach spanning cognitive, affective, relational, and embodied dimensions of collaborative experience. The theoretical framework (Part I) establishes foundations across three domains: the evolution toward human-centric manufacturing, a comprehensive model of human factors in HRC (including mental workload, stress, fatigue, fluency, trust, perceived support, and user experience), and robot kinematics as a central design parameter grounded in embodied cognition and biological motion principles. Six empirical studies (Part II) address complementary aims. Studies 1-4 investigate the human partner through multimodal psychophysiological assessment, stressing the emerging importance of relational dimensions of HRC. Studies 5-6 focus on robot design, experimentally demonstrating that biological motion kinematics enhance both subjective relational outcomes and objective motor coordination. A markerless 3D pose estimation pipeline enables ecological measurement of human-cobot coordination. Key contributions include an integrated theoretical framework bridging multiple dimensions of HRC, evidence that biological-like robot motion facilitates embodied coupling during joint action, identification of mutual support as a central relational construct, and validated methodological tools for assessing collaborative dynamics. This work provides foundational knowledge for realizing adaptive, human-centric HRC systems aligned with Industry 5.0 principles.