A Human Error Analysis in Human–Robot Interaction Contexts: Evidence from an Empirical Study

More than 60 years has passed since the installation of the first robot in an industrial context. Since then, industrial robotics has seen great advancements and, today, robots can collaborate with humans in executing a wide range of working activities. Nevertheless, the impact of robots on human operators has not been deeply investigated. To address this problem, we conducted an empirical study to measure the errors performed by two groups of people performing a working task through a virtual reality (VR) device. A sample of 78 engineering students participated in the experiments. The first group worked with a robot, sharing the same workplace, while the second group worked without the presence of a robot. The number of errors made by the participants was collected and analyzed. Although statistical results show that there are no significant differences between the two groups, qualitative analysis proves that the presence of the robot led to people paying more attention during the execution of the task, but to have a worse learning experience.