promoting good mental health in SMEs
adopting COBOTs
In the context of automated work, the risk of perceiving low challenges is extremely high for repetitive tasks; to the contrary, experiences of inadequacy may arise in workers exposed to tasks requiring unusually intense or sustained focus of attention and manual precision.
This risk is strong in manufacturing industries where robots are increasingly being introduced, as they are supposed to be efficient, flexible, precise, safe, and able to unload workers from more strenuous works.
MindBot’s idea is to support the worker’s motivation and engagement within the cobot-worker interaction in a flexible and personalized way, in order to facilitate active and positive job experiences, thereby preventing negative experiences of anxiety or boredom and apathy.
The potential of work as an opportunity for skill implementation and goal pursuit is especially evident when dealing with populations who live in disadvantaged conditions, such as persons who experience mental health disorders.
MindBot’s multidisciplinary team consists of engineers, clinicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, designers, social workers, occupational therapists, advocacy workers and researchers. All the professionals involved provide their expertise to get work done, to reach project objectives and ensure its success.
On the 15th of September 2023, the research groups involved in the #Mindbot project presented the results and goals achieved, at a public event organised for the 💯 centenary of the National Research Council #CNR of Italy.
📍 Mindbot project, coordinated by IRCCS Eugenio Medea ASSOCIAZIONE LA NOSTRA FAMIGLIA, started on the 1th of January 2020 and will officially end on the 30th of September 2023 🗓 .
At the event, the #innovative human-friendly #cobot platform and the research lines involved in the developing process were presented to the audience. The new concept of human-robot interaction proposed in the Mindbot project was also explained, highlighting its great impact on #human well-being at #work.
⭐ A special thanks to the entire Mindbot #consortium and Simona Ravera from AutAcademy for participating and to the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche for organising and managing the event.⭐
⭐️It was a great opportunity sharing the research about the design development of (A)MICO at Innovation and Product Development Management Conference #IPDMC2023.
🔎(A)MICO is A Multimodal device aimed to improve #Inclusive interaction between Cobot and human Operators with #ASD.
A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to organise pilot tests in the CNR-STIIMA laboratory, involving users with low and medium functioning autism.
✏️During the session “Innovation By Design”, the co-design process, the organization of the semi-structured interviews and the preliminary results from the test were described.
#inclusiveworkplace #H2020 #innovationbydesign
⭐During the European Robotic Forum 2023, Mindbot’s research team held the workshop “EMPLOYEES’ MENTAL HEALTH IN HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION” ⭐.
It was a great opportunity to share the importance of well-being at work, together with colleagues from Empower Project.
#Mentalhealth #CollaborativeRobots #Sisterproject #ERF2023
On 7th and 8th February 2023 🗓 , the consortium meeting of Mindbot Project took place in the headquarters of Kuka Robotics KUKA (Augsburg – Germany), one of the project partners.
The research teams involved in the MindBot Project met for the first time, after the state of emergency caused by the Covid19 pandemic, to discuss ongoing developments 📈.
❇ Next steps?
Achieving and concluding planned activities, scheduling field activities and consolidating research lines 💪 ⭐ Special thanks to our collegues of KUKA who hosted the event!⭐
Last week Mindbot project participated at the ⚡ Brain Innovation Days, sharing the device (A)MICO ❕
➡ (A)MICO is a multimodal device designed to improve and make easier the interaction between cobot and operator diagnosed with #autism pectrum disorders (ASD) involved in production lines.
The device explicates the system’s implicit information to make the user aware of the cobot’s activity and gain control of the situation ✔ ✔ .
💥The main goal of (A)MICO is to promote #mentalhealth, facilitate positive job experience and make the workplace more human friendly and accessible for all.💥
European Brain Council #assistivetechnology #mentalhealthatwork
Mindbot project, which started on 1 January 2020, will end on 30 September 2023. On 14th September 2023, all partners involved in the project, will participate at an internal meeting to discuss the latest updates.
In addition, to present the final results achieved over the past three years, a public event has been scheduled on 15th September 2023 to share the developed of the human friendly cobot platform with the public.
The event will take place in Lecco, in the headquarter of CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Polo di Lecco, Via Gaetano Previati 1/E Lecco (LC) )
Don’t forget to save the date! 14th-15th September 2023
In our new Horizon2020 funded European research project MindBot we are looking for manufacturing companies which are interested in collaborating: our focus is the mental health of workers in the human-robot interaction. This includes factors like stress, over- and underchallenge and motivation. In the project an add-on for cobots is to be developed to improve the well-being of the employees. For this we first need a kind of “baseline assessment” of which influence cobots have on employees today.
#humanrobotcollaboration #cobots
“This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 847926”.