The study visits were conducted on 11th and 13th of December and they were a part of Mixed Fleet project research. A mixed fleet environment is a setup where autonomous machines and human workers or manually operated machines are working together in the same work flow.
To begin with the user study, we gave a small introduction about the future mixed fleet environment and automated guided vehicles (AGV) that operate in the warehouse. Pekka Loikkanen, Demo Area Manager and Janne Romppainen, Senior User Experience Designer kindly operated one of the automated forklifts to demonstrate the machine’s operation. Later, we asked the participants about their expectations and perceptions of such automated vehicles, as well as any concerns they had regarding cooperation with them. We also inquired about the challenges they foresee in working alongside these vehicles and how they would prefer to communicate with them in the future.
The insights were quite interesting from the study. Although the warehouse workers understand that the automated vehicles might be useful and efficient in five years, they perceive that these machines will replace humans. One participant even said “Maybe they are not perfect now, but they will be in future. But, I will not live to see these machines taking over humans and I am happy about that.” It was also interesting to understand their viewpoint that the robots are trustworthy, sometimes more than humans. “Humans are unpredictable” one said, “you should be more concerned about them rather than the machines.” There were some concerns that the machines were too slow and it might hamper their work flow.
There were many thoughts and concerns expressed about the mixed-fleet environment, but warehouse workers were genuinely curious to see it implemented soon. They recognize that this is a novel concept, which naturally brings up many concerns. However, they believe that once they become accustomed to it, they will trust the robots more. One participant even believes this will “Make warehouse great again!” It is the responsibility of us researchers, designers, and programmers to collaborate and integrate solutions into the real world, building trust quickly and effectively. In fact, this is the main goal of the Mixed Fleet project. This was one of the first user studies in Mixed Fleet project, and the work will continue. Stay tuned!
Written by Aparajita and Veronika
