Cognitive Effort and User Experience in Real-Life Assembly Tasks: a Comparison of Human Alone, Human-Human, and Human-Robot Interactions

The present study investigated the impact of collaborative robots (cobots) on perceived mental workload, user experience, and emotional responses during a realistic industrial assembly task. Forty young adults completed the task in three conditions: working alone (Human Alone, HA), collaborating with a human co-worker (Human-Human, HH), and collaborating with a cobot (Human-Robot, HR). Subjective measures were collected using the NASA-TLX, the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ), and the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). Results showed that both collaborative conditions (HH and HR) significantly reduced perceived workload compared to the HA condition, with the cobot particularly effective in lowering mental demand and effort. The HR condition also led to higher ratings of attractiveness, stimulation, and originality, along with greater emotional engagement. These effects remained significant when controlling for prior familiarity with cobots, suggesting that cobots can offer both functional and experiential advantages in collaborative work. The findings highlight the potential of cobots to enhance not only performance but also engagement and emotional experience in human-robot interactions.