Högskolan i Skövde

Industry 5.0 advocates a human-centric approach where humans play a central role in the design and implementation of industrial technologies. Collaborative robots, with their adjustable safety functions, are key enabling technologies in this paradigm, especially for manual assembly tasks. This study investigates initial trust in collaborative robots by examining whether familiarization through virtual reality (VR) influences the applicability of various trust-related factors. Two groups of university engineering students participated: an Online group that evaluated the factors based solely on images and provided general information, and an In-Person group that engaged in a VR interaction with the robot before evaluation. Participants were asked to assess whether they found factors such as safety, usability, competence, predictability, and adaptability applicable to the robots, selecting "Yes", "No", or "I don’t know". In a follow-up question, they were then asked to rate each factor on a 5-point Likert scale. Results indicate that the In-Person group more frequently affirmed the applicability of the factors. Limitations include the use of only positively framed statements and the participants’ prior experience with industrial and collaborative robots.