Publication
Robot Reasoning Architecture for Transparent Collaborative Disassembly
Emilia Pietras; Bernd Kiefer; Guglielmo Borzone; Norbert Krüger; Leon Bodenhagen
In: Social Robotics + ART : 17th International Conference, ICSR+ART 2026 Proceedings. International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR-2026), London, United Kingdom, ISBN 0302-9743, Springer, 7/2026.
Abstract
As robots are increasingly being implemented in industry, they will be operated by users with varying levels of expertise. End-user robot programming methods based on graphical user interfaces (GUIs) provide a familiar and intuitive interaction style that allows for on-line task allocation in a human-robot dyad. However, such systems remain difficult to use due to lack of understanding robot functionality, especially for non-robotics experts. Robot reasoning and transparency aim to help users better understand robot systems and, thereby, improve team performance. In this work, we present a robot system with an ontology-based reasoner that provides error explanations and indications of available atomic actions based on their preconditions. We evaluated the system through a between-subjects user study (n = 30), investigating the effect of visual transparency on user programming efficiency and system understanding. The results of the study demonstrated that visual transparency significantly reduced user programming time and error.