Designing the User-Friendly Robot: A Case History

Abstract

The process of designing the user interfaces for an industrial spray-painting robot manufactured by the Nordson Corporation is described in the form of a case history. Human factors engineering was applied to the design of the system control panel, to a control grip on a special version of the robot's arm used in programming the system, and to the specialized microcomputer operating system used to manage the task of programming, monitoring, and operating the system.