Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Valeria Orso investigates the intersection of human factors and robotics, focusing on how humans perceive, interact with, and are affected by collaborative robots (cobots) in both industrial and educational settings. Her work is central to the human-centric vision of Industry 5.0, where worker well-being and cognitive load are as critical as productivity. In her highly cited 2022 study, "The virtualization of human–robot interactions" (38 citations), she systematically assessed mental workload during collaboration with virtual versus physical robots, pioneering methods to evaluate operator states in simulated environments. Her 2025 systematic review on workers’ well-being and cognitive load in human-cobot collaboration synthesizes emerging evidence on how cobot integration reshapes production processes and worker experience. Orso has also explored adaptive assembly workstations for aging workforces, revealing how senior and adult workers accept cobots, and examined educational robotics’ impact on students’ self-concept beliefs. Through these contributions, she provides actionable insights for designing safer, more inclusive, and psychologically sustainable human-robot collaboration systems, directly informing the next generation of adaptive manufacturing and learning environments.