Elevating Immersive Construction Training with High-Fidelity Haptic Feedback for Human-Robot Collaboration

The integration of robotics in construction enhances productivity, efficiency, and safety. However, effective human-robot collaboration remains a challenge. Immersive human-machine interfaces have been identified as facilitators for improving interaction with robots in such contexts. While these immersive interfaces can provide a promising representation of real-world situations, they typically fall short of delivering the essential interaction fidelity, particularly in tasks that require fine motor control. This study develops and evaluates a high-fidelity haptic feedback system to replicate physical interactions in immersive human-robot collaboration. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative measures, including selective attention, user engagement, perceived usability, and self-efficacy, in a user experiment that involved a bricklaying construction task. The results highlighted the significant enhancement of user experience metrics through the integration of high-fidelity haptic feedback, providing valuable insights for the development of more intuitive and efficient immersive interfaces tailored for human-robot collaboration in construction.