Perceived Safety of Workers in Encounters with Large Industrial AGVs

2026-05-21

AI Summary

This study addresses a critical gap in existing research, which predominantly relies on student samples and simulated environments, by providing the first empirical investigation of perceived safety among professional industrial workers during close-proximity interactions with high-payload automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in real-world settings. Leveraging virtual reality (VR) within an authentic industrial environment, the research employs a within-subjects design with expert workers as participants, integrating pressure-sensitive trigger devices, behavioral metrics, and subjective questionnaires to systematically evaluate how obstacle-avoidance trajectory shapes and passing distances influence perceived threat. Participants were also allowed to customize avoidance parameters. Findings reveal a strong preference for passing distances of 1.5–2 meters and demonstrate a high degree of consistency in threat perception between real and VR conditions, thereby validating the ecological validity and transferability of VR for industrial safety perception studies.

Abstract

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) in factory automation are increasingly capable of moving autonomously in close proximity to human workers. While their physical safety is regulated by standards and directives, perceived safety and workers comfort in close-proximity interactions are being actively investigated in studies. There are three limitations in the prior art research to that end. Firstly, AGVs with larger payloads are understudied. Secondly, the test participants are usually students and not working professionals. Thirdly, while conducting in-person experiments with heavy machinery can be dangerous, the transfer of safety perception results from simulated experiments remains open. In this paper, we investigate industrial workers perceived safety in shared spaces with large AGVs in a real-world encounter and in virtual reality. We vary the passing distance and the shape of the collision avoidance maneuver, and evaluate perceived threat level using a handheld pressure-sensitive trigger interface and a post-experiment questionnaire. Additionally, we ask participants to set their own collision avoidance parameters based on their experience with the demonstrated trajectory profiles. In a within-subject study, we found that, while the threat levels are perceived overall slightly higher in VR, the passing distance of 1.5 to 2 meters is preferred among the demonstrated profiles, as well as in the self-defined trajectories.

Problem

• perceived safety
• industrial AGVs
• human-robot interaction
• virtual reality
• collision avoidance

Innovation

• perceived safety
• large industrial AGVs
• virtual reality
• collision avoidance
• human-robot interaction