Interactive Bacterial Evolutionary Algorithm for Work Pace Optimization of Cobots

As cobots become more popular in manufacturing, the close cooperation between the robot and the human operator becomes more complex. This paper proposes a method for optimizing the robot's work pace by interactive bacterial evolutionary algorithm. One of the main contributions is the interactivity of the optimization via the operator's feedback. Beside the operator's subjective evaluation, heart rate signals are also measured. The paper focuses mainly on the concept of this method tested with the help of some volunteers. Preliminary tests show that the algorithm is able to find comfortable configurations with less then 1% of them evaluated.