Risk Assessment in Collaborative Tasks: A Comparative Analysis - Qualitative Method and Quantitative Method

This paper explores risk assessment in collaborative tasks, by two different routes: a qualitative risk analysis method and a quantitative risk analysis method - to showcase the differences, advantages, and disadvantages between these methods. Another goal is represented by the formulation of guidelines on how to use these methods for companies that have implemented human-robot collaborative tasks. The first part of the research is represented by context analysis, where the current situation is described and the risk that will be evaluated is defined. The selected risk is: “Operator injury by the robot during operation - in collaborative tasks”. The next step of the research is represented by defining and selecting the qualitative and the quantitative methods for the assessment of the defined risk, and the comparative analysis of these two methods. The selected methods are FTA and FMEA, and the analysis is performed based on the same potential failure mode. The third and fourth steps consist of the discussion based on the comparative analysis and the development of recommendations for the companies that activate in the automotive industry, about how to properly use these instruments for better and more adequate results. The two methods have advantages and disadvantages, but by combining or using them in parallel the companies can get a better overview of the risks and potential root causes involved and can better prioritize the risk mitigation actions.