# Smart Interactive Technologies in the Human-Centric Factory 5.0: A Survey
## 2 Smart Interactive Technologies in the Human-Centric Smart Factory
### Collaborative Robots
#### 2.8.1 The Smart Factory Context  
Given a clear definition of what a collaborative robot is and what its components are, we move one step forward in our examination of the current state of the art, providing real-world examples of their implementation on shop floors. **Applications: e-waste management. ** Ref. [91] put forward the adoption of collaborative robots to solve e-waste management problems, optimizing the recycling process of electronic equipment. Companies are always more subject to public and government pressure to reduce their environmental impact. When dealing with e-waste, manual operations can be financially prohibitive and full automation is not easy to implement due to the lack of uniformity of devices. It is trivial to notice how this is clearly a scenario where a collaboration between humans and robots may bring enhancements to the process. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [91] examined the e-waste management techniques and the limitations of fully automated techniques for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and then proposed a solution for WEEE recycling that involves the use of collaborative robots. The authors brought a real-world example discussing the use of Liam, a collaborative robot developed by Apple to effectively disassemble the iPhone (Figure 5). The authors also pointed out that one of the main problems that can possibly arise when dealing with bigger electronic appliances is that of identifying cables, flexible parts, or components which are usually difficult to recognize. This represents a point in the process where collaboration can happen and a skilled operator could carry out the job, leaving the tedious and potentially dangerous tasks of operating the materials to the robots. **Applications: assembly. ** Ref. [92] investigated the combination of sensors, embedded in wearable devices with gestures recognition, to propose an HRI framework applicable in assembly operations, where collaborative robots can assist workers, delivering tools and parts and holding objects. The aim of this and many other investigations in the field is that of exploiting the best abilities of robots, such as accuracy or repetitive work, and the best abilities of humans, for example, cognition and management, in order to reach a collaborative scenario where the most is made out of every available resource. Moreover, we should consider that mobile robots and exoskeletons have the potential to make certain tasks less physically demanding, see [PERSON] at al. for more details [93]. This may allow women to take on tasks that were previously reserved for men due to the required physical strength. A vast range of further opportunities will arise by the further digitalization of the workforce [36]. Focusing on the general context of performing dull tasks on production lines, a study aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of already existing robots was carried out by [94]. The authors started their work from the assumption that collaborative robots are more useful when they can be displaced at a level of easiness that makes them \"mobile\" [94]. They investigated a system to enable robots such as Baxter and Sawyer by Rethink Robotics to smartly perform movements within the shop floor, sensing persons or obstacles and moving safely throughout the space. A downward-facing QR code camera was used for the precise placement of the robot at a work station and, when not assigned to a specific cobot, the platform can be used as a general-purpose automated guided vehicle. **Worker-robot interaction and collaboration. ** A key feature of collaborative robots is their ability to partner with human operators in mixed teams. They need to coordinate their actions to engage in joint activities and to coordinate their behavior to human behaviors at different levels: semantic, contextual, temporal, and more, see [95], which investigated the cognitive systems that build the awareness needed to obtain such interactions.