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JRM Vol.37 No.2 pp. 478-487
doi: 10.20965/jrm.2025.p0478
(2025)

Paper:

Development and Evaluation of a Human-Robot Collaborative Training System for Retail Stores Using Virtual Reality and Digital Twin Technologies

Tetsunari Inamura* ORCID Icon, Hiroki Yamada*, Kazumi Morinaga**, Natsuki Yamanobe** ORCID Icon, Ryo Hanai**, and Yukiyasu Domae** ORCID Icon

*Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University
6-1-1 Tamagawagakuen, Machida, Tokyo 194-8610, Japan

**National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
2-3-6 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0064, Japan

Received:
November 8, 2024
Accepted:
March 5, 2025
Published:
April 20, 2025
Keywords:
human-robot collaboration, digital twins, virtual reality, training systems
Abstract

This paper presents a virtual reality and digital twin-based training system designed to improve human-robot collaboration in retail store environments, particularly under disaster scenarios. This system enables dynamic role adaptation between humans and AI-controlled avatars or robots, facilitating diverse collaborative configurations. In a virtual retail environment replicating post-disaster conditions, human subjects—paired either with AI or another human participant—engage in collaborative object-retrieval tasks, distinguishing between safe and hazardous items. Experimental results indicate that human-human collaborations outperform human-AI collaborations in both task efficiency and safety. Participants exhibited improved movement efficiency and higher accuracy in retrieving safe items when paired with another human. These findings suggest that human-robot interaction training can benefit from human-human collaboration configurations for skill enhancement. This system also demonstrates potential for broader applications in simulating complex hazardous environments where real-world training is challenging.

VR training system for human-robot teamwork

VR training system for human-robot teamwork

Cite this article as:
T. Inamura, H. Yamada, K. Morinaga, N. Yamanobe, R. Hanai, and Y. Domae, “Development and Evaluation of a Human-Robot Collaborative Training System for Retail Stores Using Virtual Reality and Digital Twin Technologies,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.37 No.2, pp. 478-487, 2025.
Data files:
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Last updated on Apr. 24, 2025