[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 166 (Wednesday, August 26, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52604-52606]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-18677]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[60Day-20-20PR; Docket No. CDC-2020-0074]
Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and
Recommendations
AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS).
ACTION: Notice with comment period.
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SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part
of its continuing effort to reduce public burden and maximize the
utility of government information, invites the general public and other
Federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a proposed and/or
continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on a proposed
information collection project titled Improving Safety of Human-Robot
Interaction. The purpose of this data collection is to gather
experimental information in the CDC Division of Safety Research Virtual
Reality Laboratory on the effects of robot characteristics (e.g. size,
movement speed, and movement trajectory) on human behavior, perceived
safety, mental workload, and trust. This information will be used to
improve the design and modeling of robots and robot functions to reduce
human-robot collisions as a result of improved robot
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navigation, reduced human workers' workload, and increased trust.
DATES: CDC must receive written comments on or before October 26, 2020.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2020-
0074 by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
Mail: Jeffrey M. Zirger, Information Collection Review
Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road
NE, MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.
Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name
and Docket Number. CDC will post, without change, all relevant comments
to Regulations.gov.
Please note: Submit all comments through the Federal eRulemaking
portal (regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the address listed above.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan
and instruments, contact Jeffrey M. Zirger, Information Collection
Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton
Road NE, MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email:
omb@cdc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of
information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires
Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register
concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new
proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of
information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information
collection before submitting the collection to the OMB for approval. To
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a
proposed data collection as described below.
The OMB is particularly interested in comments that will help:
1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency,
including whether the information will have practical utility;
2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used;
3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected; and
4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated,
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic
submissions of responses.
5. Assess information collection costs.
Proposed Project
Improving Safety of Human-Robot Interaction--NEW--National
Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Background and Brief Description
The mission of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH) is to promote safety and health at work for all people
through research and prevention. NIOSH has initiated a study among
manufacturing workers to improve safety of workers that work in close
proximity with robots. Study results will be used to improve safety
standards and lead to better design guidelines for industrial robots.
Rapid growth of advanced collaborative and mobile robots warrants
investigation on safe human-robot interaction for their potential
injurious energy transmission from a robot to a worker. Traditional
safety measures for industrial robots, such as protective barriers, are
no longer valid for the emerging collaborative and mobile robots.
Physical contacts between human workers and robots are inevitable and
even desired when they share a common workspace or work directly with
each other under collaborative operations. Therefore, NIOSH is
proposing a study to evaluate the effects of different characteristics
of robots on human behaviors, perceived safety, workload, and trust.
The study will take advantage of virtual reality technology to
simulate human-robot interaction during data collection sessions.
Participants will conduct two related experiments that will involve
performing simulated warehouse tasks (e.g. loading/unloading boxes from
shelves) in a virtual reality laboratory. Participants will interact
with a mobile robot in the first experiment and a collaborative robot
arm in the second. They will wear glasses that will allow them to see
virtual 3D images of the robots and other objects in the environment.
During each experiment task, we will use motion capture technology to
track the movement and location of the participants and the virtual
robots. This will allow us to track movement speed and separation
distance from the virtual robots. After each experiment task, we will
administer three questionnaires to the participants that will ask them
about their perceived safety, mental workload, and trust in the robots.
We will analyze how these measures change based on the virtual robot's
operating speed, size, and movement trajectory.
Data collections will occur at the NIOSH facility in Morgantown,
West Virginia. The target study population will be workers who
currently work or had worked in the manufacturing industry, with
varying job experiences. The burden table below accounts for 111
respondents over a three-year data collection period. Respondents will
complete all forms only once, besides the Virtual Reality Sickness
Questionnaire, which will be administered at the beginning and end of
the data collection, and the three questionnaires (NASA Task Load
Index, Perceived Safety Questionnaire, and Robot Trust Questionnaire),
which will be administered after each of the 63 combined experiment
trials. The total estimated burden hours are 217. There are no costs to
the respondents other than their time.
Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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Average
Number of Number of burden per Total burden
Type of respondents Form name respondents responses per response (in (in hours)
respondent hours)
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Manufacturing Workers........................... Simulator Sickness Susceptibility 37 1 1/60 1
Questionnaire.
Consent Form.......................... 37 1 10/60 6
Participant Data Collection Form...... 37 1 1/60 1
Virtual Reality Sickness Questionnaire 37 2 1/60 1
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Robot Experience Questionnaire........ 37 1 6/60 4
Actual Experiment 1--Mobile Robot..... 37 1 1.16 43
Actual Experiment 2--Collaborative 37 1 1.16 43
Robot.
NASA Task Load Index.................. 37 63 1/60 39
Perceived Safety Questionnaire........ 37 63 1/60 39
Robot Trust Questionnaire............. 37 63 1/60 39
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Total....................................... ...................................... .............. .............. .............. 217
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Jeffrey M. Zirger,
Lead, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific
Integrity, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2020-18677 Filed 8-25-20; 8:45 am]
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