The Impact of Working with an Automated Guided Vehicle on Boredom and Performance: an Experimental Study in a Warehouse Environment

Implementing collaborative robots in warehouse operations requires employees to engage in order picking alongside robots, which raises concerns about employees’ perception of being ‘robotised’. This study explores the interplay between workload and autonomy in the context of Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)-assisted order picking, aiming to understand their joint impact on employees’ boredom and performance. In a unique controlled laboratory experiment conducted within an experimental warehouse environment, 352 order pickers interacted with an actual AGV to retrieve items from various aisles and deliver them to a depot station. Using a 2 × 2 between subject design, participants were assigned to either pick 77 products (low workload) or 231 products (high workload), and to walk behind the AGV (low autonomy) or walk in front of the AGV (high autonomy). Participants in the high-workload low-autonomy condition were less bored but performed poorer than those in the low-workload low-autonomy condition. No significant differences in boredom and performance between the low-workload high-autonomy condition and the high-workload high-autonomy condition were found. Our findings emphasise the importance of considering the effects on employees when implementing AGV-assisted order picking. To alleviate boredom among order pickers due to such tasks, it is important to provide autonomy while carefully managing workload levels to maintain optimal performance.