Integrating Robotics, AI, and Immersive Technologies: A Modular Framework for Human-Metahuman-Robot Collaboration

Collaborative robots have been increasing rapidly across industries, particularly in manufacturing settings. This advancement allows humans and robots to work side by side to complete tasks more efficiently. Moreover, with the development of synthetic actors like metahumans, humans can now enter immersive environments where these metahumans act as guides, facilitating task execution. However, there is a limited implementation of combining both technologies in the industrial field. This paper aims to demonstrate how metahumans can enhance efficiency and guidance to humans and how collaborative robots can help that person in an industrial context. In this paper, we present an illustration showcasing how a metahuman can guide a human and how a human can command a robotic arm according to the instructions of the metahuman during a simple pick-and-place task on an assembly line. The goal of this research to improve the pedagogical curve of an assembly worker by introducing metahumans and collaborative robots.