Article: Multimodal human-robot collaboration: advancements and future directions Journal: International Journal of Manufacturing Research (IJMR) 2025 Vol.20 No.5 pp.1 - 47 Abstract: Human-robot collaboration (HRC) envisioned for future factories has been actively explored to facilitate higher overall productivity. The wide applications of HRC in multiple fields, such as manufacturing and production, have seen a series of milestones. In recent years, a shift towards intuitive and natural collaboration between humans and robots has been investigated and discussed for symbiotic scenarios and complex tasks. For this purpose, advancements of multimodality in HRC enable multimodal human-robot interactions and collaboration by utilising different communication channels such as auditory, vision, gestures, haptics, and even brain signals. In addition, understanding human behaviours in terms of intent and motion can be beneficial in achieving mutual human-robot assistance. Within an HRC setting, the digital twin of such a physical collaborative workcell offers a promising tool to implement sim-to-real transformation and on-demand support for real practice. Within the context, this study provides an overview of the past and current status of multimodal HRC and its applications and highlights future research directions. [Submitted 8 May 2024; Accepted 8 July 2025] Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Multimodal human-robot collaboration: advancements and future directions

Authors: Sichao Liu; Zhihao Liu; Qiang Qin; Xi Vincent Wang; Lihui Wang

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; Institute of Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland ' Department of Production Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden ' Department of Production Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden ' Department of Production Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden ' Department of Production Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract: Human-robot collaboration (HRC) envisioned for future factories has been actively explored to facilitate higher overall productivity. The wide applications of HRC in multiple fields, such as manufacturing and production, have seen a series of milestones. In recent years, a shift towards intuitive and natural collaboration between humans and robots has been investigated and discussed for symbiotic scenarios and complex tasks. For this purpose, advancements of multimodality in HRC enable multimodal human-robot interactions and collaboration by utilising different communication channels such as auditory, vision, gestures, haptics, and even brain signals. In addition, understanding human behaviours in terms of intent and motion can be beneficial in achieving mutual human-robot assistance. Within an HRC setting, the digital twin of such a physical collaborative workcell offers a promising tool to implement sim-to-real transformation and on-demand support for real practice. Within the context, this study provides an overview of the past and current status of multimodal HRC and its applications and highlights future research directions. [Submitted 8 May 2024; Accepted 8 July 2025]

Keywords: robot; assembly; multimodality; large language model; LLM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2025.149872

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2025 Vol.20 No.5, pp.1 - 47

Received: 08 May 2024
Accepted: 08 Jul 2025
Published online: 14 Nov 2025 *

Title: Multimodal human-robot collaboration: advancements and future directions

Keep up-to-date