Government sponsored research in the field of industrial robots in the Federal Republic of Germany Available to Purchase

In May 1974, a new research programme entitled “Humanization of Working Life” was published by the Ministry of Research and Technology of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its aims are to temper and to reduce the hindrances, damage, harassments and handicaps of working life. What is involved here is an improvement in the content of work and in relationships at work, i.e. entire working processes are to be reformed comprising both organisational and control functions. Moreover, facilities are to be created for improved communication and co‐operation between workers. Situations leading to both over‐stress and lack of stress are to be reduced insofar as they are caused by the harmful effects of noise, vibrations, dangerous substances, etc. as well as by too few or one‐sided mental demands. Special attention is to be paid to any stresses of a combined nature that might occur and their effects. The number of accidents at work is to be cut by improving safety at work. Finally, the reciprocal relationships are to be examined, within the framework of the research programme, between working life and other aspects of life; and strategies will be developed for further humanization of working life by taking into consideration numerous other factors of a political, economic and technical nature.