~Trust me, im a robot~

[Verminda Spirit]

In 1981 Kenji Urada, a 37-year-old Japanese factory worker, climbed over a safety fence at a Kawasaki plant to carry out some maintenance work on a robot. In his haste, he failed to switch the robot off properly. Unable to sense him, the robot's powerful hydraulic arm kept on working and accidentally pushed the engineer into a grinding machine. His death made Urada the first recorded victim to die at the hands of a robot.This gruesome industrial accident would not have happened in a world in which robot behaviour was governed by the Three Laws of Robotics drawn up by Isaac Asimov, a science-fiction writer. The laws appeared in “I, Robot”, a book of short stories published in 1950 that inspired a recent Hollywood film. But decades later the laws, designed to prevent robots from harming people either through action or inaction (see table), remain in the realm of fiction. Indeed, despite the introduction of improved safety mechanisms, robots have claimed many more victims since 1981.

Over the years people have been crushed, hit on the head, welded and even had molten aluminium poured over them by robots. Last year there were 77 robot-related accidents in Britain alone, according to the Health and Safety Executive.With robots now poised to emerge from their industrial cages and to move into homes and workplaces, roboticists are concerned about the safety implications beyond the factory floor. To address these concerns, leading robot experts have come together to try to find ways to prevent robots from harming people. Inspired by the Pugwash Conferences—an international group of scientists, academics and activists founded in 1957 to campaign for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons—the new group of robo-ethicists met earlier this year in Genoa, Italy, and announced their initial findings in March at the European Robotics Symposium in Palermo, Sicily.

Source: Economist

[Ebony]

Interesting topic V. Another one of those to generate many opinions and hot discussions.

I'll start ;D

I read the Asimov book many, many, many (( )) years ago. In the stories, the laws were established for artificial intelligence robots; those that simulate thought, i.e. Androids. These robots walked and talked and cared for the kids, cleaned houses, did the grocery shopping and ran companies.

These laws were at the top of the knowledge program of "thinking" robots to prevent evil humans from using robots/androids for evil, i.e. a robot killing a human or performing other crimes for a human. Or for a robot to save itself instead of a human.

The robots that have been killing people in these factories are not artificial intelligence robots. The problem does not lie in the robot but the safety net that humans did not put into place.

I worked in a manufacturing plant that used robots. There were so many security and safety nets that unless a malicious human was involved there could be no accidents - the robot on its own could not in any way harm a human. Systems would shut down if a human even came close to the red line separating safety from danger.

In my humble opinion, however unfortunate and horrible these accidents are, and the fact that these accidents keep happening, the problem at this point in time is with human error, not the robots.