by Brianna Crandall — January 4, 2016—The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently released a safety and health publication dealing with working safely with robots.
The NIOSH publication offers recommendations for the involvement of the occupational safety and health profession in advancing safety for workplaces with robots. Image courtesy of NIOSH.
According to the NIOSH Science Blog: “A Robot May Not Injure a Worker: Working Safely with Robots,” robots are being used in increasing numbers both in the workplace and in society in general. As the robots’ numbers and capabilities increase, observers have urged scientists, engineers, and policymakers to “explore the implications of robotics for society, to ensure that the rise of robots will not spell ‘doom for humanity,’ as some critics have warned.”
To avoid this scenario, NIOSH reminds that in 1942 Isaac Asimov set out three laws of robotics in his short story “Runaround,” as also depicted in the movie “I, Robot.” The first law of robotics centered on the safety of people states: “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
NIOSH says that this law has not been sufficiently applied to worker safety as robots take on more tasks in the 21st century workplace and become robot workers, “judging from continuing headlines about workers injured or killed by robots.”
The publication gives cases where robots have been a cause of injury or death, discusses various types of robots and their applications, and offers several recommendations for the involvement of the occupational safety and health profession, such as helping to develop international and site-specific robot safety standards, establishing risk profiles of robotic workplaces, and developing redundant safety measures to protect human workers while performing maintenance tasks on robots.
