In this paper, a discussion of the safety issues in robotics are provided, categorizing them into three major origins: unfavorable environmental factors; human errors, and technical deficiencies. Information related to robotic accidents was retrieved from the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) and Korea Occupational safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) in Korea. Accidents are classified into root and direct causes, and these causes are reviewed through the application of the Systematic Causal Analysis Technique (SCAT). This research continues to emphasize that the risks, such maintenance of people, and robotic operations, are the most susceptible during interactions with robots. The research explores the classification of accidents in robots, causes of injuries, and the necessity for personalized safety measures. In addition, it presents a discussion of the lack of assurance, safeguards, and confidentiality aspect in robotics, and the detrimental effect this has on enterprises. Lastly, the paper highlights the effects of industrial robot mishaps, such as human injuries and casualties, data privacy and breach apprehension, and effects of corporate brand. It explores the safety concerns and measures from legislation emphasizing the necessity of establishing a balance between security and efficiency.
Keywords
Human-Robot Collaboration, Human-Robot Interaction, Safety of Industrial Robots, International Organization for Standardization, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.
J. P. Vásconez, G. Kantor, and F. A. Cheein, “Human–robot interaction in agriculture: A survey and current challenges,” Biosystems Engineering, vol. 179, pp. 35–48, Mar. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2018.12.005.
R. Bogue, “Europe continues to lead the way in the collaborative robot business,” Industrial Robot-an International Journal, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 6–11, Jan. 2016, doi: 10.1108/ir-10-2015-0195.
F. Wegman, L. T. Aarts, and C. Bax, “Advancing sustainable safety,” Safety Science, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 323–343, Feb. 2008, doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2007.06.013.
A. Williamson, A.-M. Feyer, D. Cairns, and D. Biancotti, “The development of a measure of safety climate: The role of safety perceptions and attitudes,” Safety Science, vol. 25, no. 1–3, pp. 15–27, Feb. 1997, doi: 10.1016/s0925-7535(97)00020-9.
T. B. Sheridan, “Space teleoperation through time delay: review and prognosis,” IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 592–606, Jan. 1993, doi: 10.1109/70.258052.
A. Moniz and B.-J. Krings, “Robots Working with Humans or Humans Working with Robots? Searching for Social Dimensions in New Human-Robot Interaction in Industry,” Societies, vol. 6, no. 3, p. 23, Aug. 2016, doi: 10.3390/soc6030023.
A. Eguchi, “RoboCupJunior for promoting STEM education, 21st century skills, and technological advancement through robotics competition,” Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 75, pp. 692–699, Jan. 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.robot.2015.05.013.
A. Mital and A. Pennathur, “Advanced technologies and humans in manufacturing workplaces: an interdependent relationship,” International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 295–313, Apr. 2004, doi: 10.1016/j.ergon.2003.10.002.
A. Hanna, S. Larsson, P.-L. Götvall, and K. Bengtsson, “Deliberative safety for industrial intelligent human–robot collaboration: Regulatory challenges and solutions for taking the next step towards industry 4.0,” Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, vol. 78, p. 102386, Dec. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.rcim.2022.102386.
C. Breazeal et al., “Humanoid Robots As Cooperative Partners For People,” International Journal of Humanoid Robots, Jan. 2004, [Online]. Available: https://web.media.mit.edu/~cynthiab/Papers/Breazeal-etal-ijhr04.pdf.
J. Burke, R. R. Murphy, E. Rogers, V. Lumelsky, and J. Scholtz, “Final report for the DARPA/NSF Interdisciplinary Study on Human–Robot Interaction,” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 103–112, May 2004, doi: 10.1109/tsmcc.2004.826287.
H. M. Parsons, “Human factors in industrial robot safety,” Journal of Occupational Accidents, vol. 8, no. 1–2, pp. 25–47, Jun. 1986, doi: 10.1016/0376-6349(86)90028-3.
S. Anjum, N. Khan, R. Khalid, M. B. Khan, D. Lee, and C.-S. Park, “Fall prevention from ladders utilizing a Deep Learning-Based Height Assessment method,” IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 36725–36742, Jan. 2022, doi: 10.1109/access.2022.3164676.
C. C. J. Cheng, C. Lin, and S.-S. Leu, “Use of association rules to explore cause–effect relationships in occupational accidents in the Taiwan construction industry,” Safety Science, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 436–444, Apr. 2010, doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2009.12.005.
F. M. Alessa, A. D. Nimbarte, and E. M. Sosa, “Incidences and severity of wrist, hand, and finger injuries in the U.S. mining industry,” Safety Science, vol. 129, p. 104792, Sep. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104792.
B. C. Jiang and C. A. Gainer, “A cause-and-effect analysis of robot accidents,” Journal of Occupational Accidents, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 27–45, Jun. 1987, doi: 10.1016/0376-6349(87)90023-x.
S. Haddadin, A. Albu-Schäffer, and G. Hirzinger, “Safe Physical Human-Robot Interaction: Measurements, analysis and new insights,” in Springer tracts in advanced robotics, 2010, pp. 395–407. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-14743-2_33.
K. Kandasamy, S. Srinivas, K. Achuthan, and V. Rangan, “IoT cyber risk: a holistic analysis of cyber risk assessment frameworks, risk vectors, and risk ranking process,” EURASIP Journal on Information Security, vol. 2020, no. 1, May 2020, doi: 10.1186/s13635-020-00111-0.
F. Lamnabhi‐Lagarrigue et al., “Systems & Control for the future of humanity, research agenda: Current and future roles, impact and grand challenges,” Annual Reviews in Control, vol. 43, pp. 1–64, Jan. 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.arcontrol.2017.04.001.
L. A. Kirschgens, I. Z. Ugarte, E. Gil-Uriarte, A. M. Rosas, and V. M. Vilches, “Robot hazards: from safety to security.,” arXiv (Cornell University), Jun. 2018, [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.06681.pdf.
L. Albertsen, J. L. Richter, P. Peck, C. Dalhammar, and A. Plepys, “Circular business models for electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries: An analysis of current practices of vehicle manufacturers and policies in the EU,” Resources, Conservation and Recycling, vol. 172, p. 105658, Sep. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105658.
W. Yu and R. Ramanathan, “An empirical examination of stakeholder pressures, green operations practices and environmental performance,” International Journal of Production Research, vol. 53, no. 21, pp. 6390–6407, Jun. 2014, doi: 10.1080/00207543.2014.931608.
V. Cirillo, M. Rinaldini, J. Staccioli, and M. E. Virgillito, “Technology vs. workers: the case of Italy’s Industry 4.0 factories,” Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, vol. 56, pp. 166–183, Mar. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.strueco.2020.09.007.
F. A. Manuele, “Prevention through design addressing occupational risks in the design and redesign processes,” Professional Safety, vol. 53, no. 10, Oct. 2008, [Online]. Available: https://onepetro.org/PS/article/33144/Prevention-Through-Design-Addressing-Occupational.
C. Franklin, “The role of Standards in Human–Robot Integration Safety,” in Springer eBooks, 2021, pp. 155–171. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-78513-0_9.
A. Pervez and J. Ryu, “Safe physical human robot interaction-past, present and future,” Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 469–483, Mar. 2008, doi: 10.1007/s12206-007-1109-3.
S. Zhang, J. Teizer, J. K. Lee, C. M. Eastman, and M. Venugopal, “Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Safety: automatic safety checking of construction models and schedules,” Automation in Construction, vol. 29, pp. 183–195, Jan. 2013, doi: 10.1016/j.autcon.2012.05.006.
S. Leroueil, “Natural slopes and cuts: movement and failure mechanisms,” Geotechnique, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 197–243, Apr. 2001, doi: 10.1680/geot.2001.51.3.197.
V. Villani, F. Pini, F. Leali, and C. Secchi, “Survey on human–robot collaboration in industrial settings: Safety, intuitive interfaces and applications,” Mechatronics, vol. 55, pp. 248–266, Nov. 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.mechatronics.2018.02.009.
M. Y. Cao, S. Laws, and F. R. Y. Baena, “Six-Axis Force/Torque Sensors for Robotics Applications: A review,” IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 21, no. 24, pp. 27238–27251, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.1109/jsen.2021.3123638.
M. Gleirscher et al., “Verified synthesis of optimal safety controllers for human-robot collaboration,” Science of Computer Programming, vol. 218, p. 102809, Jun. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.scico.2022.102809.
L. Wang et al., “Symbiotic human-robot collaborative assembly,” CIRP Annals, vol. 68, no. 2, pp. 701–726, Jan. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.cirp.2019.05.002.
C. Park, J. S. Park, and D. Manocha, “Fast and bounded probabilistic collision detection for High-DOF trajectory planning in dynamic environments,” IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 980–991, Jul. 2018, doi: 10.1109/tase.2018.2801279.
C. Thomas, F. Busch, B. Kuhlenkötter, and J. Deuse, “Ensuring Human Safety with Offline Simulation and Real-time Workspace Surveillance to Develope a Hybrid Robot Assistance System for Welding of Assemblies,” in Springer eBooks, 2011, pp. 464–470. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-23860-4_76.
J. Fryman, “Updating the industrial Robot safety standard,” International Symposium on Robotics, pp. 1–4, Jun. 2014, [Online]. Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6840203/.
J. Cheng, X. Chen, and P. Lukowicz, “Towards coexistence of human and robot: How ubiquitous computing can contribute?,” in Advances in intelligent systems and computing, 2015. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-16841-8_39.
T. Haidegger et al., “Industrial and Medical Cyber-Physical Systems: Tackling user requirements and challenges in robotics,” in Topics in intelligent engineering and informatics, 2019, pp. 253–277. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-14350-3_13.
J. G. Keramas, T. Schin, L. Main, and F. McAvey, Robot Technology Fundamentals. 1998. [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=601499.
R. Alami et al., “Safe and dependable physical human-robot interaction in anthropic domains: State of the art and challenges,” 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Oct. 2006, doi: 10.1109/iros.2006.6936985.
S. Haddadin and E. A. Croft, “Physical Human–Robot interaction,” in Springer handbooks, 2016, pp. 1835–1874. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-32552-1_69.
Acknowledgements
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
Availability of data and materials
No data available for above study.
Author information
Contributions
All authors have equal contribution in the paper and all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you
give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article‟s
Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the
article‟s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the
permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Cite this article
Francisco Pedro, “Ensuring Safety in Industrial Robots: Issues, Consequences and Solutions”, Journal of Computing and Natural Science, vol.4, no.2, pp. 075-084, April 2024. doi: 10.53759/181X/JCNS202404008.
