3 ms·
Despite the headline, the robot arm itself probably has no smarts and is just triggered to follow a routine when external sensors on the line are activated. The
by Isamu 3y ago
Despite the headline, the robot arm itself probably has no smarts and is just triggered to follow a routine when external sensors on the line are activated. The issue is that the person may have been unaware that the robot was energized, and there should have been some safety interlock that de-energized the robot while the person was in the robot’s work envelope.
- MisterTea 3y agoRobot work cells are usually cordoned off with fencing protected from entry with safety sensors and trapped key interlocks on the gate doors. Though when servicing these can be bypassed by service personnel which was likely the case here. I've read of cases like these where service techs or engineers commissioning a system were severely injured or killed by these machines. You really need to be extremely careful around mechanical stuff like this.
- toss1 3y agoAssuming those assumptions are true, my question is whether the robot had separate power feeds to the sensors vs the actuators. If the worker needs to test/tune/adjust/repair the sensors, and needed that system energized, was the robot built in such a way that the sensor/control system could be energized, but the actuator motors de-energized? If not, the worker was stuck in a very dangerous position, and was effectively killed by the robot's designers.
- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y agoMy first thought was that some version of lockout/tagout protocols should have been employed.
- idopmstuff 3y agoYeah, I really question whether this story is actually any kind of news or just in the headlines because there's a robot involved, where in reality it's the equivalent of "guy sticks hand in wood chipper, loses hand." Sad, obviously, but not really fundamentally different from any of the other injuries that happen when working with heavy equipment.
- Sharlin 3y agoWood chipper mistakes man's hand for a piece of wood