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I am very confused as to why the robot was operating with such power. According to the article, the robots pick up boxes of peppers and place them on a conveyor

by bmitc 3y ago

I am very confused as to why the robot was operating with such power. According to the article, the robots pick up boxes of peppers and place them on a conveyor belt. How does that translate to such force so as to pick up an adult man, place him on the conveyor belt, and then crush his face and chest? There are clearly multiple safety protocols that were broken here, starting with something as simple as a lockout/tagout procedure and ending with robotic control system failures that should have recognized it was needing to apply much more force than expected to pick and place a box of peppers and also that the thing it was handling was not a box.

Symmetry 3y ago
Normally robotic arms are either cobot arms or industrial arms. A cobot is relatively safe to be around. They're meant to work with humans nearby so generally you'd have to be both inattentive and unlucky to get an injury that needs any sort of treatment. But these arms are relatively expensive, slow, and most can barely handle the weight of a typical box of vegtable. Industrial arms like this are more common. They're less expensive, faster, and can handle an unusually large box of veggies no problem. And mostly any arm large enough to move the box far enough to be useful in your workspace is going to be able to lift way more weight. But these are not safe to be around and either inattention or bad luck when you're around it will send you to the hospital. And both at once and you end up like the poor worker in the story. Needless to say be careful around cobots but don't be careful around industrial arms, instead use some sort of lock out system that makes it impossible for the arm to move if you're in close proximity because there's no way anyone will ever be careful enough. So, I don't blame them for using an industrial arm. But there was a serious failure that occured to ever let a person into the area while the arm was live.
- bmitc 3y ago
  I know the difference between a cobot, like what Rethink Robotics made, and an industrial robot. But a pepper and thus a box of peppers is mostly air. It can't weigh anywhere close to an adult man. So the drive needed on the motors to pick up, place, and crush the man would be several times that of the box of peppers. I would think any industrial robot would have limit safety points for excessive drive beyond its intended use. The robots are used to do literally the same task every day, so it's surprising something like that isn't in place. Additionally, you would think there would be at least some vision system in place for safety purposes. My point is that there were safety failures at every level here.
suputra 3y ago
Something people forget is the weight of large robot arms, and the gear ratios involved with moving these masses. Usually that ends up meaning that by the time you get to the end effector, the inertia of whatever it manipulates is miniscule in comparison to the inertias of the preceeding links of the arm.

by bmitc 3y ago

Symmetry 3y ago

Normally robotic arms are either cobot arms or industrial arms. A cobot is relatively safe to be around. They're meant to work with humans nearby so generally you'd have to be both inattentive and unlucky to get an injury that needs any sort of treatment. But these arms are relatively expensive, slow, and most can barely handle the weight of a typical box of vegtable. Industrial arms like this are more common. They're less expensive, faster, and can handle an unusually large box of veggies no problem. And mostly any arm large enough to move the box far enough to be useful in your workspace is going to be able to lift way more weight. But these are not safe to be around and either inattention or bad luck when you're around it will send you to the hospital. And both at once and you end up like the poor worker in the story. Needless to say be careful around cobots but don't be careful around industrial arms, instead use some sort of lock out system that makes it impossible for the arm to move if you're in close proximity because there's no way anyone will ever be careful enough. So, I don't blame them for using an industrial arm. But there was a serious failure that occured to ever let a person into the area while the arm was live.

bmitc 3y ago
I know the difference between a cobot, like what Rethink Robotics made, and an industrial robot. But a pepper and thus a box of peppers is mostly air. It can't weigh anywhere close to an adult man. So the drive needed on the motors to pick up, place, and crush the man would be several times that of the box of peppers. I would think any industrial robot would have limit safety points for excessive drive beyond its intended use. The robots are used to do literally the same task every day, so it's surprising something like that isn't in place. Additionally, you would think there would be at least some vision system in place for safety purposes. My point is that there were safety failures at every level here.

suputra 3y ago

Something people forget is the weight of large robot arms, and the gear ratios involved with moving these masses. Usually that ends up meaning that by the time you get to the end effector, the inertia of whatever it manipulates is miniscule in comparison to the inertias of the preceeding links of the arm.