robot breaks one of Isaac Asimov three laws
 

Killer German robot -

Robot kills man at Volkswagen plant in Germany

BERLIN — Automaker Volkswagen says a robot has killed a contractor at one of its production plants in Germany.

A spokesman for VW says the man died Monday at the plant in Baunatal, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Frankfurt.

Heiko Hillwig said Wednesday the 22-year-old was part of a team that was setting up the robot when it grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate.

Hillwig said initial conclusions indicate that human error was to blame, rather than a problem with the robot.

German news agency dpa reported that prosecutors were considering whether to bring charges, and if so, against whom.

Charge the HUMAN that was supposed to have the machine locked out when any other human is in the area. It had to be pure negligence.

How a robot could have killed a person is a good question.
But an even better question, how could a woman named Sarah (O) Connor never have seen the Terminator???

Why would Skynet be interested in her? Sarah Connor is who should be worried....

I would say whoever had the job of lock out/tag out as outlined by universal safety regulations should be thrown under the bus....Or maybe Germany doesn't have any such rules ?

I have worked around robots... Like any heavy equipment rule #1 is make certain all power is disconnected before going anywhere near where they are working.

Those robots aren't intelligent enough for the three laws to even apply. I'm not sure any robot currently in general use is. To start with, the robot would have to be able to identify an object as a human being . . .

Too soon ..?

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...9ggjw6wgif.gif

Open the pod bay doors Hal.......

Look at the difficulty even we humans have with identifying what a human being is (abortion debate, embryonic stem cell debate etc.)!

This is a major fail... Robots is my Biz. I don't know about Europe's laws specifically, but here in the good 'ol US of A we have a "cell" that has barriers and light curtains and laser scanner to prevent just such an event. Somebody fooked up bad, he either already paid the ultimate price or he should be standing in front of the judge in irons!

Most of this type of technology have "black boxes" which have real time data of the performance of the equipment. The equipment is typically shut down and quarantined pending an investigation. There are procedures followed for an accident investigation: a team is form to review what happened. The manufacturer will probably get called in to do due diligence to see if the robot malfunctioned. But most of this type of equipment have " black boxes" that monitor the functions.

Then there are the questions: were procedures followed? Was the person trained to do the job? Were there witnesses. It is a who, what, when, where, why process. Typically any accident is made known to every plant, in this case VW, describing the incident and urging every plant that has a similar process to review safety, contractor, etc to prevent a similar occurrence. Companies take accidents very seriously no one wants an accident on their watch. Since this happened in Europe, the plant manger can be sued and cou;d do jail time . Europe is different than the USA.

I would like to know what was said to the robot.

I witnessed something similar. In the good 'ol USA. SmileWavy (Though the guy wasn't killed). Since it was initial set-up, none of the safety measure were on and working at the time.

This sounds similar.

Sent Robots shouldn't be running at production speed without safties in place. I can't claim to know everything about every situation, but teach mode with associated limits is the only way to run them without a complete cell and associated safety system in my experience. Robots only do what they are told, nothing more. Running at full speed without teach pendant in hand and a clear cell is foolhardy.

Who says it was production speed? I've seen some of those cells, and the quarters are quite tight. Wouldn't need to move very quickly to pin someone against an obstruction and cause fatal injuries.

The incident I saw wasn't full speed. Just kinda knocked the guy over.

In that specific plant are 15,500 employees working.
They (two external companies employees) where setting up a new line for production of electric engines.
It is still not sure who started the line, it was not ready for launch at all.
It looks like the killed man was standing inside the line and told the one outside to launch the robot for checking purpose.
The line was not finished and still owned by the external company.

He obviously said something about its mom.

.

There is not enough information here to even speculate but...

The use of 'grabbed him' seems to imply that maybe an external device mounted to the robot did the damage. Grippers and other external functions are often not locked out of a teach pendant function, so it's conceivable that he initiated an unsafe motion locally and possibly unintentionally.

Being in a VW plant it is highly unlikely that safeties were not in place and followed. I don't see a person being able to crush themselves to death on 'teach speed' or even 'safe play-back speed' with a 'hold-to-run' teach pendant. Or possibly two people in an area where only was is permitted.

It is more likely there was an oversight in the basic design. Or he just did something really stupid.