Trust me. I’m a robot
Trust me. I’m a robot
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Robot safety: As robots move into homes and offices, ensuring1 that they do not injure people will be vital2. But how?
IN 1981 Kenji Urada, a 37-year-old Japanese factory-worker, climbed over a safety-fence at a Kawasaki plant to carry out3 some maintenance work on a robot.In his haste4, he failed to switch the robot off properly5. Unable to sense him, the robot’s powerful hydraulic6 arm kept on7 working and accidentally pushed the engineer into a grinding8– machine. His death made Urada the first recorded victim to die at the hands of a robot.
This gruesome9 industrial accident would not have happened in a world in which robot behaviour was governed by the Three Laws of Robotics drawn up10 by Isaac Asimov, a science-fiction writer. The laws appeared in "I, Robot", a book of short stories published in 1950 that inspired a recent Hollywood film. But decades later the laws, designed to prevent robots from harming people either through action or inaction (see below), remain in the realm11 of fiction.
Indeed, despite the introduction of improved safety mechanisms, robots have claimed12 many more victims since 1981. Over the years people have been crushed13, hit on the head, welded14 and even had molten15 aluminium poured over them by robots. Last year there were 77 robot-related16 accidents in Britain alone, according to the Health and Safety Executive.
With robots now poised17 to emerge from their industrial cages and to move into homes and workplaces, roboticists are concerned about the safety implications18 beyond the factory floor19. To address these concerns, leading robot experts have come together to try to find ways to prevent robots from harming people. Inspired by the Pugwash Conferences – an international group of scientists, academics and activists20 founded in 1957 to campaign for the non-proliferation21 of nuclear weapons – the new group of robo-ethicists met earlier this year in Genoa, Italy, and announced their initial22 findings23 in March at the European Robotics Symposium in Palermo, Sicily.
Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through
inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human
beings, except where such orders would conflict with
the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such
protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Trust me. I’m a robot. Exercise.