Man killed by robotic factory machinery

A worker was killed in a robot accident at one of Volkswagen’s production plants in Germany this week.

According to reports, the robot is normally programmed to operate within a confined area at the plant. But on this occasion, the 22-year-old contractor was working as part of a team that was setting up the stationary robot when it grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but later died due to complications from the injuries.

Professor Alan Winfield, Professor of Electronic Engineering, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England (UWE), said: “Without knowing the details I can only speculate, but my guess is that the robot was an industrial robot ‘multi-axis manipulator’ of the kind that have been used for decades in car assembly plants. Such robots are very dangerous and are normally operated in safety cages or manufacturing cells designed to keep humans out. Safety cages are normally fitted with devices that automatically cut the power to the robot if, for instance, the door of the safety cage is opened. My guess is that the safety devices — which are not part of the robot — either failed or were deactivated, with tragic consequences.”

A VW spokesman was quoted as saying “that initial conclusions indicate that human error was to blame, rather than a problem with the robot”.

Although not the kind of machine involved in this accident, there is a increasing trend of using more sophisticated ‘people-like’ robots that have been designed to work alongside humans directly. The incident does highlight and remind us that robots are not human and there are dangers associated with interfacing between humans and robots. It also highlights the importance of safety in design and having proper safeguards in place.

“Even if safety standards continue to rise, meaning that the chance of an accident happening in any given human/robotic interaction will go down, we can expect more and more incidents like this to occur in future, simply because there will be more and more cases of human/robotic interaction,” said Dr Ron Chrisley, the director of the Centre for Cognitive Science, Department of Informatics, University of Sussex.

“As robots become more prevalent in society, more and more it will seem like they actually have their own autonomy, allowing them to form their own purposes, goals and intentions, for which they can and should be held responsible. Although there may eventually come a day when that appearance is matched by reality, there will be a long period of time, which has already begun, in which this appearance is false.

“Robots are not autonomous in this sense, and are not responsible for what they do. But we are already tempted to think of human-robotic interactions in terms of ‘what humans are responsible for’ vs ‘what robots are responsible for’, despite the latter class being empty. This raises the danger of scapegoating the robot and failing to hold the human designers, deployers and users involved fully responsible.”

Professor Duc Pham, Chance Professor of Engineering and Head of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham, said: “Fortunately, serious accidents involving robots are rare. Nevertheless, work must continue to develop and apply robots that can work safely alongside people. A big step in this direction has been made in recent years, with the creation of collaborative robots (or ‘cobots’) having built-in systems to limit the amount of force they can exert so that they can share their workplace with people. I envisage that such cobots will be adopted widely in the future.”

The incident at the Volkswagen plant is currently under investigation by German authorities.