ROBOTS AND LAW: CAN THEY BE TRIED IN THE COURT FOR JUSTICE?


SOURCE: ANALYTICSINSIGHT.NET
APR 10, 2022

An accident is an undesired and unplanned event, and there is hardly a day in which the news media does not report on robotic accidents. Robots are featuring more and more in our daily lives and they can be incredibly useful. Over the years there have been many robot-related accidents. Robot accidents are becoming a concern for two reasons. First, the increase in the number of robots will naturally see a rise in the number of accidents they’re involved in. Second, we’re getting better at building more complex robots. When a robot is more complex, it’s more difficult to understand why something went wrong.

Accidents that can involve robotics and automation:

As technology advances, workplaces will find ways to use automation to enhance their processes. The four categories of robotic incidents include a robotic arm or controlled tool causing the accident, failure of accessory of the robot’s mechanical parts, or the robot’s power supplies going out of control.

  • Impact or collision accidents: The workplace might soon be crowded with robotic arms, autonomous conveyor belts, and wire-driven delivery systems. Contact accidents can occur due to unexpected movements, component failures, or program changes with the robot’s arm or peripheral equipment.
  • Crushing and trapping accidents: Workers might become trapped between a robotic arm and another piece of equipment. The individual can be physically driven into and crushed by other peripheral equipment.
  • Mechanical part accidents: If the autonomous equipment breaks down or malfunctions it could cause an accident. A mechanical accident occurs when the robot-driven components, tooling or end-effector, peripheral equipment, or power source fail. Mechanical failures include releasing parts, failure of gripper mechanism, and dropping materials causing injuries to workers.
  • Other accidents: Working with robots can lead to other types of mishaps also. There might be common accidents not related to the otherwise specified categories. Potential electrical and pressurized fluid hazards exist in the equipment that supplies robot power and control. High-pressure cutting streams or whipping hose hazards could result from rupturing hydraulic lines. Shock injuries, burn injuries, the release of pressurized fluids – these malfunctions can cause critical injuries.

Here are some real-life robotic accidents:

  • Joshua Brown is the first person killed in a self-driving car accident.
  • A repairman adjusting an active robot in its workspace slipped and the robot arm hit him on the head.
  • Robert Williams is the first person ever killed by a robot. He was killed after the arm of a robot hit him as he climbed up a shelf to retrieve some casts.
  • A worker entered an operating robot’s workspace for the purpose of removing components accumulation. Consequently, the arm of the robot impacted the worker’s head.
  • Nine South African soldiers were killed, and another 14 were wounded after an anti-aircraft weapon started shooting by itself in 2007

How to investigate robotic accidents:

With increased automation and advancement in the field of robotics, comes the unique problem of robots killing humans. Most robots run on AI, capable of making human-like decisions for the robot, based on information fed from vast datasets. The more complex things a robot is capable of, the more types of information it has to interpret. As robots become more complex and are able to act on a variety of information, it becomes even more important to determine which information the robot has acted on, particularly when an accident happens.

If a robot gets damaged or when something goes wrong, we will be far more concerned that the robot causes harm or fails to mitigate harm to a person. Basically, robots don’t have a motive to harm in the first place.

Robot accident investigation has a key benefit over human accident investigation: there’s potential for a built-in witness, like with a black box. The black box was built to withstand plane crashes and provide information as to why the crash happened. This information is incredibly valuable not only in understanding incidents but in preventing them from happening again. It is built to record all information that the robot acts on.

The aim is that the ethical black box will become standard in robots of all makes and applications. While data recorded by the ethical black box is crucial in allowing us to investigate, the investigation process offers the chance to ensure that the same errors don’t happen twice.

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