this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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Robot mistakes man for box of peppers, kills him — Malfunctioning sensor system blamed for technician’s death at Korean food plant::Malfunctioning sensor system blamed for technician's death at Korean food plant

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[–] Vlyn 93 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You could disable the motors. You can read out sensors without the arm moving. And if the arm needs to move, do it from a distance (cable connected or wireless).

A human shouldn't be anywhere near moving robotic arms, ever.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The guy worked for the robot manufacturer, according to the article! You'd think would have been much more aware of the robot's reach, and the safety procedures. Plus, I'm pretty sure you can step through the robot programming slowly. I've seen our programmers do it. Please don't tell me he was in the cell standing next to the crate or whatever, with that thing running full production speed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

To be clear, you oft times can’t easily debug live code on a piece of machinery. Unless it was specifically designed to accommodate, 99/100 times it’ll be nigh impossible without digging in a soldering things to other things. And that is usually not something done on a factory floor.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You’re not wrong, but there is also a reason for each of those things to not be possible in lots of scenarios. The article made it sound like it was commissioning test, you have to do functional tests on the entire system, not individual parts at that point.

The machine may not have been able to be cable connected or wireless or maybe the employee cut corners too, people seem to forget this part too.

You shouldn’t, but there is plenty of usecases where someone needs to unfortunately, that’s just the reality of the world.

[–] Vlyn 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's not the reality of the world, it's cutting corners. Most likely management either not providing the equipment or putting so much time pressure on employees that they have to rush.

Absolutely no one is testing robotic arms while standing next to them. They would either be moronic or are forced to (which should be illegal). Especially with the AI being switched on instead of using manual control in that moment.

But work safety standards are shit in a lot of countries.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It’s not the reality of the world, it’s cutting corners. Most likely management either not providing the equipment or putting so much time pressure on employees that they have to rush.

Sounds like real world to me. Correct? No. Real? Yes.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes cutting corners is the reality of the world, employees do it, management does it, public does it, private does it, union does it, everyone does.

And yes it does happen and is a necessity in plenty of cases. There is ways to make it safer, but everything has an inherent danger and nothing is ever 100% safe or have no risk. That’s just not possible, another reality of the world.

If the issue was with the AI, yeah you would it to be on AI instead of manual.