Artificial Insanity - Chinese Factory Robot nearly kills employee

[scotslad]

a factory robot in China maimed employee after malfunctioning -

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/12/13/18/7393382-6493343-image-m-2_1544726766585.jpg

It is estimated that by 2022:


Jobs predicted to be displaced: 75 million

Jobs predicted to be created: 133 million

Share of workforce requiring re-/upskilling: 54 per cent

Companies expecting to cut permanent workforce: 50 per cent

Companies expecting to hire specialist contractors: 48 per cent

Companies expecting to grow workforce: 38 per cent


Full story here = https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6493343/Factory-robot-malfunctions-skewers-Chinese-worker.html

[guayabal]

and the machines and tools used to save his life and many others were also made using robots

[Bill Ryan]

Jeez. A note here, though, for the sake of groundedness: it wasn't that the robot suddenly went wild and somehow attacked the guy. It malfunctioned, and part of its robot arm fell off on to the employee. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was a horrific accident, but horrific industrial accidents (involving any kind of machinery one can think of) unfortunately do happen all the time.

[petra]

I know nothing of robotics, but wouldn't it make sense to have one or two or eleven safeguards to prevent against this kind of thing? Probably too expensive...

[DeDukshyn]

I know nothing of robotics, but wouldn't it make sense to have one or two or eleven safeguards to prevent against this kind of thing? Probably too expensive...

The machine broke and fell on him. Not much you can do about that level of malfunction. Its like trying to prevent your car from breaking down on the highway. We have all these safeguards, sensors, warning lights, etc. in our cars to help us prevent these things. but we'll never be able to eliminate a car breaking down on the highway here and there.

[apokalypse]

its chinese so nothing suprise...

[petra]

I know nothing of robotics, but wouldn't it make sense to have one or two or eleven safeguards to prevent against this kind of thing? Probably too expensive...

The machine broke and fell on him. Not much you can do about that level of malfunction. Its like trying to prevent your car from breaking down on the highway. We have all these safeguards, sensors, warning lights, etc. in our cars to help us prevent these things. but we'll never be able to eliminate a car breaking down on the highway here and there.

I didn't consider something breaking down to be a malfunction, but it technically is, isn't it.

"working as intended" .... Shameful

[Ernie Nemeth]

If I built it I guarantee such a thing would never happen. The arm falling off is due to negligence. Robotics are all just 'plug and play'. Someone forgot to tighten some screws...

[DeDukshyn]

I know nothing of robotics, but wouldn't it make sense to have one or two or eleven safeguards to prevent against this kind of thing? Probably too expensive...

The machine broke and fell on him. Not much you can do about that level of malfunction. Its like trying to prevent your car from breaking down on the highway. We have all these safeguards, sensors, warning lights, etc. in our cars to help us prevent these things. but we'll never be able to eliminate a car breaking down on the highway here and there.

I didn't consider something breaking down to be a malfunction, but it technically is, isn't it.

"working as intended" .... Shameful

:) Technically yes, its a type of malfunction.

When we imagine a robot "malfunctioning", for some reason likely related to watching TV as a child, we imagine it going rogue and attacking people in a robotic fit of rage or a sudden consciousness and realization of its slavery to man, or something along those lines ... the movie "i - Robot" comes to mind.

[Ernie Nemeth]

Another thing, though, is the programming. This is an unanticipated maneuver that had no code to provide instructions. A severed robot arm firing over half a dozen massive darts is a logical inconsistency.
Never should have happened.

Another thing we were discussing was who is the nut case that agrees to work side-by-side with a dumb robot of extremely limited capacity that is shooting spikes around your head, anyway?

I would laugh if someone suggested I do anything remotely as crazy...

[Bill Ryan]

Another thing, though, is the programming. This is an unanticipated maneuver that had no code to provide instructions. A severed robot arm firing over half a dozen massive darts is a logical inconsistency.
Never should have happened.

Another thing we were discussing was who is the nut case that agrees to work side-by-side with a dumb robot of extremely limited capacity that is shooting spikes around your head, anyway?

I would laugh if someone suggested I do anything remotely as crazy...

It didn't actually 'shoot' the spikes! They were all attached to a plate on an arm that fell on him. (That was detached when the poor guy was taken to emergency surgery. You can see how the spikes were all bolted on.)

But this isn't the only serious robotic accident. There have been others, including deaths. Some have involved a moving 'robot' that didn't do what it was meant to do, or was supposedly limited to do.

As with all heavy power machinery, this environment is dangerous. I'd imagine that in the routine repetitive monotony of a production line, workers can easily become blasé to the potential hazards around them; that happens on many construction sites, too.

[DeDukshyn]

It didn't actually 'shoot' the spikes! They were all attached to a plate on an arm that fell on him. (That was detached when the poor guy was taken to emergency surgery. You can see how the spikes were all bolted on.)

.

I was wondering how they actually did that (detach the base part of whatever they where bolted into) - poor guy must have been in a world of pain through that process!

[happyuk]

Industrial robots are treated as any other dangerous machinery. They are immensely powerful and are usually forced to shutdown until the user is outside of the cage it operates in.

I once heard of an incident in a British university where a robot was being used to demonstrate how it could open a fridge door, take out a can of beer and hand it to a person.

Unfortunately the handle came off the fridge door and with the robot not being smart enough to sense this punched a hole through the fridge door and presented the whole fridge to the person!

[Ernie Nemeth]

I have worked in these plants before, although it is not my area of expertise.

Fomat, in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, has seven automated lines when last I worked there. Each line had many robots on them, with no humans at all. The line is operated remotely from a central location not far off, but well out of the circumference of danger. Every area of every line is fenced off so there is no way to accidentally wander into danger. There are big red buttons everywhere, just the same, that anyone can push that will immediately shut down the entire line.

I was working on the commissioning of line seven. That line was shut down for the duration of my job. My job was running control wiring between field components and the control room.

The noise was tremendous and the activity furious.

Fomat makes various structural components for the auto industry here in Canada...

[Billy]

Ouch. The photo only shows 6 spikes but there was a total of 10 spikes that penetrated the poor man. One spike missed a major artery by 1 cm. -------- <that is 1 cm :faint:

[petra]

If I built it I guarantee such a thing would never happen. The arm falling off is due to negligence. Robotics are all just 'plug and play'. Someone forgot to tighten some screws...

NEGLIGENCE! That's the word..

How IRRESPONSIBLE!! I think that's why this makes me so mad. Sorry for cynicism here, this is just disgusting.

EDIT: By the way, I wouldn't have built that POS either :P