Robotic Behaviour Needs To Be Regulated

Robots have entered into our homes and offices. They perform simple and complex tasks in our daily lives.

Just like their human counterpart, a robot has a body structure, a muscle system and sensory system that receives information from the body and the environment.

The robot needs a power source to activate the muscles and sensors.

A brain system that processes sensory information and tells the muscles what to do
Of course, we also have some intangible attributes, such as intelligence which is also now being incorporated into the robot by the use of artificial intelligence.

Essentially, robots are man-made versions of animal life -- they are machines that replicate human and animal behavior.

Regulating the behaviour of robots is going to become more difficult in the future but it has to be done given the importance of them in our personal life as well as in industrial activities.

The following gruesome accident illustrates this point.

IN 1981 Kenji Urada, a 37-year-old Japanese factory worker, climbed over a safety fence at a Kawasaki plant to carry out some maintenance work on a robot. In his haste, he failed to switch the robot off properly. Unable to sense him, the robot's powerful hydraulic arm kept on working and accidentally pushed the engineer into a grinding machine. His death made Urada the first recorded victim to die at the hands of a robot.

Indeed, despite the introduction of improved safety mechanisms, robots have claimed many more victims since 1981. Over the years people have been crushed, hit on the head, welded and even had molten aluminium poured over them by robots. Last year there were 77 robot-related accidents in Britain alone, according to the Health and Safety Executive.

Making sure robots are safe will be critical and accidents or issues arising out of robot safety are likely to surface in the civil courts as the human counterparts sue each other for product liability and other damages.