"If Robots Get too Smart..."

[RoboMom]

Great article in the NY Times today about Scientist at Play Daniel Wilson titled "If Robots Ever Get Too Smart, He'll Know How to Stop Them." about his book "How to survive a robot uprising"

Favorite Section is box on "Kiss and Fell: Techniques for Dropping a 'Droid"

"Every day in laboratories around the world, robots are getting smarter...
If you are attacked by a humanoid robot, run toward light-sudden changes in light confuse vision sensors...
Hide yourself among clutter; it also befuddles robots."

Sorry I don't have the link.

[KenWittlief]

Actually people have been killed by robots!

I think the first was an assembly line worker at a car factory in Japan.

I dont know if the following is true or internet lore:

Killed by a Robot (Joshua 10) - Ford Motor Company's casting plant in Flat
Rock, Michigan, employed a one-ton robot to fetch parts from a storage rack.
When the robot malfunctioned on January 25, 1979, twenty-five-year-old
Robert Williams was asked to climb up on the rack and get the parts. While he
was performing the task, the robot suddenly reactivated and hit Williams in the
head with its arm. Williams died instantly. four years later a jury ordered Unit
Handling Systems, the manufacturer of the robot, to pay Williams's family $10
million. Williams is believed to have been the first person killed by a robot.

In February 1982, a maintenance worker at the Kawasaki plant in Akieski, Japan, got himself written into the history books. Kenji Urada has the dubious honour of being the first human being to be murdered by a robot. Instead of opening the robot's safety gate - which was supposed to cut off its power - Kenji jumped over the barrier fence and accidentally hit the juice button. The robot took a look at him, decided that he was an industrial component, grabbed ahold of the poor man and turned him into sausage meat with a gear-cutting machine. Nasty!

In a survey of American factories where robots are hard at work, no less than four percent have had major robotic accidents, including heads bashed in by 'intelligent' tool arms, and two unfortunate guys hung in the air by their feet and sent along the conveyor belt to be turned into cars. Most deaths and injuries are caused by the fast movement of robot arms, trapping and crushing humans, or knocking them senseless into heavy machinery.

[Jay H 237]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

Actually people have been killed by robots!

I think the first was an assembly line worker at a car factory in Japan.

Working in the injection moulding industry and dealing with robots and other automation systems I know of several real incidents.

Safety systems and guarding are put in place for a reason although there's been a few people who have found ways around them. Sometimes these incidents can be blamed also on a lack of training or knowledge of those using the equipment. It can also be people playing "MacGyver" and jury rigging broken equipment to keep it in service.

The worst incident I know off was at a major, well known food packaging place (I will NOT disclose the name of the company but I'll bet that you all have used thier products at one time or another). It also didn't involve any of our own equipment, rather an older model competitors robot and a molding machine. A worker at the plant had to adjust the tooling on the robot so they stopped it with the mold open and the arm of the robot in the mold. Nothing out of the ordinary yet, since to pick parts from a mold you need to adjust the tooling to the part in the mold. This person didn't deactivate the robot and molding machine from automatic to manual though. They climbed into the mold and adjusted the tooling. They then manually moved the arm of the robot out of the mold. Now robots have switches that give feedback to the molding machine to tell it that it's clear of the mold and it's OK to close. The arm moved to the point that it was clear and the switch was made and gave a "mold close" signal and guess what, they never had enough time to get out of the mold. This person probably only had a second or two to realize what happened before the end came. I won't go into details, use your imagination, but after the investigation was over with it took several days to clean the mess up including the ceiling 15 - 20' above the machine. The reason I won't name the company is because once that mold was clinically cleaned it was put back in service and still is today making products for the food service industry.

So yeah, robots can kill or give the signal to kill but you've got to be smarter than them and know what you're doing around them.

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by RoboMom

Great article in the NY Times today about Scientist at Play Daniel Wilson titled "If Robots Ever Get Too Smart, He'll Know How to Stop Them." about his book "How to survive a robot uprising"

Favorite Section is box on "Kiss and Fell: Techniques for Dropping a 'Droid"

"Every day in laboratories around the world, robots are getting smarter...
If you are attacked by a humanoid robot, run toward light-sudden changes in light confuse vision sensors...
Hide yourself among clutter; it also befuddles robots."

Sorry I don't have the link.

Has anyone read this book yet? Any Reviews to share?

[Conor Ryan]

Actually, the book was sold at Monty Madness! All copies were sold out, and I got a chance to read it. I thought it was hysterical, and definetly worth a read, save it for the beach some time, or when your Build Season takes a bad turn.

[hoorayforpink]

good thing robots will never be as smarty as me!

[KenWittlief]

best way to befuddle a robot is to yell out, "OneZeroOneOneZeroOneZero TWO!"

[Alexa Stott]

Sometimes, I think robots have gotten too smart.

We were sitting with out robot in the midst of some problems with the controller this build season, and suddenly, it flipped out! Thankfully, no one was hurt, but it ruined one of our programming cables!

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

Actually, the book was sold at Monty Madness! All copies were sold out, and I got a chance to read it. I thought it was hysterical, and definetly worth a read, save it for the beach some time, or when your Build Season takes a bad turn.

I picked up a copy at Monty too, and have yet to read it.
Maybe I'll read it this weekend on the way up to Mayhem In Merrimack.

[Gabe]

Our robot is possessed. How else does one explain its behavior?

Starting and stopping erratically? Check.
Inching its way toward you when your back is turned? Check.
Attempting to decatitate you with supersonic Poof balls? Check.
Odd groaning and knocking sounds? Check.
Attracted to eerie green lighting? Check.

Scary...