Robots are leaving their cages, and that is the new safety problem

The old arrangement was simple: **traditional industrial robots work in robotic
cells and cages away from human workers.** The safety question was whether the
cage was shut.

**A NIOSH analysis identified 41 robot-related fatalities in the United States
between 1992 and 2017** — under that arrangement. What is growing now is the
category the cage does not apply to.

The three kinds

The number of industrial robots in US factories grew by 10% in 2022. The
number of **service robots sold for professional use rose to 158,000 units — a
48% increase** in the same year. The category with no cage is growing nearly
five times faster.

What robots are good at

Doing work in high-risk environments, which is a genuine safety gain:

• Inspecting offshore oil rigs while people remain safely on shore
• Drones applying pesticide without exposing a farmer to the chemicals
• Service robots helping healthcare workers lift patients without
  musculoskeletal injury
• **Self-driving vehicles reducing motor vehicle crashes among delivery
  workers**

Each of these removes a person from a hazard rather than protecting them
inside it.

The physical hazards

Struck-by or caught-between · crushing and trapping · **slipping,
tripping and falling** · electrical hazards.

The emerging ones, which are not all physical

These emerging risks may not yet be fully understood. Robots working near
people could:

• Injure workers through unexpected contact
• Distract workers from hazards
• Cause workers mental stress — distrust of the robot's capabilities,
  and concern about job loss

The last three are worth separating out. Distraction and stress are not
failures of the machine; they occur when the robot is working exactly as
designed. A guard can stop a person reaching into a machine. Nothing in the
hardware addresses a worker who does not trust it, or who expects it to take
their job — and both are listed here as occupational safety risks, not as
attitudes.

NIOSH's Center for Occupational Robotics Research addresses the safety,
health and well-being of workers who use, wear, or work near robots — the
three relationships that replaced "stay outside the cage".

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (NIOSH).