The video gave social networks: we see a humanoid robot that seems to lose the pedals, in a factory in China, stirring their legs and arms as panic puppets. Is that the elevation of machines? Inevitably, the image caused a slight concern among Internet users.
Where do these images come from? Of a test center or a factory, in China, Suniter, one of the most advanced companies in the world in the field of robotics.
A 1.80 m robot destined in particular to work in factories, is suspended, inactive, to a crane for a harness. Then, their arms begin to stir in all directions, it gives what it seems kicks and blows, while the engineers around Rentotas scared completely, until one of them manages to stop it: we really have the impression of the machine that turns against its creator.
We do not know exactly what happened, but we suspect a programming error. The scene presses above all where it hurts: in our visceral fear of uncontrolled autonomy. In social networks, many commented on the air of “this is what awaits us.”
It should be said that accidents of men/machines must become increasingly frequent. And it is quite logical with the growing automation of many activity sectors. Even taking all precautions, it is difficult to avoid and there have been many examples.
A few weeks ago, at a festival in China, a robot, still of the same brand, had rushed a spectator who approached and was arrested just in time.
We can also cite the case of this worker from a Chinese porcelain factory full of a robot that falls.
Or this employee killed by a robotic arm: he was installing the robot in the mounting chain when the machine hit him in the chest and projected it against a metal plate.
Or this story in which about twenty employees had ended in the hospital when a robot had the good idea of unleashing a repellent tube with Bear, a kind of ultra potential pepper gas. These are accidents that unfortunately have to be repeated, often due to human errors.
“Kill the switch”
But then what can we do? Some require more strict control procedures, especially in “Kill Switch”, the “big red button” that allows you to stop everything in case of dysfunction.
But more than one/off is needed. We need security protocols, ethical rules encoded in their circuits and, above all, humans capable of supervising and understanding what they are doing.
Some recommend equipping airbag robots, which are activated as soon as a potentially dangerous action is carried out for humans. In addition, some warehouses are now equipping humans with robot protections.
In Amazon, for example, several years have passed since employees are equipped with anti-robot jackets: a connected garment that is supposed to repel the machines that roam the building and tell them that they approach a human to force them to stop.
Source: BFM TV
