3. Laws and regulations 23 3. Laws and regulations Attitudes on regulating industrial automation have been worker (Nichols, 2017). In comparison, the total number found to vary from country to country. For instance, of workplace fatalities in the US in 2013 alone was worker safety and job security are important 4,585 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). In Germany, considerations in framing industrial regulations and severe industrial accidents (i.e. those resulting in fatality robot law in the US, while in China where industrial or loss of limbs) are very rare, ranging from three to 15 automation is a mean of growing its economy, there is annually between 2005 and 2012 (DGUV, 2015). an added focus on patents from robot laws (Prakash, Murashov et al (2016) pointed out that there are few 2017). South Korea is developing a Robot Ethics reports detailing accidents involving industrial robots, Charter, a code of conduct established for people and that such incidents are rare worldwide. involved in the development, manufacture and use of In the medical field, a 2016 US study by Alemzadeh et intelligent robots to prevent harmful or adverse effects al (2016) found that 144 people had died during or after that may arise, such as the destruction of social order, robot-assisted surgery in the US between 2000 and and to ensure intelligent robots contribute to enhancing 2013. With over 1.75 million robotic-assisted the quality of human life (Statutes of the Republic of procedures performed over this period, the number of Korea, 2019). The EU report Guidelines on Regulating deaths per robotic procedure is very small and has in Robots (2014) stated that stringent product-safety rules fact decreased as the number of robotic procedures has should not stifle innovation. gone up. In the UK, health inspectors have been found to be The reliability of robots depends greatly on their design more risk averse than their EU counterparts to the risks application and use environment. Modern Fanuc of installing cobots in UK factories, often insisting that industrial robots are said to have a Mean Time between all robots should be fully guarded (Interviewees #7 and Failures (MBTF) of between 80,000 to 100,000 hours #9). The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) magazine (Motion Controls Robotics, 2019). In comparison, ST cites a number of people who have gone through the Robotics (2018) quotes a MTBF of 15,000 hours for its process of putting a cobot into their factory and then R12 cobot arm in a workshop situation. A 2004 being told by a health and safety inspector: ‘That’s not reliability analysis of mobile robots in a hostile safe, stop.’ (Warburton, 2017). When the appropriate environment found an average MTBF of 24 hours, an regulations have been followed at all stages of design improvement from the eight hours reported in 2002 and implementation, with robust mitigation procedures (Carlson et al, 2004). Mobile robots are lighter-built, with and training in place, then it can be shown that the less mechanical redundancy than static industrial cobot will probably not be considered ‘dangerous’ robots, which means they have lower reliability. The (Warburton, 2017). mobile robots tested were however not operating in Safety optimised conditions in a factory with low-variety tasks and loads. Instead, they were simulating military operations in urban terrain and urban search-and- In 2015, a technician died in an accident with a robot at rescue operations, hence in varied and hostile a Volkswagen plant in Germany, sparking a flurry of environments, and with a high variety of loadings. discussion about robot safety (Financial Times, 2015). Given the low numbers of robot-related accidents and A total of 38 robot-related accidents was reported to the the fact that only around 3% of the installed robot base US Occupational Safety and Health Administration were cobots in 2015, it is hardly surprising that data on (United States Department of Labor, 2019) in the 33 cobot-specific accidents is not yet available. As years between 1984 – when the first human was killed Interviewee #1 stated: “There are simply not enough by a robot at Ford’s Flat Rock plant in Michigan – and cobots in the market to get accident statistics”. 2017. Twenty-seven of those led to the death of a Taking control: robots and risk