Safety concerns have been raised over human-like robots after it emerged that they may be unable to “hit the little red button” in the event of a malfunction, as doing so could cause the robot to collapse and potentially cause serious harm to humans in its vicinity.
Such robots, known as humanoids, are being developed for use in the warehouse and are able to carry out heavy lifting of packages up to 16kg, although their primary objective is to work alongside humans in collaborative environments in the future.
However, they will need to be safe before this can happen, with Aaron Prather, a director at the standards organisation ASTM International, stating that: “In traditional robotics, if something happens, you hit the little red button, it kills the power, it stops … You can’t really do that with a humanoid.