Safety is often neglected in the haste to bring humanoid robots to the workplace. Since high -profile companies ranging from retailers such as Amazon to car manufacturers such as Mercedes and BMW have announced humanoid pilots for factories and warehouses, workers’ safety conversations are regularly buried under the hype in the sector.
A robotics company of the Bay Area hopes to correct that deficiency.
Figure Ai announced Tuesday that is building a center for the progress of humanoid security, an internal division entirely focused on the subject. Rob Grundel, the former Amazon Robotics security engineer who is directing the project, revealed the plans through a LinkedIn post.
The previous factory and warehouse systems faced the safety problem in large and heavy robots. The subsequent solutions turned to technology, including Advanced Computer Vision, a software developed by Veo Robotics and a security vest designed by Amazon to help prevent crash robots in people.
Amazon Wearble is designed exclusively for internal use and probably will not appear outside its evasion centers. Even with that technology, the company still uses protective cages for many of its robots. In the meantime, Veo Robotics has been absorbed in symbatic in 2024. More recently, Symbotic took the reins of the robotic division of Walmart.
Although evaluated for its adaptability, multipurpose functionality and ability to integrate into the existing warehouses of Brownfield, the humanoid factor introduces a new series of safety problems. After all, one of the key strengths of the category is its ability to work alongside humans. Their large metal bodies – which go freely within factories and warehouses – have the potential to cause injuries clashing with their softer and fleshy colleagues.
The safety organizations in the workplace such as safety at work and health administration (OSHA) have a lot of recovering in terms of automation safety regulation. Today there are no “specific OSHA standards for the robotics industry”, according to the federal agency. This wider concern must be addressed, but regulation aims specifically to humanoids is particularly timely.
Figure Ai is being able to do on this gap.
“One of our recent successes was to finalize a formal plan with our independent test laboratory recognized OSH to certify the battery of our robot, the functional safety control system and the electrical system according to industrial standards,” he observed Guendel in the announcement post.
The founder of Fetch, Melonee Wise, has made the theme of humanoid security a key focus since he joined agility robotics such as Chief Technology Officer in 2023.
“With any humanoid robot that operates in this space, safety is not clear,” he told me during a humanoid panel at the automatic conference last year. “There is no easy stop for Optimus (Tesla). There is no stop on many (humanoid robots), and this is against the safety standard. It is very clear that many companies are not interested in this. “
The creation of the Center for the progress of humanoid security is an important step on that journey to the figure.
“We recognize that the general population is often at the mercy of technological experts to judge whether a robot controlled by artificial intelligence can be sure,” Grundel wrote. “We want to speak directly with our customers. We will test and communicate the stability of the robot while stable, stability during movement, detection of humans, detection of four -legged pets, safe artificial intelligence behaviors and navigation to prevent injuries. We will listen to the suggestions of our customers on ways to test the safety of Figure 02 and beyond. “
The figure plans to publish quarterly updates that offer greater transparency around the process. Reports will include test procedures and corrections for potential dangers.
“We will summarize our successes and failures”, according to Grundel.
These successes and failures may possibly fill the gap on safety and prepare the industry for the next big jump: bring robots to the house.
Humanid security standards are intended to become more essential as multiple companies push to bring these robots to the house.
