Keynote/Panel speaker William T. Townsend
Robotic Manipulator Applications After the Cages Come Down
Abstract:
For decades, "robotics"
referred to one or more robot manipulator arms operating inside a fixed safety
cage inside a factory. Robots were, and most remain, easily strong enough to
crush a person. Indeed, books on robot safety have documented the various ways
that (even with
cages) people defeated the safety barrier and were killed. While safety cages
remain truly necessary for most industrial robots built today, important exceptions
are arising that challenge whether these cages should be applied in all cases.
One such exception is iRobot's Roomba, the robotic vacuum cleaner, whose very
function would be meaningless inside a cage.
Mobility is not necessary
to raise challenges to cages. Take the case of robot-assisted, minimally-invasive
robotic surgery. Barrett's WAM arm is used in surgeries today where both the
surgeon and the patient come into meaningful physical contact with the robot.
The WAM arm is also used for stroke therapy at the Rehabilitation Institute
of Chicago where, once again, the patient and robot are in physically meaningful
contact. The talk will discuss surgical and other key manipulator applications
that can only take place when there is no cage. Removal of the cage does not
dismiss the role of safety, rather it intensifies the role of safety, and so
improving safety is a recurring theme during this talk.