Techworld looks at what can happen when robots go wrong.
Nagasaki, Japan, : Hundreds of robot staff laid off by hotel after complaints by guests
The world’s first hotel staffed by robots laid off half its 243 droid workers after complaints from guests about their poor level of service. The Wall Street Journal reported that their human colleagues had to work overtime to compensate for their failings, which included waking up guests whose snores were mistaken for voice commands and getting stuck in corridors. Hideo Sawada, the president of the travel company that owns the Henna-na Hotel, said he hadn’t given up on his robot staff, but acknowledged they weren’t yet up to the job. “When you actually use robots you realise there are places where they aren’t needed – or just annoy people,” he said.
Zhuzhou, China, 18 December 2018: Factors worker skewered by steel spikes after robot collapses
A factory worker in Zhuzhou, China, was impaled by ten foot-long steel bars after a robot’s arm collapsed on top of him, sinking the bars into his arm and chest. The accident took place when the man, named only as Zhou, was working a night shift in the porcelain factory. Surgeons at Xiangya Hospital in Changsha, the capital of central China’s Hunan province, removed the spikes managed to remove the spikes from Mr Zhou’s body. Hospital staff said the 49-year-old was in stable condition after the emergency surgery.
California, USA, 14 December 2018: Delivery robot catches fire at the UC Berkeley
A food delivery robot was engulfed in flames on a walkway outside the student union of the University of California, Berkeley after a faulty battery overheated and turned the machine into a ball of fire. A passerby extinguished the flames before the fire department arrived and drenched the bot in foam to avoid reignition UC Berkeley students held a candlelight vigil for the KiwiBot, one of more than 100 devices that deliver food across the campus. “We learned that the root cause was human error when replacing the batteries, where a defective battery was put in place of a functioning one,” maufacturer Kiwi explained in a blogpost. “This caused an exceedingly rare occurrence of the battery experiencing thermal runaway. To ensure this will not happen again, Kiwi has put in custom software that will rigorously monitor the state of each battery.” “A damaged aerosol can dispensed strong fumes in a contained area of the facility,” she said. “The safety of our employees is always our top priority and a full investigation is already underway. We’d like to thank all of the first responders who helped with today’s incident.”
Shenzen, China,19 November 2016: Man injured after robot goes on rampage at technology fair
A visitor to the 2016 Hi-tech Fair in Shenzen, China was stretchered to hospital after a robot hurtled into the window of a display booth, sending shards of glass flying across the exhibition stand. The Telegraph reported that the event organiser blamed the mishap on the robot’s operator pressing the forward button instead of reverse. The victim was taken by ambulance to Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, where was given stitches before being discharged. After the incident, the robot, named Xiao Pang (Little Chubby), was photographed with a remorseful frown on its face.
California, USA, 7 July 2016: 136kg robot security guard runs over toddler at shopping centre
In July 2016, a 16-month-old child was knocked down and run over by a 5-foot-tall, 136kg security robot patrolling a California shopping centre, leaving the toddler with a swollen foot and a scrape on his leg. The K5 robot made by Mountain View-based startup Knightscope had been employed to spot suspicious activity at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, and collided with the toddler while policing its beat. “The robot hit my son’s head and he fell down facing down on the floor and the robot did not stop and it kept moving forward,” the child’s mother told local news channel ABC7.
