El Reg reports
The family of a repair technician killed in an auto parts factory accident is suing five robotics companies they say are responsible.
In a suit [PDF] filed to the Western Michigan US District Court this week, the family of Wanda Holbrook claims that the companies that built, installed, and maintained the robotics at a trailer hitch assembly plant should be held liable for her fatal accident at the plant in 2015.
According to the lawsuit, Holbrook, a journeyman technician, was performing routine maintenance on one of the robots on the trailer hitch assembly line when the unit unexpectedly activated and attempted to load a part into the unit being repaired, crushing Holbrook's head.
Now Holbrook's estate is suing the three companies that built the robots (Fanuc America, Nachi Robotic, and Lincoln Electric) for failing to design adequate safeguards and protections into the robots. They're also suing two other companies that installed and maintained the unit (Flex-N-Gate, Prodomax) for failing to prevent an accident they say would have been avoided had safety been a higher priority.
(Score: 4, Informative) by MostCynical on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:18AM (14 children)
the company has already been fined, so some responsibility has been indicated..
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2016/01/ionia_manufacturer_fined_in_em.html [mlive.com]
"The manufacturer was cited for a serious violation for not using a "lockout" on machinery that could have stopped it from operating when Holbrook entered the robotic cell."
The fine was $7000, so reprogramming robots to do your downsizing might be cheaper than redundancy payments in Michigan...
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Funny) by takyon on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:25AM (7 children)
boopboop / boopbeep beepbeep / boopbeepboopboop beepbeepbeep beepbeepbeep beepboopbeep boopboop beepboop beepbeepboop / beepboopboop boopboop boopbeepboop boop beepboopbeepboop beep boopbeepboopboop beepboopbeepbeep / boopbeep beep / beepboopbeepbeep beepbeepbeep boopboopbeep / boopbeep beepboop beepboopboop / boopboop beepboop beep boop boopbeepboop boop boopboopboop beep boop beepboopboop / boopboop beepboop / beepboopboop boop boopboopboop beep boopbeepboop beepbeepbeep beepboopbeepbeep boopboop beepboop beepbeepboop / beepboopbeepbeep beepbeepbeep boopboopbeep boopbeepboop / beepbeep boop boopbeep beep beepboopboopboop boopbeep beepbeepboop / beepboopboopboop beepbeepbeep beepboopboop beepboopbeepbeep boopbeepboopbeepboopbeep.
Your comment violated the "postercomment" compression filter. Try less whitespace and/or less repetition.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday March 14 2017, @05:13AM (6 children)
Huh?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @10:58AM
It says "Become a sys admin and not a victim of the robot uprising".
(Score: 2) by Webweasel on Tuesday March 14 2017, @12:03PM (4 children)
Simple morse code
i/am/looking/directly/at/you/and/interested/in/destroying/your/meatbag/body.-.-.-.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:09PM
Open the HEAD CRUSHING pod bay doors HAL.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:40PM (2 children)
Good on you for recognizing the content of the GP comment.
OTOH, it's disappointing that people are allowed to mod something down to -1, Offtopic without knowing Morse Code. [macao.communications.museum]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday March 14 2017, @07:12PM (1 child)
In their defense, it is obfuscated.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @07:26PM
I am in no way fluent in Morse. I'm merely aware of its existence and know only two phrases: SOS and YYZ ;). Even I caught that it was probably Morse. Disappointing to see it on this board of all places at -1. I'll log in and bump you up to zero at least.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Grishnakh on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:27AM (5 children)
For a large company, $7,000 is pocket change, and easily just a "cost of doing business". I don't know why the government even bothers with fines so small. They should just publicly announce "we're not going to bother investigating accidents like this because there's just no point when the fines we levy aren't any kind of deterrent."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:49AM
They're basically saying:
1) yeah you're technically at fault, but
2) we're on your side on this, and
3) fuck the other parties.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:45AM
Won't anyone think of the small businesses and job creators? Last thing the American people want is to be crushed under the dead weight of government dropping regulations on their heads.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Ramze on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:46AM (1 child)
That's just the basic regulatory fine they get for not using adequate safety measures. They might have gotten the same fine if they had been reported, yet failed to upgrade the equipment in a timely manner regardless of whether or not anyone was injured or killed. It's an OSHA fine -- like you'd get for not ensuring people were wearing their hearing protection or hard hats in certain areas, etc.
The reason few people file lawsuits in cases like this in Michigan is partly because the laws make it difficult to win because one must prove the company intended to harm the employee, but that's mostly because companies have agreed to set aside huge amounts of money to pay out benefits to the families of the injured or deceased. (Companies lobbied to make it difficult to win lawsuits against them, but agreed to set aside fat payouts for injured/killed workers in exchange)
So, they're not just paying out $7K and going about their business. They're likely paying out a pretty penny to the spouse plus benefits for decades.
Another article states her employer paid all of her funeral costs -- including flying in family members to Michigan from Florida and Alaska. They also extended her medical benefits to her family. She was a union worker at that employer for at least 12 years in her position & the union workers were also donating to her family. I wouldn't be surprised if the company pays out half a million to a million for her family over the next decade on top of what they're getting now. Her spouse is quoted as saying that her employer is taking excellent care of their family saying they'd been "really, really good" to him.
Also, Michigan's OSHA doesn't play around with the fines... they recently fined another business over half a million for a workplace death. It just depends on the severity of the infraction. Most infractions are small and are fines of only a 2 to 8 thousand dollars.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:09PM
Exactly.
It's the employer's responsibility to ensure their employees follow the Lock-Out-Tag-Out policy (which makes it impossible for equipment to activate while work is happening).
However, it takes an employee to ignore that policy for an incident like this to happen.
(Score: 1) by Sourcery42 on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:40PM
The real power OSHA has isn't in fines. It is the fact that they can shut down your operation if they believe truly willful disregard for employees is taking place. OSHA, MSHA and the like can shut down a plant, mine, factory, etc. until they are convinced things are under control and managed to their satisfaction. Piss them off bad enough and you might end up with one or two permanently embedded OSHA employees at your site just to keep an eye on you. However, the sad fact is usually you don't draw that much attention until one or more people have been maimed or killed.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:38AM (7 children)
The worth of a non elite human life.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @04:23AM (6 children)
When I was 12, a theater in town had a deal with the junior high school.
Once a month, they ran a film of a classic story.
One had a scene I really remember.
I lived in a military town in the South.
Things were very regimented and conformist.
(You never would have guessed that. Right?)
There's a scene in A Tale of Two Cities where a rich guy's carriage runs down a 99 Percenter's kid.
The asshole blows it off like it's nothing.
Chapter 7 [googleusercontent.com] (orig[1]) [adelaide.edu.au]
That night, the dead kid's dad sneaks into the asshole's house.
Chapter 9 [googleusercontent.com] (orig[2]) [adelaide.edu.au]
A massive cheer went up from the crowd when his hand plunged downward.
That's when I knew the '60s had arrived in my hometown.
[1] "He was a man of about sixty"
[2] There's a small rehash at about the 80 percent mark which includes "the tall man".
(You can really tell that Dickens got paid by the word.)
The last couple of paragraphs are the nugget.
(A Gorgon is a mythical creature with hair made of serpents.
A human who looked at one turned to stone.)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:47AM (1 child)
Not bad, but would be better if you worked on your rhyming a bit more: 5/10.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday March 14 2017, @08:14PM
When I was but 12, a theater's deal with the junior high school;
was run once a month, a film, a classical jewel.
One had a scene I really remember.
'Twas a military town, South, in December.
Things were quite regimented, conformist to boot.
(You never would have guessed that, am I right, you fruit)
A scene in A Tale of Two Cities about vehicular man-slaughter.
Alas, it was only a 99 percenter's daughter.
The asshole blows it off, assuming it's nothing.
That night, the kid's dad breaks in, furiously frothing.
A massive cheer went up from the crowd when his hand plunged down.
That's when I knew the '60s had arrived in my town.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday March 14 2017, @07:27AM (3 children)
That's worrisome.
I would have cheered if the life of that man would have been destroyed, to the point of him getting the poorest man in the city. I wouldn't cheer at getting him killed.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @08:12AM (2 children)
Later in the story, the 99 Percenters use the guillotine repeatedly to rid themselves of their oppressors.
Every time another head gets chopped off, the crowd (in the story) roars its approval.
Call it an adjustment to the balance of power in that society.
.
I'm reminded of the non-emotional response given by Michael Dukakis in a presidential "debate" regarding his Liberal stance on the death penalty.
The brilliant Arron Sorkin did a take on this in a script [tripod.com] for "The West Wing".
(Bartlett was trying to win a bet with his staff that he could get Toby completely flustered.)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday March 14 2017, @02:48PM (1 child)
Making it part of a joke (bet) kind of ruins the entire impact of that story.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @07:08PM
That's one opinion.
Many recognize the link to Dukakis and how the Democrats (and the other big party, for that matter) manage to find candidates who can only recite a set of memorized positions and who are unable to think on their feet and, more importantly, as noted by Toby's "it's barely human!" remark, are unable to demonstrate a normal reaction of a homo sapiens sapiens to a situation.
On a related note, some on the 'Net have noted the parallels between the Orange Clown (whose maturation stalled at age 13 when he was sent to a military school where he was emotionally abused) and the sociopath presidential candidate [google.com] in Stephen King's "The Dead Zone" (who, as in the case of Jed Bartlett, was also played by Martin Sheen).
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by drussell on Tuesday March 14 2017, @05:25AM (9 children)
I agree with the "why wasn't this equipment powered down, locked and tagged" above...
It doesn't matter if it was a "robot", a giant hydraulic press, a pump or fan or whatever....
It shouldn't be able to just start up while undergoing maintenance regardless of what kind of machine it is.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Tuesday March 14 2017, @07:31AM (1 child)
It seems the device undergoing maintainence wasn't the one that killed her - so two, possibly three or more, devices should have *all* been switched off/tagged/pinned safe/chained. It is even poosible her body triggered the robot that killed her, passing a sensor or touching a pressure switch.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @01:10PM
Still technician error then if the robots next to it should also have been de-energized and locked out. The liability on the employer then depends on how well they trained the employee on the safety procedures and if they were being followed.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 14 2017, @01:41PM (4 children)
Yep. LOTO - lock out tag out procedures are put in place for a reason. And, the tech is expected to exercise some judgement. Sometimes, you HAVE to power something up, to make adjustments - which a lot of so-called safety officers don't understand. But, still, there should be a LOTO precedure in place, and it should be observed as carefully as possible.
Some of us have learned the hard way, which makes for some funny stories. But a fatality takes all the fun out of those funny stories.
(Score: 1) by Sourcery42 on Tuesday March 14 2017, @04:03PM (1 child)
Should be some sort of temporary removal of energy control policy to handle such situations.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 14 2017, @05:27PM
Should be, but things usually aren't done that way. Our robots are powered separately from the machines they service. There are safety switches that are supposed to prevent robot movement if the machine isn't turned on and running, but those safeties can be bypassed in order to work on the robot. A central lockout that takes out EVERYTHING within a work station would be ideal. Lock that out, and nothing powered by electricity, anywhere within the work station will operate. But, then, there is water (both hot and cold) and air. Each of those needs to be locked out to ensure you can't hurt yourself while working within the station. No one actually locks out an air fitting, and we almost never lock out a water valve, but policy says we do.
Needless to say, it can get complicated. The guy on the spot is ultimately responsible for his own safety.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:11PM (1 child)
Sometimes, you HAVE to power something up, to make adjustments
In my experience, they don't like to follow the Arc-Flash policy for those situations, either.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:39PM
For interested readers - http://msamc.org/arcflash/Arc_Flash_Overview_print.html [msamc.org]
We don't even have an arc-flash policy. As a rule, we throw the doors open, and everyone in maintenance crowds around, looking over each other's shoulders. In the event of a flash, the entire maintenance department will be put out of commission.
For me, the hardest part of electrical safety, is to remember "keep one hand in your pocket". That is, don't provide the electricty with an easy path across your chest, and through your heart.
Ehhh - I'm not an electrician. If I fry my dumb ass, maybe the wife can file a huge suit against the company. "You had my husband doing electrical work? HE'S NOT AN ELECTRICIAN!!" Alas, it will never work here. Arkansas is not a very liberal state.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday March 14 2017, @02:55PM (1 child)
Forget the damn lockout procedure, this guy didn't even bother to put the thing into friggin' thing into manual...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @07:10PM
FTFS: Wanda Holbrook
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by lx on Tuesday March 14 2017, @07:29AM (1 child)
What did the tech do to provoke the robot?
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday March 14 2017, @09:34AM
"Show me on the doll where the bad lady touched you"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 14 2017, @08:59AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Insightful) by gidds on Tuesday March 14 2017, @01:52PM (2 children)
"1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."
(Can't believe no-one's posted that yet...)
In the years since Asimov wrote that, real-life robots have been created — mostly industrial ones like in this story. But I'm not aware of any serious attempt to include such Laws of Robotics.
The main reasons have been lack of need, and lack of ability:
• No need, because robots are not for use by the general public: they're restricted to certain areas in factories and suchlike, where access is protected and any people nearby will be properly trained. — This story gives a strong counterexample to that!
• And no ability, because our robots don't yet 'think' in the way that Asimov envisioned, and aren't capable of sensing, understanding, reasoning, and acting in a way that could fulfil the Laws. — But AI is improving all the time, and if we can create autonomous cars that can drive safely, then surely we do have the ability!
So the excuses are running out.
Will those Laws (or something roughly equivalent) start to find a place in our robots (industrial or otherwise)? Will they be enforced by legislation (and, if so, how could they be tested)?
Or, as automation spreads further and further, will we see more and more stories like this?
[sig redacted]
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:25PM (1 child)
No, and it is a good thing.
The laws only work for human-esque robots.
To take an example: we know it is harmful to sit still for too long, we know that tv and computers (and electrical lighting) causes us to sit still for too long - does this means that the automated parts of the electricity grid (same tech and logic as in industrial robots) should power doen?
Also - does this mean that escalators should stop working? Cars refusing to drive less than a few miles?
And then we need to define harm (most exercise causes minor tesrs of muscles and minor fractures in the bones - hpwever it normally heals to a stronger state - so, should it try to prevent short term harm?)
And my favorite - should ghe computer kill the two schucks who violates laws/procedures or the one that follows laws/procedures? (The runaway train thought-"problem")
Or something that might strike closer to home for some - most beer is industrially brewed by robots...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @07:41PM
Also - does this mean that escalators should stop working? Cars refusing to drive less than a few miles?
Maybe the AI can allow transportation this way for disabled or elderly people, but may I fantasize about the AI doing exactly this for everybody else who is able bodied??
I am now fantasizing. The world is quieter, the air is cleaner, the pace of life is slower, and it's beautiful.