Wednesday, February 28, 2024

A simulated upper body exoskeleton accident and investigation

On Wednesday 21 February we ran the third of our RoboTIPS simulated accident scenarios in the Bristol Robotics Lab. This scenario focussed on an upper-body exoskeleton in an industrial environment.



Above left we see Dan working to move boxes, with the physical support of the wonderful Tribonix exoskeleton. On the right Dan has fallen to the floor, attended by his manager Monica and paramedic Ben. The simulation was carefully scripted and stage managed to ensure that none of the volunteers were hurt or, indeed, ever at risk.

 

Following the simulation the accident was investigated by lead investigator Carl and co-investigator Jack. Carl Macrae is a leading authority on accident investigation. Here we see Jack and Carl interviewing expert witness Appolinaire, observed by RoboTIPS project lead Marina Jirotka.

In addition to witness testimony our investigators were also able to examine Ethical Black Box data logs collected from the exoskeleton during the simulated accident.

The simulated accident scenario was a huge success. The various roles (not all of which are shown in the photos here) were acted brilliantly by our volunteers Dan Read, Ashwin Chandapur, Monica Monica, Surin Machaiah, Ben Allen and Dr Appolinaire Etoundi. And despite a complicated scenario which included human-human as well as human-robot interaction, our accident investigators Prof Carl Macrae and Jack Hughes were able to deduce, with reasonable accuracy, what happened and why. We are especially grateful to Romain Derval and Filip Hanus, co-founders of Tribonix, for both kindly agreeing to the use of their exoskeleton and generously working with RoboTIPS during the planning and enactment of this simulation.

The simulation was subject to Research Ethics Committee approval CATE-2324-218.


See also: 

Our first mock social robot accident and investigation

Robot Accident Investigation 

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