New paper: A Simulated real-world upper-body Exoskeleton Accident and Investigation

Back in February I posted a very brief account of our third RoboTIPS simulated accident and investigation, centred on an upper-body exoskeletion in an industrial setting. Since then we've published a paper with a full account. My colleague Pericle Salvini presented the paper at the 9th International Conference on Robot Ethics and Standards (ICRES 2024), last week.

Here is the paper abstract:

This paper describes the enactment of a simulated (mock) accident involving an upper-body exoskeleton and its investigation. The accident scenario is enacted by role-playing volunteers, one of whom is wearing the exoskeleton. Following the mock accident, investigators – also volunteers – interview both the subject of the accident and relevant witnesses. The investigators then consider the witness testimony alongside robot data logged by the ethical black box, in order to address the three key questions: what happened?, why did it happen?, and how can we make changes to prevent the accident happening again? This simulated accident scenario is one of a series we have run as part of the RoboTIPS project, with the overall aim of developing and testing both processes and technologies to support social robot accident investigation.

 The paper sets out, for the first time, the experimental method we have developed:

1. The accident scenario is enacted by human volunteers, role playing the subject of the accident, together with both direct  and indirect witnesses. The subject is the person to whom the accident happens. Direct witnesses are those who either witness or discover the accident, and indirect witnesses are those who might be supervisors or managers of the subject and/or the facility, or representatives of the robot's manufacturer. 
2. Prior to the enactment the project team brief the volunteers. Each briefing is specific to the role and, with the exception of the subject, volunteers are briefed only on their role, and not the whole scenario. This is so that they witness the accident (or it's aftermath) for the first time during the enactment. Only the subject is fully briefed on the scenario, including the safety aspects explained below, so that they are confident that they will not come to harm or be fearful during the enactment.
3. The enactment is stage managed by project team members. Although the simulation resembles a piece of theatre, volunteers are not asked to learn any lines. Apart from any specific action essential to the scenario (which will be prompted by the stage manager) the volunteers are invited to ad lib in a way that is appropriate to the roles they are playing. Volunteers are asked to wait in a side room until they are called a few moments before they are needed.
4. Safety of the volunteers, and especially the subject, is of paramount importance. Thus, if the scenario simulates physical harm to the subject, then – when the accident happens – the enactment is briefly suspended by the stage manager and the subject is helped into the position they might be expected to be in, following the accident. The project team conduct a safety risk assessment and if necessary modify the scenario and/or its stage management to mitigate any risks and the simulation is only undertaken after university research ethics approval.
5. The accident investigators are also volunteers and, ideally, the lead accident investigator has expertise and/or experience in accident investigation. Robotics expertise is not essential, as the aims and process of investigation are common to all accident or incident (near miss) investigations. The accident investigators are not briefed on the scenario, only the type of robot involved. Necessarily the accident investigators are not present during the enactment of the simulated accident. To reduce the time burden on all volunteers we stage the accident and its investigation on a single day, with the accident investigators arriving after the enactment.