A generalist and a technologist. # Software is my trade and # ArtificialIntelligence is my # science . I live in # LasGabias , # Granada , # Spain . I post about # technology and # WorldNews . 40 years old Pronouns: he/him I am the admin of this tiny instance. # DeepLearning , # IndustrialAnomalyDetection , # MachineIntelligence , # AI , # Linux , # Kubernetes , # RetroComputing , # Commodore64 , # cats , # polyamory , # panpsychism , # atheism , # anarchism , # leftist , # AnarchoCommunism , # robotics , # OpenSource , # fedi22
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A generalist and a technologist. # Software is my trade and # ArtificialIntelligence is my # science . I live in # LasGabias , # Granada , # Spain . I post about # technology and # WorldNews . 40 years old Pronouns: he/him I am the admin of this tiny instance. # DeepLearning , # IndustrialAnomalyDetection , # MachineIntelligence , # AI , # Linux , # Kubernetes , # RetroComputing , # Commodore64 , # cats , # polyamory , # panpsychism , # atheism , # anarchism , # leftist , # AnarchoCommunism , # robotics , # OpenSource , # fedi22
rukii.net
@tero@rukii.net
·
Mar 04, 2026
One of the harder problems about robotic embodiments is safety. How to guarantee standard-compliant and effective guardrails for generalist robots which are mobile and not limited in the tools they can use?
For example, it is practical to install light curtains for industrial robots to prevent anyone from getting into their working area when they are active.
But for mobile robots, they can be anywhere, and you can't build a safe operating space for them.
Even if your robot is weak in its joints and has no sharp corners, all bets are off once it grabs a power tool, or sits onto a driver's seat of a car.
It requires a paradigm shift in safety. You aren't actually trying to limit the robot movement in a classical sense, but you're trying to make it act in a way that prevents harm from happening. In many cases this might involve actual movement rather than stopping movement. Sometimes it requires limiting something outside the robot from happening, for example, if something heavy is about to fall down in a dangerous fashion, the robot should try to stop it.
This is of course against the strictly defined rules we have from classical robotic safety methods, but the reason is that those kinds of limited operating envelopes won't make generalist mobile robots safe.
There are many rationales for static safe constraint envelopes for robots, for example, if a robot malfunctions, it shouldn't crush anything to death. There are still places for such constraints, but they aren't enough, and trying to approach the safety challenge with only these kinds of methods as the only tools in the toolbox won't lead to a success.
The robotic safety systems shouldn't only care about the physical malfunctions of the robot itself, but also malfunctions of other things. For example, if a humanoid robot is preparing food, there might be a food oil fire, and instead of just stopping the robot should put it out.
In general robots should be robust against both degradations and extensions of their embodiments to be able to function robustly in the open environment. This alone should in itself be a solid protection against physical malfunctions. If a robot can walk after having lost one leg, it should also function within reason, without causing danger, if one of its servos get stuck active.
While hierarchies and layers create robust safety, the highest embodied control layer itself should be made safe, and it shouldn't lean on lower constraint envelopes to produce the safety.
The robot must not step on a cat, or cause a cat to be harmed by inaction. If your robotic safety framework ceases to apply when the robot picks up a power tool, or presses the button to activate data center halon extinguishers, it's not framed correctly.
#AI #robotics #UniversalEmbodiment #OpenToWork
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