Smart software helps robots dodge collisions14:40 03 November 03 / NewScientist.com news service
A smart new software system has been developed that aims to make it impossible for robots to bump into objects, including people.
The Inevitable Collision System (ICS), developed by French and Japanese researchers, works by continuously calculating an exclusion zone around the robot based on its motion and that of the objects around it. The exclusion zone represents the region in which a collision would be unavoidable, no matter what evasive action the robot took.....
To date there has only been one recorded roboticide. In 1981, Japanese factory worker Kenji Urada was killed by a robot in a manufacturing plant. Urada had climbed into the robot's operating zone to fix something when he accidentally switched the robot back on. The hydraulic robot failed to sense Urada and crushed him as it carried on with its tasks.
